It doesn't really matter. I mean obviously it matters what you want to use your computer for, but I use cloud docs/sheets/preso/email apps anyway, and don't play AAA videogames except on console. If my wife wants to go on the internet or make a text document (libreoffice is good) or listen to Spotify or whatever, it's just as easy on Ubuntu as on her mac, the buttons are just in slightly different places. I'd interrogate what your top 5 priorities for a computer are and check if such a thing exists on Ubuntu. You can also boot Ubuntu off a usb thumb drive without having to install it, just to mess around.
Not saying Ubuntu because it's the only option, just because it's always been the stereotypically "easiest" Linux distro to get into. Searching the internet for "<problem> ubuntu" will nearly always return newbie-friendly results versus something like Debian, Fedora or Arch.
Don't care about games, mainly concerned about audio/video editing software. I'm guessing I'll have huge problems trying to get the interface specific ASIO drivers and the VSTs to load? Was already a pain in the ass going from Win7 to Win10.
I’m guessing I’ll have huge problems trying to get the interface specific ASIO drivers and the VSTs to load? Was already a pain in the ass going from Win7 to Win10.
This (i.e. OS releases breaking your drivers) is actually way less of a problem, and one of the main reasons I switched my audio workflow over about ~five years ago. Drivers are part of the kernel tree*, so once Linux supports your interface it always will (more or less).
Of course in order to get there you have to figure out JACK and port your workflow to Ardour (or similar), figure out how to replace the VSTs (the vast majority of which are compiled for windows only) you're used to with open source equivalents. That's the real PITA.
This is from a hobbyist, so YMMV. But for my purposes it's been nice to not have to replace the PCI interface I bought specifically for low latency recording ~10 years ago.
*for those that have open source drivers, anyway--another potential road block
AFAIK, it is possible to emulate VSTs in WINE, but that is something your DAW will need to support. LMMS has a feature to do this. VSTs themselves are just Windows DLLs with a very simple, standardized API.
None the less, if you're doing pro-audio on Linux, the draw is that you can mix and match dozens of different programs into a pipelined workflow using JACK. The drawback is, naturally, that this is a complex thing to do and you will be basically blazing your own trail and creating a very unique setup tailored just for your needs, with little holistic documentation.
I use Audacity and Openshot for video editing. Obviously major A/V vendors often don't make their software for Linux, but that doesn't mean you can't use it for editing.
I'd love to but changing progs is not an option since I use them professionally. Just looked up in WineHQ and there seem to be major problems. Oh well, hopefully things change sometime in the future.
yeah i always want wine or VMs to work but i personally have never been able to make it happen. consider it for your personal machine, maybe, or a fun project, but i don't think anyone judges Final Cut Pro professionals from using macs (aside from Adobe Premiere professionals...)
Good friend of mine edits music a lot on linux with bitwig, he said "it's made by some people who left ableton and it's basically the best there is for glitch rn". It's not foss, but it's a pretty solid daw on linux and supports VSTs and so forth. Hard to say about your interface drivers specifically, but generally drivers (other than nvidia video drivers) "just work" on linux these days. So you can probably just plug it in and use it with pulseaudio (sound system that comes with ubuntu and other popular distros). If you want a really easy pre-setup experience check out https://ubuntustudio.org/ it's ubuntu, but with lots of good audio/video software installed and configured nicely.
Also years ago I edited videos as a film major with kdenlive, and my girlfriend actually does so semi-professionally now. So if you're looking for a foss non-linear video editor it's the least shitty one. (admittably lacking behind DaVinci and premire, but you can run DaVinci on linux it's just not foss...)
What about the progs? Can't run Windows progs in Linux, right?
It doesn't really matter. I mean obviously it matters what you want to use your computer for, but I use cloud docs/sheets/preso/email apps anyway, and don't play AAA videogames except on console. If my wife wants to go on the internet or make a text document (libreoffice is good) or listen to Spotify or whatever, it's just as easy on Ubuntu as on her mac, the buttons are just in slightly different places. I'd interrogate what your top 5 priorities for a computer are and check if such a thing exists on Ubuntu. You can also boot Ubuntu off a usb thumb drive without having to install it, just to mess around.
Not saying Ubuntu because it's the only option, just because it's always been the stereotypically "easiest" Linux distro to get into. Searching the internet for "<problem> ubuntu" will nearly always return newbie-friendly results versus something like Debian, Fedora or Arch.
deleted by creator
Don't care about games, mainly concerned about audio/video editing software. I'm guessing I'll have huge problems trying to get the interface specific ASIO drivers and the VSTs to load? Was already a pain in the ass going from Win7 to Win10.
This (i.e. OS releases breaking your drivers) is actually way less of a problem, and one of the main reasons I switched my audio workflow over about ~five years ago. Drivers are part of the kernel tree*, so once Linux supports your interface it always will (more or less).
Of course in order to get there you have to figure out JACK and port your workflow to Ardour (or similar), figure out how to replace the VSTs (the vast majority of which are compiled for windows only) you're used to with open source equivalents. That's the real PITA.
This is from a hobbyist, so YMMV. But for my purposes it's been nice to not have to replace the PCI interface I bought specifically for low latency recording ~10 years ago.
*for those that have open source drivers, anyway--another potential road block
AFAIK, it is possible to emulate VSTs in WINE, but that is something your DAW will need to support. LMMS has a feature to do this. VSTs themselves are just Windows DLLs with a very simple, standardized API.
None the less, if you're doing pro-audio on Linux, the draw is that you can mix and match dozens of different programs into a pipelined workflow using JACK. The drawback is, naturally, that this is a complex thing to do and you will be basically blazing your own trail and creating a very unique setup tailored just for your needs, with little holistic documentation.
I use Audacity and Openshot for video editing. Obviously major A/V vendors often don't make their software for Linux, but that doesn't mean you can't use it for editing.
I'd love to but changing progs is not an option since I use them professionally. Just looked up in WineHQ and there seem to be major problems. Oh well, hopefully things change sometime in the future.
yeah i always want wine or VMs to work but i personally have never been able to make it happen. consider it for your personal machine, maybe, or a fun project, but i don't think anyone judges Final Cut Pro professionals from using macs (aside from Adobe Premiere professionals...)
God Premiere sucks so much, those guys should be the last ones to judge anyone, lmao!
Good friend of mine edits music a lot on linux with bitwig, he said "it's made by some people who left ableton and it's basically the best there is for glitch rn". It's not foss, but it's a pretty solid daw on linux and supports VSTs and so forth. Hard to say about your interface drivers specifically, but generally drivers (other than nvidia video drivers) "just work" on linux these days. So you can probably just plug it in and use it with pulseaudio (sound system that comes with ubuntu and other popular distros). If you want a really easy pre-setup experience check out https://ubuntustudio.org/ it's ubuntu, but with lots of good audio/video software installed and configured nicely.
Also years ago I edited videos as a film major with kdenlive, and my girlfriend actually does so semi-professionally now. So if you're looking for a foss non-linear video editor it's the least shitty one. (admittably lacking behind DaVinci and premire, but you can run DaVinci on linux it's just not foss...)