[pfuller]

Hi,

I'm currently experimenting with Linux/Ubuntu/XUbuntu to feed
external DACs via USB etc. I like the current distros - many bugs
and hardware compatibility issues have been worked out.
Any other head-fiers working with Linux? I'd love to hear about
your opinions or problems you've experienced. I'm considering
a permanent switch to Linux over the long haul because I'm
totally not willing to pay for those expensive M$ Vista upgrades.

 

[tola555]

hi,
I'm using debian (ubuntu is built on top of that). Newer tried usb dac but there are cards that work great. For music look at http://alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/ and search your card. Games tend to use oss, not alsa. So my chaintech av-710 don't work in games (quake, ET) and there are bugs with playing flash sounds in web. But great for music.
For games I use Creative SoundBlaster Live. It's old but works well.

 

[jnev]

I've been using linux for three years now... using ubuntu for the past year 100% happy. the only thing I keep windows around for is for photoshop (photographer). other than that I spend 99.9% of my time in ubuntu. I've found that the sound quality is a lot better in linux than in windows, and I'm not the only one to think so.

I've tried just about every music playing app available (windows and linux), and amarok is just head and shoulders better than anything I've tried so far, though songbird looks promising once it finally comes out.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Well, I'm not currently using the Linux box to serve music, but I intend to shortly.

I've been in the Linux camp since 2002 and have been with RedHat/Fedora the entire time. Ubuntu is good, for sure, but it doesn't have the familiarity I'm used to.

Unless you're a serious gamer or have dedicated apps, I highly recommend making the switch. The learning curve isn't as sharp as it once was (I cut my teeth on RedHat 7.3) and it's eminently usable. Heck, even my mother runs Linux. She's not sure where the power switch is (it's up 24/7), but has *no* trouble doing what she wants with Gnome/Fedora. She even brags to her friends that her machine doesn't crash. We have my niece and nephews (8, 5 and 2) using it successfully, too. They take to it intuitively. Linux isn't difficult anymore.

Give it some thought and download some live distros if you haven't already. It's worth making the change.

 

[pfuller]

Fortunately I'm too old to be a gamer

I just do basic tasks with my computer, used to be into software development. Maybe I need to keep a Win XP box for .NET/Visual Studio stuff but I could create HTML pages with NVU. Heck, there's even Eagle for PCBs. I'm going to miss MS Money though but maybe it works with WINE. Has WINE improved since the early days of Linux?

 

[steevc]

I've been using purely Ubuntu Linux for a while now and don't miss Windows, but then I don't play games.

I use Amarok for listening and rip using the feature in Konqueror where you can view a CD as the different audio file types (WAV, FLAC, OGG, MP3) and just drag them to where you want them.

I've been ripping to OGG Q6, but am thinking of changing to FLAC. I'll just have to set up something to convert them to OGG for portable listening, but at least I will never have to rip again. I've got old stuff that's still in 128k MP3 and it sounds crap now.

 

[sschell]

I've been strictly using linux for about a year and a half. I agree that amarok is a pretty nice player, though a little memory heavy for my tastes. I use a seperate server for music playback, and use MPD for the actual playback.

Aside from some trouble I had with incompatiable USB controllers, I've had almost no problems with linux. I really reccomend trying out linux for at least 6 months to get general experience. I'm not much of a gamer, so Wine/Cedega support doesn't really matter.

Hope you stick with it!

 

[jefemeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pfuller /img/forum/go_quote.gif Fortunately I'm too old to be a gamer I just do basic tasks with my computer, used to be into software development. Maybe I need to keep a Win XP box for .NET/Visual Studio stuff but I could create HTML pages with NVU. Heck, there's even Eagle for PCBs. I'm going to miss MS Money though but maybe it works with WINE. Has WINE improved since the early days of Linux?

I run Ubuntu at work for some of my software development, mostly ARM kernel configuration. Linux has a pretty great development environment called Eclipse which is basically visual studio. One word of caution, don't install Ubuntu 6.10 "Edgy"--it has some major problems with Eclipse for some reason. It will get worked out and patched eventually though.

As far as home stuff, I prefer Windows. I had Linux installed for awhile and it just was a little bit too much work for not being at work, if that makes sense. I'm a bit more familiar with it now than I was before, so that may be too strong a statement.

 

[Redwoood]

I'm setting up a server/htpc/etc running linux right now.
Has anybody had good experience with certain sound cards under linux?
I'm a little behind on the audiophile game, but I'd like to get a good sound card for this one.

thanks

Redwoood

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redwoood /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm setting up a server/htpc/etc running linux right now. Has anybody had good experience with certain sound cards under linux? I'm a little behind on the audiophile game, but I'd like to get a good sound card for this one. thanks Redwoood

Take a look at the ALSA soundcard matrix here:

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/

 

[Redwoood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Take a look at the ALSA soundcard matrix here: http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/

Thanks, but I was rather looking for personal experiences here.
Alsa's "fully supported" is good, but "I have it running and it doesn't do any weird resampling etc and sounds great" from a member here is better.

So keep 'em coming

Redwoood

 

[Fitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redwoood /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks, but I was rather looking for personal experiences here. Alsa's "fully supported" is good, but "I have it running and it doesn't do any weird resampling etc and sounds great" from a member here is better. So keep 'em coming Redwoood

I've used a couple different soundblaster cards (live, audigy 2), the Aria's USB DAC, and the chaintech av710 under Linux with no problems. The soundblasters will resample to 48KHz internally, but that's a hardware limitation and will happen regardless of the operating system. They work great using ALSA, and if you need more than one program sharing the soundcard at once, use dmix rather than a sound server like artsd.

 

[Malus]

I've been running FreeBSD as my desktop for a while now. I'm using Amarok/xmms in conjuction with a MicroDAC to play my music. In FreeBSD, setting it up was as easy as plug and play.

 

[Aman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tola555 /img/forum/go_quote.gif hi, I'm using debian (ubuntu is built on top of that). Newer tried usb dac but there are cards that work great. For music look at http://alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/ and search your card. Games tend to use oss, not alsa. So my chaintech av-710 don't work in games (quake, ET) and there are bugs with playing flash sounds in web. But great for music. For games I use Creative SoundBlaster Live. It's old but works well.

You can emulate OSS so that OSS will play through ALSA. It's in the kernel configuration for just about every kernel type out there >=2.6.0

 

[jim3535]

What audio player do you guys use in linux? I know foobar2k is dominant in win32 on head-fi.

I've been on the edge of switching to Ubuntu for a while now. I'm just trying to solve some issues such as sound card support (ALSA might fix that), setting up dual head, and a few apps I need to find substitutes for.