Most used Linux distribution?

What other apps and distros do you use to round out your studio?

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raboof
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by raboof »

viprit77 wrote:I'm trying to find graphs/etc on which Linux distributions are used the most but I'm having a hard time doing so. Does anyone know a good, well-sourced webpage that might has that?
This is almost impossible to tell... https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity is often quoted, but of course also not really realistic.

Actually not really a good resource either - I have never heard of this 'MX Linux' that they have on #1...
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by nikgnomicradio »

MX Linux is a good Debian distribution, they have a great best persistent Live ISO for USB, but not good for audio

AVLinux on Debian is IMO most powerful audio distribution at this time

Ubuntu Studio is great for Linux newcomers wanting audio tools with easy setup - new release due in April
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by English Guy »

Because many distro are Debian based, in a sense Debian is the most prevalent
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by aledosim »

nikgnomicradio wrote:MX Linux is a good Debian distribution, they have a great best persistent Live ISO for USB, but not good for audio

AVLinux on Debian is IMO most powerful audio distribution at this time

Ubuntu Studio is great for Linux newcomers wanting audio tools with easy setup - new release due in April
Why MX is not good for audio?
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by Musicteacher »

You are probably right, as Ubuntu is Debian-based, too.

I do system-administration quite a lot, "make things work" and stuff like that.

I used to use OpenSuSE and when trying to get certain software I found that most software-authors support Ubuntu.

It is really unlikely that someone offers Linux-Software and it does not work on ubuntu, whereas quite often the other way around.

Also, the ubuntu-wikis and forums are really helpful in many ways.

Thus I conclude that Ubuntu might be the most used linux distribution.

Why can't we find out exactly? Because Linux does not "report home" like windows does. I can install 1000 clients with an offline-installer or images, and no one will ever find out if I don't want to.

Personally, I don't like vanilla Ubuntu. I had to help a colleague with some network stuff, he had a new laptop with plain Ubuntu on it. For me, this machine was worse than Windows ;) (I had the direct comparison, because at the same day another colleague with the same problem and windows came to me, it was much easier).* But if I like it or not, Ubuntu is certainly a big player in the Linux world.

* for those who want to know precisely: I had to find out the WLAN MAC to integrate it into the network. Before fiddling around with menus and stuff, I usually start a console and enter sudo ifconfig and be done with it. On this ubuntu, firstly I did not even find a console. Then I switched to a virtual console just to find that ifconfig was not installed! Having no network at the time of course I could not install it. So I had to go the hard way and find a GUI that showed me the MAC. On Windows, it was Windows-Key - cmd - ipconfig /all ...
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by sysrqer »

Are we talking just desktop computers or all uses?
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by d.healey »

sysrqer wrote:Are we talking just desktop computers or all uses?
Android...
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by tramp »

d.healey wrote:
sysrqer wrote:Are we talking just desktop computers or all uses?
Android...
Android isn't a distribution, it's a flawour, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... tributions
On the road again.
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by d.healey »

tramp wrote:Android isn't a distribution, it's a flawour, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... tributions
Interesting... well if it's got Linux I call it a Linux distro, but if it's got GNU then it's a GNU distro. :p
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by zoco »

d.healey wrote:
tramp wrote:Android isn't a distribution, it's a flawour, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... tributions
Interesting... well if it's got Linux I call it a Linux distro, but if it's got GNU then it's a GNU distro. :p
Linux distribution all are open source. Android isn't open source. There is the difference. :wink:
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by d.healey »

zoco wrote:Linux distribution all are open source. Android isn't open source. There is the difference. :wink:
Erh no that's not true at all. It's true that all Linux distros (including Android) contain "open source" software. But very few distros are entirely "open source" and even fewer are entirely free software.
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

I think that Ubuntu and Mint are most used. Pick one of those two and you're fine. Don't forget to add the KXStudio repository for the best support of music production software.

P.S. Forget all the replies 'bout Andriod: irrelevant to music production on Linux.
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by sysrqer »

I would guess centos or debian, or whatever is the standard for servers. Possibly gentoo if you count embedded, ChromeOS (I heard it is based on gentoo), server and desktop.

It's hard to say though, there's no accurate measure of usage. Do you go by downloads? I'm sure there are lots of ubuntu/mint downloads by Windows/Mac users just wanting to try it out but didn't install it, or arch/gentoo downloads where people didn't manage to install it properly and gave up.
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Re: Most used Linux distribution?

Post by JamesPeters »

nikgnomicradio wrote:MX Linux is a good Debian distribution, they have a great best persistent Live ISO for USB, but not good for audio
It's great for audio...at least for me using Reaper. Using the stock kernel, no need to change the CPU frequency governor, and I'm getting half the latency with that I did in Windows 7 with no xruns and get approximately 30-35% more CPU (with apples-to-apples test projects done in Reaper, Linux version compared to the test I did in the Windows version). No need for any other changes either (no setting of a "RT" audio group, etc.--I tried a bunch of things and none made any noticeable difference in performance or latency so I reverted everything to "stock").

(EDIT: That part in red italics above is incorrect. Installing qjackctl had automatically added my user name to the RT group and set it for high priority. I just didn't realize it until later.)

The previous version of MX Linux: I had to set the CPU frequency governor to "performance". With the current verison though, now it throttles "invisibly"/instantly with no problems at all.

I'd tried Liquorix kernel and all it did for me was increase my CPU use a bit. The stock kernel works just as well for low latency if not better.

Yes WINE isn't installed by default, but I won't use it anyway. Also I suspect it'd be easy to install. Installing QjackCTL from the repos was simple/instant (not that I need it if I just use ALSA with Reaper).

I understand some other distros have more audio apps installed by default. It seems with the repos availablle to MX Linux though, it's quite easy to add them. (I'd assume most people using audio apps would want to add the KX Studio repos.) MX Linux is also a relatively quickly updated distro, for the most part. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to most people for audio.
Last edited by JamesPeters on Mon May 20, 2019 7:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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