moving to Linux, i dont know wish distro... Options

[Juan4Ever]

im a proud windows user but my adventure instinc told me i have to move to linux i just have installed some distros in the past on my PC, but that was in the past when my audio hungry was not that big like in the present. im posting this just because im afraid to lose the advantages of having windows for encoding M4a files on linux. is just ¿could i do that on linux? how? can anybody tell me? im a little concerned about the change too because there is not a FB2k port for linux, is there any other good (like foobar) for linux?
well, that is all.
apologies for my english, it is not good.

thanks

[cabbagerat]

Hydrogenaudio is probably not the right place to be asking these questions. You might want to find a community which focuses on Linux, rather than audio.

Having said that - if I were you I would keep Windows on my system and dual boot between Linux and Windows. That way you can learn Linux without losing productivity. I use Debian myself, but would recommend Mandrake or Suse as good first distros. There are many alternatives to Foobar on Linux. You might want to try XMMS, ZINF, JuK or search Freshmeat.net and see what you find.

[xmixahlx]

what you will miss on windows:
EAC
fb2k
most games
photoshop, etc

what you won't miss on windows:
warez
cracking shit to get anything useful
everything else

if you can handle the above, then yer off to a good start

cdparanoia is a good cdripper
xmms is a good audio player (or, at least the player with the most features/plugins so far)


obviously i'm going to vote for Debian as the *Nix of choice (i'm the resident Debian geek here)

if you don't end up going debian (or debian-related ie. Libranet, etc), i'd consider source-based (i.e. Gentoo, LFS, Rock, Lunar, Sorceror)

a good reference for this is Distrowatch:
http://distrowatch.com/
http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=packagemanagement

if you browse around the information there most initial questions should be answered


later

[holkie]

for beginners, i'd strongly suggest that u try mandrake as it is both simple to install/use and also support many languages. u might wanna check linuxquestions.org; u'll find lots of info there.

about audio and encoding, u can use grip, an excellent frontend for cdparanoia. it's probably as good as eac though no real tests have been conducted between eac/win - cdpara/linux! i use both and cant see any real difference.

check this thread: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....=14483&hl=linux
i run frontah (http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/) with wine under mandrake 9.2; i can encode to/from plenty of formats, all you'll need is the windows binary of your encoder in the frontah folder.

[danbee]

If you just want a Distro that you can use, then Mandrake or Suse will be fine. You could even try Fedora which is supposed to be very good.

If you are interested in learning the ins and outs of Linux, then my suggestion would be Gentoo. I learnt more installing that than I ever did playing around with Suse or Mandrake.

If you want to give Linux a go without any hassle, try Knoppix. It's a fully operational distro that boots from CD.

[dev0]

If you want out-of-the-box MP4/AAC support take a look at Connectiva, which is the only distribution shipping with FAAD/FAAC binary packages. All other distibutions depend on 3rd party repositories like freshRPMs (Fedora/Redhat) or Rarewares (or building from source, which is not recommended for a GNU/Linux newbie).

dev0

[QuantumKnot]

Initially I had heard bad reports about Fedora being incomplete, broken, and unstable. I tried Fedora Core 2 Test 1 and it wasn't too complete (though obviously it is a test version for finding bugs). But I recently installed Fedora Core 2 Test 2 and it's been enjoyable to use. Nearly all the bugginess I found in Test 1 had disappeared. I can't wait till the release version of Fedora Core 2 comes out in mid-May

It seems AAC is lacking a top notch encoder for Linux. FAAC did quite in the listening tests but is still a bit below iTunes. Conversely, MPC, lame, Vorbis, flac, etc. all have linux versions that are more or less equivalent to their Windows versions. The FAAD plugin for xmms is in my view, compared with mp3, MPC, Vorbis, etc. a bit too minimalistic.

As for CD ripping, I use the built-in ripping in KDE which, by default, uses cdparanoia. And in KDE 3.2, they've finally updated the Ogg Vorbis settings to use quality settings rather than ABR

[cabbagerat]

If you want to give Linux a go without any hassle, try Knoppix. It's a fully operational distro that boots from CD.

If you want to give Linux a go without any hassle, try Knoppix. It's a fully operational distro that boots from CD.

Excellent advice. Knoppix (and it's kin) are the best way of trying out Linux and finding out if it's the right thing for you. Consider using one of these live disks for a couple days then install a good beginner's distro (Debian and Gentoo, while great distributions are not suitable for a first distribution in most cases) like Mandrake or Fedora. Suse is also very good.

I use a very simple ripping script called abcde (A Better CD Encoder) which uses CDParanoia to rip to Vorbis, MP3 or FLAC and handles tagging from CDDB automatically. While not as feature packed as EAC, it does everything I use EAC to do.

[ddrawley]

Here is a good basic link to assist in selection.

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/5030/1/

I am a HUGE fan of debian/apt-get distros. I am personally running Debian. It solves a big pain in the backside by downloading dependencies for you. It saves a big treasure hunt.

Apt-get is free, and helps keep security updates easy to get and apply.

[32bitwonder]

I also highly advocate Debian, but for a new-to-Linux user looking for a desktop Linux distro, you may want to consider a distrobution which is Debian based - best of both worlds. From my own experience, I highly recommend Mepis Linux. It's a live-cd install which means you'll boot to a live, linux desktop and from there you can install to your hard disk if you like.
As for it's audio capabilities, I can't really comment as I haven't spent a lot of time testing it. However, as with any other Debian based distro, getting the right packages installed using apt-get should make this a breeze.

Hope this helps.

[bidz]

If you are interested in learning the ins and outs of Linux, then my suggestion would be Gentoo.  I learnt more installing that than I ever did playing around with Suse or Mandrake.

Agreed. You learn ALOT of the need-to-know basics when installing/setting up Gentoo, and its not difficult if you follow the documentation. And you get a perfectly setup system according to your own personal preference. Also you can choose to optimize the compiler flags according to your system specs, which will make the system much faster (atleast in my case).

I played around with Redhat, Suse and Mandrake, and didnt really learn much of them.. then tried Gentoo, and suddenly learned a whole lot!.. The Gentoo community is also very helpful (both on irc and web-forum).

[tangent]

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7704

[menders]

I would also recommend Knoppix. It's a live CD distribution that you don't have to install to your hard drive...just boot off the CD. A great way to try Linux without committing to anything. I use both Linux and Windows myself. I do all my ripping in Windows as I prefer EAC to cdparanoia (no secure mode ripping).

[Juan4Ever]

thanks a lot for the advices... i guess ill try Gentoo or Debian distro (mepis i guess)

im more inclined to debian because the debian section on rarewares and i like a lot the jigdo system to download the Images, but i was wondering if gentoo or mepis could have a similar system.

thanks again for the advices

[Mr_Rabid_Teddybe...]

If you're going with Debian I recommend you make an initial choice between Stable or Unstable. I started my Linux experience with Debian Testing, and that shuuure was a mess.... (broken packages all over the place). For a newbie I think Mandrake would be a good place to start. I would say only start out with Debian as first distro if you have close friend(s) that knows it in and out....

[Juan4Ever]

If you're going with Debian I recommend you make an initial choice between Stable or Unstable. I started my Linux experience with Debian Testing, and that shuuure was a mess....    (broken packages all over the place). For a newbie I think Mandrake would be a good place to start. I would say only start out with Debian as first distro if you have close friend(s) that knows it in and out....

i think ill do a dual system first

[Sachankara]

I'd go for Fedora Core 1, but if you're unsure about using Linux at all, you might want to try Knoppix first...

[vinu]

If you're a beginner, Fedora Core1 or Mandrake or other Redhat based distros would be my recommendation. Easy to install and use.... you surely don't want to get frustrated with your first experience with Linux, do you? Once you're more familiar with the OS, and feel more confident of doing a customised install, you could try one of the other distros out there. like Debian or Slakware....

Not that you _have_ to move to Debian or Slakware or one of those source based linux distros like Gentoo to get a customised install.... Fedora Core 1 or Mandrake is as equally customisable and configurable as any of the aforesaid distros, if you know how to do it.

[LadFromDownUnder]

As an alternative to mulit-booting Windows and Linux, you could stay with Windows as your host OS and install VMWare, which emulates a PC through software, and then install a Linux distribution in the emulated PC. I've used VMWare for about four years now, professionally and personally. I've run Windows as the host with RedHat Linux as the guest OS, and vice versa. I would have to say I consider VMWare to be the single most significant piece of software I've come across in the last few years.

[xmixahlx]

thanks a lot for the advices... i guess ill try Gentoo or Debian distro (mepis i guess)

im more inclined to debian because the debian section on rarewares and i like a lot the jigdo system to download the Images, but i was wondering if gentoo or mepis could have a similar system.

thanks again for the advices

juan -

if you decide to go debian i'd vote most any debian distro based on sarge/unstable.

Libranet is a great choice, and i have a thread there that sorta outlines how to use the distro with unofficial and custom sources (sorta like what i think any distro should be like in the first place...)

here is the thread on Libranet
http://forum.libranet.com/viewtopic.php?t=1420

if you don't end up using libranet, you can use that entire thread as help info and just remove the libranet apt sources.


later

[Reiginsei]

You can also install cygwin and use that instead.

[menders]

You can also install cygwin and use that instead.

Cygwin is not Linux.

[jcftang]

well there are also the bsd's to consider which are quite nice to use, especially if you want to do lots of systems programming and messing with source based installs etc...

edit - i know its not linux (as the original poster discusses about), and its probably not too good for most beginners, but i think the bsds are neatly put together and are pretty solid in general and are worth mentioning

This post has been edited by jcftang: Apr 10 2004, 21:37

[dev0]

Agreed. The BSDs are definetly worth consideration, especially if you already have *nix experience.

[YinYang]

'As I'm also contemplating switching from Win to Linux I need a software recommendation.
I use the great localized newsserver called Hamster and would like of a likely alternative for linux. Any recommendations?