Anyone tried this? I was planning on switching over to Linux Mint from Windows for music production and sound design with Ardour but, since my other main use of the computer is video games, I was just wondering if anyone has tried using Ardour on SteamOS? I read from a quick Google search that SteamOS should provide slightly better gaming performance than Linux Mint, but I’m not sure if that’s true, or if it’s at all noticable, but even so.
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Current release SteamOS is based on Arch Linux, and several people on the forum have referenced running on Arch Linux, so no immediate reason to think Ardour wouldn’t run. Likely you would have to do some work if you wanted to pull plugins or other audio software from a repository, I can’t imagine Valve having a repository with audio production software setup by default. Since Arch is a rolling release you would also have to watch out for pulling in software from the Arch repository needing to pull in updates for other software which would not otherwise be changing from the SteamOS repository.
I would not recommend for you to install SteamOS on any PC really. For a very simple reason: It is an OS tailored for handheld gaming. That means, for example, no printer drivers. And as such, I worry about soundcards and audio hardware compatibility. It lacks several things you might require from a multi-purpose computer and, it is not just a simple Arch-linux fork. It is an immutable distro.
I don’t think you would notice an actual increase on performance when it comes to gaming using SteamOS rather than Mint, PopOS or Nobara.
Now, I’ve heard many windows users says that “they will switch over to Linux once SteamOS is available for pc”. I understand that many people are expecting an OS that is actually supported by a big company they trust to make the jump. It gives them confidence. But for the reasons stated above and more, I think those folks stating that have no broad idea about what SteamOS is, how Linux OSs perform currently and moreover, probably haven’t assessed what they actually need from a computer.
Going to actual PC distros, you basically can’t go wrong with any, Ardour should work in almost all of them and gaming should be pretty much the same. You will have lots of differences on other stuff, such as how up-to-date is your software (which Ardour version is available, for example), what Audio plugin sources you can access and use, how easy it is to manage NVIDIA drivers (if you have an NVIDIA gpu for gaming)., and many other things. If I were you I’d look into gaming focused PC distros if that is your main use.
I would add that Mint is a great experience for new users and can do anything really.
And that I game daily and work a lot on audio using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.
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Linux Mint it is, then. It will be a purely AMD machine, both CPU and GPU, and both of the newest generation, and the sound card will be the Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 (4th gen) USB audio interface. And for starters, I’m quite content with what Airwindows has to offer in terms of plugins for Ardour, so I will probably go with those to begin with, maybe with the possibility of TDR Nova for a graphical, parametric, multi-band EQ, but that’s about it as far as my audio production needs currently go. I think Linux Mint will probably also be the most painless transition for a life-long Windows user of 30+ years in terms of the GUI and whatnot as, atleast as far as I’ve understood, one of its core tenets is to mimick the Windows GUI to make the learning curve as gentle as possible for most people, Windows still being the most widely used OS in the PC world. If SteamOS doesn’t offer any noticable performance benefits in terms of gaming, then I guess there’s really no reason for me to use it as my PC will have to bend to every which way possible. Gaming and audio work will be the main foci at the moment, but I will still need it to be a functional multimedia playback machine for watching movies and listening to music, and I’m also looking into Java programming with Intellj IDEA and graphic design with Krita for indie game development purposes, so I pretty much need the distro to be quite proficient at everything. From what I’ve understood, Ardour works wonderfully in Linux Mint and also the Focusrite Scarlett USB audio interfaces are very painless to set up, just plug-and-play basically.
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It may be useful to get this setup utility to access some of the features:
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I pretty much agree with all you stated.
Steam should work right out of the box when installed, and since the new version, you get proton enabled by default for windows games, so your experience should be seamless.
For audio, some resources you might want to check out:
https://linuxmusicians.com/
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Excellent approach! I’m an enormous fan and avid user of Airwindows’ stuff. That alone covers probably 80-90% of my mixing needs.
While the TDR plugins are brilliant, you can avoid Windows plugins altogether by opting for the fantastic LSP suite or the glorious ZL Equalizer for example, both of which are FOSS and Linux-native. Just food for thought perhaps.
Otherwise, you can’t go wrong with Mint. It’s such a stable, robust, user-friendly OS.
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Oh blimey, for some reason I remembered that there was a Linux-native LV2 version of TDR Nova, but apparently not. I’ll definitely be checking the tools you linked out, they look very promising. I would prefer something cross-platform, though, just for the sake of being able to transfer the projects onto a Windows or Mac machine, if needed. I have some Windows- and Mac-only friends whom I’d like to be able to collaborate seamlessly with.
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