Ubuntu Studio 8.04
it’s an LTS release so should stick for a while.
i used to use fedora, but PlanetCCRMA released real time kernels quite some time after fedora releases.
also, fedora 10 didn’t like my machine very much.
i haven’t tried 64 Studio yet, but keep hearing good things from it.
my laptop also doubles up as an work laptop for uni projects, general browsing, etc so UStudio is fine for now.
yes. Do I sound like a novice or what?!
That seems very odd, I’ve never had a problem with all the ins and outs from my 1010 being seen.
I have a few questions to help me understand what’s happening.
How do you start jack? Is it from Ardour or do you use Qjackctl?
Is there another sound card enabled in this machine?
At the moment, I’m using Ubuntu 9.04, though I like Slackware quite a lot and am considering returning to it.
OK, since no one else has done yet, I’ve got to put a word in for Arch Linux - best distro around bar none. In the last year I’ve been through Ubuntu, UBstudio, 64Studio, Fedora and Jacklab - nothing even comes close to Arch Linux. Just does everything I want, and nothing more. Pretty much any package of any software can be found on AUR, the user repository, meaning it can be painlessly installed and uninstalled with the package manager - I installed ardour with VST support this way (but I got rid of it - felt dirty).
If you haven’t tried Arch, get a copy, then find the beginners guide on the Arch Wiki. Well worth the effort, and not difficult to understand, even if you’ve only been using linux for a year, as I had been
Gentoo + pro-audio, on several AMD workstations.
I use Mandriva and have done so for over a year. In my experience it offers the best compromise between tweakability and working out-of-the-box. I tried various *buntus but always had problems building custom kernels - I use proprietary nvidia graphics drivers and that’s a nightmare on Ubuntu with a custom kernel. Ubuntu Studio’s realtime kernel was incredibly unstable on my machine, it would lock solid as soon as I started jack. Turned out to be something to do with my firewire sound card. They were also lacking some libraries (notably alsa-jack) that I need and couldn’t get without rebuilding the whole of ALSA from scratch. Finally I prefer KDE to GNOME and Mandriva is the best KDE distro, IMHO.
I run 32-bit because I use a lot of VST instruments under dssi-vst. This is supposed to work in 64-bit too but I wasn’t able to get it to build, Mandriva’s 64-bit setup is a bit “quirky”. But I don’t notice any difference in performance between 32 and 64 bit. I also get superb latency (1ms) without using a realtime kernel, which *buntu wasn’t able to do by a long way.
64 Studio 2.1 (64-bit)
64 Studio 3.0 beta (64-bit)
JAD 1.0 (32-bit)
Ubuntu Studio 9.04 (32-bit)
All running on AMD processors with nVidia binary drivers. Woohoo.
64studio 3.0 beta…works best on my system
Debian lenny with customizations (rt-kernel, rtirq.sh, limits.conf, …)
I’ve used JackLab, Musix and sidux.
Now I only use a custom sidux install. It requires very little tweaking to get all studio aps dialed in.
I’m going to try out 64Studio and Ubuntu Studio this week just to see what’s new but I’ll use that add function to my sid based studio if needed.
Arch Linux, 1.6GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM, pathetic (Guitar Rig chokes on frame sizes less than 512) but good enough for a portable studio. Permanently onboard audio so it’s more pathetic. Recently ran a Focusrite Pro 10 for a project though, and also got myself an H2 (can be used as an interface, lower noise floor than Intel HDA).
Damn…first post is a plug. Sorry about that but this is the only thread I can reply to so far =p
Anyway complementing the AUR is http://archaudio.org/ for those who hate compiling.
Fedora 11 +PlanetCCRMA i386 with PAE RT kernel.
I´m also very happy with 64studio 3.0beta. The RT-kernel is SUPER stable for me. Got 0.7ms latency while recording:)
Ubuntu 8.10 + Ardour 2.8 + Delta 1010LT + Intel 3.2 Core2Duo + 4GB ram …No problem here , from day one. Lot of fun with compiz 3d. Ardour did 32 stereo tracks without problem. Actually I am very reluctant to go for OS upgrade.
Gentoo + pro-audio overlay for me to 
I am using Xubuntu 8.04.1 LTS. Crucial software (FFADO, jackd, qjackctl, muse, ardour) is self compiled, so my audio apps are up to date, the system is very stable and fast.
I am using Gentoo without Proaudio Overlay. There is everything I need running withoug problems. Let me ask why that overlay is needed? What does it bring to me what is don´t have yet?