Dan S2d ago
so, what are all the smart people doing about their operating system these days?
BSD (never used Linux)
BSD (switched from Linux recently)
Linux (hurriedly yanking out systemd)
Linux ("my distro is fine")
Linux (waiting for it all to blow over)
Windows (for some unknown value of "smart")
other (specify in reply)
Poll ends at .
Show threadMarty Fouts2d ago

@datn Since I picked Windows I thought I would fill in “some value”: I am a retired OS developer with 50 years of experience that includes being a contributing member of the NetBSD foundation; an embedded Linux kernel developer; and a brief period working on WIN/CE internals.

Windows has suited my personal requirements since around 2000 but I am not looking forward to moving beyond 10. So I am trying out Mint, which is lacking, and hoping my laptop lasts another ten years. YMWV

Show threadMarty Fouts2d ago
@datn Mint is a fine distro for what it does and not a bad choice for someone switching from Windows who only uses the PC for social networking, web browsing and similar things. It’s just doesn’t support the DAW I have ten years invested in, some of my older audio interfaces, the Canon proprietary tools for my DSLRs, or the graphics cards in any of my 4 aging PCs.
Show threadCliff'sEsportCorner21h ago
@MartyFouts @datn That is an interesting specific use case, I'd like to know what solution you find for DAW. I don't have solid advice for that, weak sauce answer would be run Win 10 in VM from Nix. But for aging machines XFCE w any decent distro is solid on Core 2 duo or newer IME. My favs MX XFCE and Manjaro XFCE. Q4OS is also good alternative. A rolling distro might work better w DAW but that is a guess. Good Luck!
Show threadMarty Fouts

@CliffsEsport @datn Thanks for the feedback. Changing distros won’t help the hardware problem because all of the gpus are old NVIDIA gear that isn’t supported in modern kernels.

I have used Studio One as my DAW on Windows for a decade. They were recently bought by Fender so I don’t know what will happen to them. They have done a Linux port but it’s fragile and I don’t know if Fender will support it.

12:33amWeb
Show threadCliff'sEsportCorner12h ago
@MartyFouts @datn how old of nvidia? My Core 2 duo machine is a ASUS UL30vt it has hybrid graphics intel igpu and NVIDIA G210M (2009 IIRC) it has worked fine with Mint Cinnamon, thought Cinnamon was slightly sluggish vs Win7 was better than Win10. Just right clicked and ran stuff with discrete GPU and XFCE with Mint, MX, & Manjaro has been fine. Though its possible it won't work otherwise. Some distros you have to enable or okay the drivers bc not FOSS some distros you'd have to CLI drivers
Show threadMarty Fouts36m ago
@CliffsEsport @datn GTX 720 old. There’s a comment about it in the Cinnamon release notes. NVIDIA won’t support devices that old in the latest kernel. The X common driver will support it but only as a generic GPU, no acceleration and only low resolution.
Show threadCliff'sEsportCorner12h ago
@MartyFouts @datn Also might try some of the Linux Discord channels, would not surprise me if there is some nerd or group of nerds that are doing what you want to do.