I’m getting a new computer soon and interested in trying out the GNU Guix distro.
Does anyone here use it? And if so, how is it for audio production?
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Hi,
I don’t use it but generally speaking mainstream Distros do a pretty bad job of being set up for Audio production especially with the advent of PipeWire so I would have very little faith in any project or Package Manager off the beaten path that isn’t specifically for Audio production. I don’t know why people torture themselves with this stuff. If you want the best Audio experience and the most potential choice of up to date popular Plugins and Audio support applications then Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE all have good options for Audio production and mature and established Package Managers and all of them are open to Flatpak or Snap (lol, not for Audio stuff!) as well if you aren’t satisfied with the Package selection. I don’t see why Guix is an attractive option in this situation?
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You can use “almost” any distro you want, but if it’s not specific for audio and/or video, you’re going to have to configure a lot of things like the real-time kernel and many other things. If you know how to do it and/or you feel like learning how to configure your system at that level, go ahead with it, but it’s not the easiest way to use Linux for multimedia.
Sometimes some people use a specific distribution for reasons of how it looks, the type of desktop or because there is a specific program that is not in other distros (maybe I don’t know if this is the case), or out of habit.
Using a distribution that is already prepared for multimedia use makes things easier for you. There are 2 distros that are already ready to use “in principle”, such as:
Ubuntustudio https://ubuntustudio.org/
AV LINUX AV Linux MX Edition
Both already have a lot of what you need for audio and video to start with and you can add more available software.
If there is something specific that GNU Guix offers you (which I don’t know about), check if distributions like the 2 I mentioned, or any other similar ones, have what GNU Guix offers available.
As Glen says, distros with “little push, or very alternative” development, can be a dead end if the distro in question remains undeveloped in the future, which is something that is more difficult to happen.
In distros based on Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE for example, there are more packages and more tested, more developed and in principle easier to configure, theoretically.
Over the years dozens of distros have appeared and disappeared, for very different reasons, only a few survive in good condition, that of course does not mean that we should not support them if they offer something interesting and good, the example in this case is AVlinux (if I’m not mistaken) is a project of a person who has maintained it since 2008, it is well built, stable and functional according to those who use it in this forum (I use ubuntustudio), it is one of those that surely deserves to survive.
I have been using Linux for years, I am not a developer, nor a programmer, just a normal user formerly behind in the world of Windows, who escaped in time.
To give you an idea of the number of distros created over the years just visit this link and see how many of them have disappeared and how many survive.
History of Linux distributions: Linux Distributions Timeline
In my opinion, too much effort is wasted in creating an excessive number of different distributions that, in most cases, only differ in a few things or appear to be different even though they all come from a few common roots.
If development efforts were concentrated on fewer, better finished distros that are more oriented to the less experienced user (at least some of them), Linux would possibly be more widespread, known and used by more people.
Obviously, embedded systems are a different situation. I have referred to the use of Linux on a PC or similar, from my personal experience as a normal and current user, I am not an expert in almost anything.
I was a sound technician a few years ago, but I have worked in other things unrelated, for many years.
Greetings and happy holidays
I haven’t tried Guix. FWIW, my buddy Chris has done some work showing setting up NixOS for audio work in these two YouTube videos:
I don’t know whether any of the concrete particulars carry over from NixOS and the (conceptually related) Guix.
Never tried. I was on Manjaro Linux for quite a while after Mint, Mint LMDE, Debian and Ubuntu. Now I’m a happy Fedora user on my desktop, but my old laptop still flawlessly runs Manjaro.
I forgot to mention this repository: rtcqs. It may help you to achieve better performance for audio on linux regardless of the distribution you’re using.
I’ve been using Ardour with Guix for a few months for now. Before I used NixOS, and before that, Arch.
Works great for me, and I like that it’s super lean.
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That’s cool 
Did you need to make many changes to the system before you could get to work? And how has it been installing plugins to work with Ardour?
I’ve not used Nix or Guix before. I get the impression that they are aimed at ‘power users’ but I may be wrong about that. Do you think Guix would be suitable for a regular user?
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No changes needed… I’m using Ardour with LSP plugins, Dragonfly reverb, Distrho. There are a lot of lv2 plugins in the packages. I’ll probably write a few packages for other plugins I use that are not there, like grainbow.
It’s definitely not a distro for beginners. Setting up things take a lot of time initially, but once you get to a point things are working it’s quick to add new packages. I like that I know and control everything that is installed on my laptop, and I can rollback changes. It’s a great concept, but it’s definitely not convenient.