Was primarily looking at something running Pop!_OS to start. Someone here suggested System76. I'd be migrating from a chromebook that can't handle any music software/DAWs at all, so even if it takes a little more legwork to get going on Linux, it'd still be a step up for those capacities as well as hopefully for privacy, as I'm learning. EDiT: I'm also unable to install Linux on this chromebook.
Anyone have any experience producing music on Linux? I'm mostly going to be recording but also interested in live modulation. For those reasons I'd probably be using Reaper (which I have a good deal of experience with) and Bitwig/Ardour. Would love to hear peoples' thoughts.
I've only really dabbled in Linux music production. Getting everything set up and just doing seriously basic shit was just too much work so I gave up pretty fast.
Personally if I were you I would go for a dual boot system and save yourself the headache. But, if you wanna go 100% in on Linux, with that set up since it's all just analogue feeding in you could probably make it work.
Keep in mind that drivers for audio interfaces are NOT going to have Linux versions for them. So while you might be able to get an audio input, it may not work as expected.
jeez, this is a frustrating learning curve just to figure out how to approach the issue, haha. thanks for your feedback. i'll look into dual-boot, or maybe even going for two cheap systems, linux for privacy and general use, and mac for music.
Good luck!
Linux is great for general purpose stuff, but for highly specialised niche shit like pro audio it's not even close to being suitable, unfortunately.