I currently use Windows 10 and I’d like to try out Linux. My plan is to set up a dual boot with OpenSUSE tumbleweed and KDE Plasma. I’ve read so many different opinions about choosing a distro, compatibility with gaming and Nvidia drivers, and personal issues with the ethos of different companies like Canonical. I value...
I’ve been using linux for about 6 months now and recently been using arch as my main. I’ve done some customzations like changing fonts, background, keybinds, etc. But I really want to actually customize like the behaviour of apps, cool animations....
You’ll want to decide on a desktop environment or window manager (or compositor). That’ll be the biggest determining factor of what things will look like. From there, you’ll want to either read the manual or arch wiki on how to customize the different aspects of it.
If you decide you want a tiling window manager, Hyprland is nice since you mentioned you wanted animations. But it’s only recommended on rolling release distros at the moment. It also might not work well with Nvidia.
What kind of “app behaviour” customizations are you wanting to do? That sounds like it would be app-specific. My main form of app customization is to find ways to change the colour scheme (to fit everything else), and also to change the keybindings (I like using vim-like key bindings whenever reasonable)
KDE not only has 1 mascot, they have over 6 or more mascots!! Yet GNOME only has the foot, that’s interesting, they need a mascot. And made by Tyson Tan or someone with a similar art style, it would be amazing!!! But anyway GNOME is the best desktop environment and it’s better if it’s vanilla with some small...
Hello everyone, I need help choosing my first distro. I want to be able to run Audio software for editing and mixing. So I need also VST plug ins and others. Currently I use Windows 10, and Reaper....
First off, I want to make it clear that the distro doesn’t really matter. Different distros are just what it comes pre-packed with by default.
TLDR:
For something easy to use: Linux Mint
For something that has pre-installed audio software (but maybe not the ones you want): Ubuntu Studio
If you want to build your system from scratch: Debian (or Arch if you want the latest and greatest software, and don’t mind the occasional update breaking your system around once a year or so, and needing to spend an hour fixing it)
Regardless of which distro you get, use JACK or PipeWire for your sound server. PulseAudio (on its own) has too much latency.
More details:
I first tried Ubuntu Studio. It comes with a lot of software related to audio production. But I found it to be insanely slow, and it didn’t even come with Reaper anyway.
I tried OpenSUSE because I liked that it had the option to manually deselect the software you don’t want (and I was too much of a beginner to know how to pick my packages from the ground-up). It worked well.
Eventually I moved to Debian. I didn’t want any of the extra fluff and found it was pretty easy to choose everything myself. One thing that’s important is that you don’t want to use PulseAudio. Either use JACK (which I think needs to be used in conjunction with PulseAudio actually) or use PipeWire, which is what I use.
For any Windows software, use Bottles to emulate them on Linux. I actually ended up needing to go back to windows because of one audio software: Wwise. There was no way of running it in Linux. A VM probably would’ve worked, but that would’ve been a massive hassle for how I’d need to use it.
I didn’t get to spend too too much time doing pro audio on linux because as soon as I realized Wwise will not work, I didn’t spend much more time in Reaper after that. But it was good, especially with an audio interface (if you’re buying an audio interface, check to see how well it works with linux. Apparently some may have issues)
By the way, the whole point of Debian is that it has older software, and in exchange you’re almost guaranteed to have a system that doesn’t break. But for some professional software you’ll want the newest version. I recommend using Flatpak for that stuff instead of Apt (like for Reaper)
When installing Debian, when it asks “Allow login as root?” be sure to select “no”. This one step is why some people don’t recommend Debian, saying it complicates the install process. But if you get that right, then you’re all good. Or I think sometimes it will instead ask you to create and type in a root password, in which case you should leave it blank and click next. You only want to make a password for your user, not for the root.
New to Linux, have a few questions
I currently use Windows 10 and I’d like to try out Linux. My plan is to set up a dual boot with OpenSUSE tumbleweed and KDE Plasma. I’ve read so many different opinions about choosing a distro, compatibility with gaming and Nvidia drivers, and personal issues with the ethos of different companies like Canonical. I value...
Ricing Linux
I’ve been using linux for about 6 months now and recently been using arch as my main. I’ve done some customzations like changing fonts, background, keybinds, etc. But I really want to actually customize like the behaviour of apps, cool animations....
why doesn't GNOME have a mascot??
KDE not only has 1 mascot, they have over 6 or more mascots!! Yet GNOME only has the foot, that’s interesting, they need a mascot. And made by Tyson Tan or someone with a similar art style, it would be amazing!!! But anyway GNOME is the best desktop environment and it’s better if it’s vanilla with some small...
Help me decide my first distro for Audio.
Hello everyone, I need help choosing my first distro. I want to be able to run Audio software for editing and mixing. So I need also VST plug ins and others. Currently I use Windows 10, and Reaper....
What software is best to have in a flatpak on tumbleweed?
The title says it all. I would like to know what software you have in a flatpak. If you want to include your reasoning, go ahead.