What is your software/hardware set up?

I'm currently running Ubuntu, but the way things are going with snap et Al I'm looking to move to something else soon.

My software setup has barely changed in a long time. Ardour is the core of all my production, I use qjackctl for handling Jack, Hydrogen for drums and then occasionally throw in a bit of Renoise or Bitwig for extra synth/sampler needs. I like to keep it simple and this really works for me.

What do you use?

I'm running Ubuntu Studio and Ardour on my aging HP laptop, and I'm considering getting something better.

When I bought the laptop I wasn't doing anything with audio production and was on a tight budget. Now that I do more with audio (and a bit with video) I'd like something more powerful.

I travel a lot for my job so a laptop is much preferred. Any tips for good, midrange machines or specs I should look out for?

I'm a professional instrumentalist and I've begun tinkering with digital audio production , hoping to start a side career composing digital music.

I've been working with Linux in general for over 15 years, and I'd like to stick with it, but I'm wondering if its actually viable in the professional world. It seems like most professionals are working with Ableton or other commercial software. I'm learning and working with Ardour, which seems great, but I wonder if I shouldn't be investing my time in software that will be more useful longterm.

Anyone here have thoughts/experience with this?

Short version: Please tell me your favourit distro(s) for making music and why.

Long version/my use case: I've actually recently decided to migrate to a laptop setup from desktop. I've already decided on the laptop and will be running a dual boot setup. I think between SuperCollider, Pd, and Reaper, Linux could have me mostly (maybe completely) covered.

It's tempting to just go for Ubuntu Studio or AV Linux, as they seems to have plenty of stuff ready to go. But at the same time I kind of know the apps I want to use, and (I assume) I can just get them myself for just about any other distro. I don't want to pick a distro just because it comes with a bunch of semi-relevant stuff. But maybe it's worth doing just that?

If it helps, my background is DAWs (Cubase and Reaper mainly) with softsynth, a little bit of eurorack and a chunk of VCV Rack, and a sprinkling of MaxMSP. I also have a monome Norns shield, for which I am attempting to learn Lua. I have no background in programming but I am drawn to learning SuperCollider as well. I have both 5 pin and usb midi controllers, and a Steinberg UR22 mkII.

When I fire up a vid to watch on my netbook there is often no sound. If I play an audio file the sound works correctly. If I then go back to the vid and play it again the sound works just fine. I have a desktop machine with the same setup and this is never a issue. Has anyone else come across this?

Software:

KDE neon

VLC (but the problem is the same with any vid player)

Qmmp

ETA: A recent update appears to have fixed this problem.

Hello - I decided to start a community for all things audio on Linux based operating systems. Linux may not be the obvious choice for pro audio, but it's customisability lends itself to a plethora of workflows that aren't possible on other systems.

Let's start this off! Comment with some music that you have made on Linux!