I have been using Linux since RedHat 5.1 which I purchased boxed at a Staples store in the mid-nineties. Of course it’s known as Fedora now, or RHEL on the professional side.
Fedora Linux by default uses a very capable kernel with realtime dynamic enabled by default. You just need to add a grub option to get to full preempt and a few other minor tweaks. They even offer a Spin called Fedora Jam which is audio ready. You can of course add this to any Fedora installation even if you have not installed it in the beginning.
No distribution is perfect by any means. We just try to get the best we can with the tools provided. In my opinion, Fedora comes pretty close, as does AV Linux.
Hmm. In regards to Ubuntu Studio. It certainly gets the job done for sure. I think it’s a great out of the box solution for sure. I was a big fan of KDE for years even before KDE Plama (was that version 4 I think of KDE?) but I have kind of lost my liking for it due to too much going on. It is by far the most customization DM that I’ve ever seen and this customization “feature” can be done a little too easily. For that last 6 or so years I have found the simplicity of Ubuntu MATE is a refreshing change. It doesn’t look as “modern” as KDE but I fine it’s default layout great for any type of productivity work. I think because it keeps the task/app that are opened in the panel at the bottom and the rest at the top. I always add section in the middle of the top panel like the Home folder, terminal, System Monitor, Calculator…utility apps. I also have always had MATE’s Caja file manager setup for single click access. These combo have ways been super “planted” kind of feeling when using it. HOWEVER…I’ve always…and I do mean always have had an issue with Ubuntu MATE 24.04 for some reason. On every PC (there are eight in total and many more that I had setup for the company I work for) there has always been issues. Now these are PCs with different hardware…from the most capable 12 core studio computer to an older low end Celeron HP desktop - 24.04 has shown me it’s not an OS that I want to use on anything. Nearly every PC running shows an error dialog upon login. Just as the desktop shows up BAM! It doesn’t indicate what the error is…your only options are to close the windows or send out a report but so far I’ve never been able to find what the problem is.
I gave it one last shot as it’s running right now on this machine which is my studio computer. Same issues! It’s amazing how consistent this issue has been but I just don’t trust it on a machine this important. I almost have it down to a science when it comes to setting up generic versions of Ubuntu into a production machine but 24.04 has been available for a long time now and receives updates every other day almost but the problems still existing. It doesn’t seem like anyone else have had this issue.
Over the last two weeks I’ve decided to try out Debian MATE for the first time since 2006. Although the installer looks like it came from 1995 and needs A LOT of setup and tweaking it really does seem to be a great foundation for anything you’re using it for. I have put together a document that includes packages, notes on repos, all of the odds and ends to get Debian MATE 13 to function more like Ubuntu Mate. There is a lot of functionality that I’ve taken for granted when using Ubuntu. Functionality that Debian doesn’t have, but I learned what package add this functionality to Ubuntu and added them on Debian…most of them. I have to say I’m really liking it and as soon as my Amazon delivery of the new SSD drive comes in I’m ready to get up and running on Debian Mate 13. Out of the box it’s just not setup like Ubuntu and I can see now why Ubuntu is preferred when it comes to newer users coming from Windows or an OS that might be used in a business or school but once you got it setup Debian seems like a better foundation to work from than Ubuntu.
Keep in mind I’ve only developed this opinion in the last 2 weeks or so but it’s because I’m running Ardour on it…added all the repos and packages,I even installed a non-USB compliant MOTU Midi Express 128 from reversed engineered driver from source…works as if it’s running in Windows.
Anyway I would share my notes with anyone if you are toying with the idea of kind of building a system from the ground up.
Does it also have the error dialog on login? Otherwise if the only reason for abandoning it was that it’s “too configurable”, perhaps it’s time to give it another chance.
Ubuntu Studio has really helped me with two things. First, it has extended the life of my 2014 Lenovo K450e deskside tower. It’s always been an excellent machine, hardware spec-wise; but Windows 10 was suffering the inevitable slow-to-a-crawl affliction and Windows 11 isn’t supported. I moved to Ubuntu Studio a couple years ago in a dual-boot configuration with the Linux OS on its own dedicated drive. Second, Ubuntu Studio with KDE Plasma has allowed me to use it as my “daily driver” in an environment that’s very familiar to me. (I used KDE in Red Hat Enterprise for 8-10 hours a day for 20 years in my profession.) The adjustability of KDE is what keeps me using it; for the most part I set everything up the way I liked it when I installed and only have to mess with the settings on the rare occasion that something changes or I need some specific behavior for a new program.
In the end I selected Ubuntu Studio LTS with KDE because I knew it would be a suitable daily driver for me and allow me to focus more on my computing tasks - including some music production - than on spending time getting the computer set up and working optimally. Sincerely hope this is helpful.
Hey Tony thanks for taking the time to write.
Yes the error always shows up on login. I still have no idea what it is. One thing I didn’t clarify is that I’ve worked with just about every distro there is for professional use and personal. I’ve made the switch to Linux full time in 2005 or 2006. Windows issue with slow down is simply due to its design. I had a computer service/sales/development company for 14 years. Windows is job security for all in this business. Windows slows down for a good reason and the rule of thumb is that a Win PC needs to be serviced every 2 years for this reason.
I find that KDE, although it doesn’t seem to require anymore resources than some of the other popular DMs I now find it a bit annoying with certain things and this is the reason why I seem to gravitate to older, similar designs like Mate.
I very much appreciate the specs as I will document everything that you posted here. I went down the Debian road because I knew it was the foundation of Ubuntu. Granted I was kind of surprised how much wasn’t setup in Debian but at this point I’m past that and have a really good idea of what needs to be installed. Including near 40 packages that need to be installed…lots of them are utilities that we take for granted in Ubuntu.
One thing I just thought of. Ubuntu Studio is version 24.04 as is the Ubuntu Mate I was using but that error didn’t occur in Studio…only Mate. I wonder the issue is with Mate DM only? Haven’t tired straight up Kubuntu or Ubuntu (Unity), just Mate.
Interesting comments on Windows; first time I’ve seen it articulated in that way. Clearly based on significant personal experience with your company.
I also started using Linux in 2005, coincidentally.
Sounds like the fact that Studio doesn’t show you the login error doesn’t overcome your annoyances with KDE, though. Can you install MATE on top of Studio?
Tony, I was going to really go into the Windows issue that you were having but it’s so far off topic for this forum that I deleted nearly all of it! lol I will say this though. There is a very specific reason why Windows computers slow down over time but nobody cares about that here. I still say this to my customers. “Windows computers are the cheapest to buy and the most expensive to own”. My meaning behind this is, due to the gradual slow down of Windows, it either needs to be “serviced” or the user goes out and buys another computer because they simply don’t understand WHY their Win PC is slowing down. They think it’s the hardware…the computer itself. I’d be happy to share with you more but I don’t this is the place to do that.
Tomorrow ill be getting in the new 240gb SSD drive and when it comes in my intent was to get “my” version of Debian running with Mate as I’ve been preparing for this for almost three weeks now. Learning what Debian needs to be that solid foundation. But I have Ubuntu Studio on a flash drive I think still.
Of course I could install MATE, replacing KDE and honestly if I did install Studio I think I would do this but since I don’t know what has caused all of the 24.04 MATE errors and quirks I wonder if I would bring the problem over to Studio since I would be replacing KDE with MATE. Hmm.
When I first stumbled on Ubuntu Studio years ago I really thought “wow this system is way to bloated for me”. I felt that way this time too. Oh what did do instead is, I installed Ubuntu Mate 24.04LTS then I installed the “ubuntustudio-installer” and used this app to install what I needed. That was a bit better than running the default version of Studio… I guess the bottom line is I need to feel good about what I use. Mate 24.04 still to this day is kind of quirky on so many machines I’ve tried it on that I just gave up. I gave it one more try on the studio PC and ended up with the same results that I had with the other PCs. So all of my PCs’ run Ubuntu Mate 22.04 instead. I guess I could try 25.10 but I really wanted a LTC version.
Which is another reason why I wanted to try Debian 13. All Debian main release become LTS versions . I now have Debian in a place that would work for me but before I get that SSD in I many take look at what we are talking about. The package “ubuntustudio-installer” will make any “version” of Ubuntu into a studio machine…but Mate has become my go to. I actually tried the newer Gnome desktop on Debian and that was pretty good too. Hmm…not sure what I’m doing now.
Agreed this is not the place to discuss Windows’ tendency to slow down over time.
Good luck with your fresh install to the new SSD. If the same issue crops up, hopefully others here with setups similar to whatever you end up with can assist with any debug.
Thanks Tony,
Well I just got the SSD in about 10 mins ago. I intentionally installed Debian 13 like four or five more time and set the system up as I need it. This includes everything from fstab mounting on login for the two NTFS drives, repo sources, nearly 40 other packages that doesn’t come by default on Debian when compared to Ubuntu Mate. I’ve perfected the entire process. Including the installing from source of the a MOTU drivers for a mini interface. I do have it mostly working perfectly on this temp hard drive.
I had an issue while booting where it couldn’t mount one of the NTFS drivers because the fstab dev. was incorrect. AND because Debian usually has a root account setup by default and I oped out of this to have a setup like Ubuntu the system wouldn’t boot after that…So I had to boot Ubuntu Mate 22.04 from a flash drive then navigate into etc directory of the system drive, correct the issue and reboot and all was well. But IF I end up using Ubuntu I think it would have to be 22.04 rather than 24.04. Since I still had that issue with 24.04 I would really like to avoid. But it got me thinking.
The issue didn’t happen on Studio 24.04 with KDE but it did happen with Desktop Ubuntu 24.04 Mate…and it doesn’t happen with 22.04 Desktop with MATE. I’m thinking the issue might be with the DM. When I run MATE in Debian 13 there are no such issues either.
I’m going to have to do more testing I guess but thanks for your input on all of this!
C
Glad to hear you found something that works for you, that is what matters most in the end. For ‘market research’ I have to ask if you tried AV Linux at all and if you did why didn’t it even make your short list?
Don’t hold back, I’m a big boy and I’m not made of glass, if you didn’t try it at all then no need to reply…
Hi Glen, I installed AV Linux and was hoping for a dual-boot. The boot partition on my system is mounted /boot/efi. What would I need to do for a dual boot ?
getting that working , I can give you a fairer feedback.
Just forup, I did load AV-linux. My first impression was clouded due to a monitor problem. It was out of focus, so to speak. I did not like the “dark” appearance". On my second go, today, the monitor was in focus and I had a “tidy” impression but still too dark for my liking. That, of course says nothing about functionality.
I found looking at eg Fedora-jam, I could get almost the same functionality on open Suse by piecing together the software myself. And I am running Suse since 2003. I know my way around, just a bit. Suse was very stable till the recent release of 16.0
Whilst I was working in the IT industry, I am not a command line freak.
Anyway, if you could come back to me re Dual boot …
When that is work I have a closer look and let you know what I think. I used to work in sales .
Hi, thanks for your time, please don’t feel like you’re being guilted into this…lol. I’m offline most of today but as far as the dual boot question there is a full detailed triple boot install example Video on the AV Linux home page. There is also a full optional light theme included, I will post later how to do that, it’s quite easy.
To change Applications to a light theme: Menu–>Settings–>“Look” tab—>Application Theme–>Select ‘mx-ease’
To change Enlightenment’s palette to match the light theme: Menu–>Settings–>“Look” tab–>Palette–>“Select Palette” button and then select ‘mx-ease-light’.
@GMaq
Hi Glen , I Haven’t forgotten you. I installed AV Linux and was hoping for a dual boot .
There is a bug in Suse-tumbleweed which does not allow it. I wanted to have a good crack of AV Linux to give you feedback. I also installed Ubuntu Studio again no dualboot.
… and had a go with Fedora Jam.
Both Fedora and Ubuntu are using KDE . It is my understanding AV Linux could run with KDE as well.
From an installation point of view Ubuntu was the easiest especially considering customized partitioning. I found out how to do it within AV Linux but it was a bit hidden . With Fedora it was a bit of a drama.
Since I grow up (linux world) with KDE, I like it . Plasma came a long way.
What I liked with the AV Linux installation was you integrated Samba in the install. !!!
From an first impression (nothing to do with functionality) Ubuntu stood out.
I immediately could find my way around. Fedora solala. Av Linux …got the hang of it
I think the one thing you should fix (in my opinion) is the partitioning in the install process.
and the other give the user the option of KDE
cheers from DownUnder
Thank you for your time in trying things out and commenting, much appreciated. I think you’ve noted some things that are probably common opinions. I have no intention of changing your mind but I will answer your concerns in case other reader have similar questions/concerns…
As far as the Installer I have no direct input into that, it is the standard MX Linux Installer dressed in an AVL suit, I will agree it is not the most intuitive installer and it is not as pretty as Calamares but it gives a lot of nice choices for User’s who are Linux-savvy and may want some more in-depth options. In my Install Video I was quickly and easily able to whip up a functional triple-boot with no issues. So yes it is a different Installer than the mainstream Distros but I think the Video is a useful tool to demystify some of the differences.
I tested Plasma for 6 months last year, it is full featured, attractive and very Windows-y in a familiar way. But using KDE/Plasma and Distributing it are very different things. Plasma is the most disorganized and messy DE with it’s configuration files I have ever seen! Configs sprayed all through the home folder, not even contained to a sensible folder in ~/.config or similar. People have no idea how much work goes into building an ISO and endless testing to have configurations perfect before it builds itself package by package… Plasma would be so much more effort than any other DE to pre-configure and that alone killed it for me. AVL used XFCE4 for many years and as time went on the RAM consumption went from around 400Mb to 650Mb and in it’s latest iteration it’s closer to 850Mb… what changed? Well, a few things but double the RAM consumption for a very vanilla and bland DE that still looks like a vanilla and bland DE??! Not on my watch! I want AVL to fly on new PC’s and keep 10-12 year old PC’s out of the landfill and productive as Bedroom Studio appliances. On my own hardware Enlightenment uses about 450Mb of RAM, XFCE4 uses about 900, and Plasma uses 1.4Gb and that was with a pretty basic ‘Standard’ install and not much Desktop bling. Is Plasma a 1 Gb better presentation than Enlightenment…? Sorry, not to me… Enlightenment is quirky and peculiar but it sips RAM while giving you some nice smooth ‘shadows and fades’ and it also has the best Display scaling I have ever seen (I use a 4K monitor). Plasma also has decent scaling and XFCE4 scaling is abysmal…
Admittedly and obviously many people don’t share my stingy nature with RAM and many people just can’t get onboard with Enlightenment… That sucks and is discouraging but oh well… There is no Audio/Video Distro out there even close to as in-depth as AVL and it is also apparent many people don’t want or need the extra functionality so it’s truly great that there are many other choices both of DE and Distro. I’ve been doing this for almost 2 decades and I simply don’t care about the Big DE’s and their trends any more at all, if you want Plasma there is a world full of great Plasma Distros including Ubuntu Studio, AVL is here in it’s own little corner and ready to work for those who find it useful.
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now I want to know it
give the user the option of KDE