Why SuSE for AudioPro
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Michael, May 05
Because of Linux being a free and promising system, some people decided to expedit the audiodevelopment under Linux massively and use it for commercial purpose. There are today programms like Muse Receptor running under Linux, with the help of Wine it is no problem to use Windows VST-plugins . Another good example is the highly professional Lionstack Mediastation. Even modern Synthsizer giants like the Neuron and Korgs new Oasys are Linux-based.
Others support the development by developing special audiodistributions like aGNUla, DeMuDi or like the Stanford university with "planet CCRMA" and depose them on servers as installation packages or CD mirrors.
SuSE Linux is the most popular Linux distribution in Germany with high consumer acceptance. In 2004 SuSE was sold to the aging network giant Novell. Concerning installation and user guidance SuSE Linux is the most progressive. Almost every X86 based computer system is supported. For multimedia SuSE is leading too, though there are license-related curtailments in the consumer-DVD part.
If you have sufficient hardware,a SuSE Linux 9.2 ftp/dvd version can be used as multitrack recording system using ALSA (the audiodriver), Jack (the real-time system) and Ardour (a classic DAW software) shortly after installation. There you notice, that some of the chief-developers of ALSA are on the Novell payroll, but that surely helps the whole Linux community.
The typical linux-geek (using debian or gentoo, compiling his own kernel, hating kde....) likes to see SuSE Linux as "Nürnberg Windows" despising the kernel as overloaded. The common user is just glad he doesn't have to compile the kernel first if he wants to watch TV, have dualhead support, or start a real-time synthesizer like Jack. And there is a user-friendly nice desktop.
I tried all current distributions, but on my system SuSE linux works the best, being easy to install and so on. Maybe this sounds a bit newbee-like but what about having fun with Linux if the bare installation is overextending you. Not everybody is a geek... musicians for instance are great users of music-programms, but they are bad admins, newbees you may call them. There is a community in Germany www.linux-club.de which is known for competent free support for SuSE Linux. There, SuSE Linux is enriched with features like apt (the Debian software distribution system for easy installation and update new software packages). Improved kernels and lots of tipps, guidance and interchange can be found in this steadily growing online community.
When I started working seriously with SuSE Linux in the AudioPro branch, I realised that there is a basis, but many packages are old or lacking. Fortunately it was sometimes easy to install packages of planet ccrma or Thac with YaST but this didn't solve the main problem: MusE, the promising sequenzer with Softsynth and even VST support,did not work. Linux-club helped me with the solution. There the idea of an apt-repository was born, specialising on audio-programms.
