Livin' on the edge

[evan_ccs]

I'm building a new workstation computer. My copy of Windows is on an IDE HDD, and I don't want to transfer the OS because that has always given me problems. Furthermore, I'm not a big fan of Windows to begin with, but all my components are Windows-compatible. So my question is this: There are certain distributions of Linux that are built for high-power work, but how does Linux do with recording software in terms of compatibility, etc.?

[Justin]

I don't know of any commercial audio editing suites for Linux.
There are a few distributions that can do audio editing and DAW functionality, but most of them are not easy to configure without a good knowledge of Linux and a lot of patience. The ones I've played with are also in the earlier levels of development...most of them are not as fully featured as a commercial application.

I think the biggest problem will be finding professional level hardware that has driver support in Linux. Most companies making audio interfaces don't have the resources to dedicate programmers to developing Linux driver support, so you may be stuck working with user developed drivers.

If you do want to explore using Linux for audio production further, you might check out:
http://www.64studio.com
http://www.linuxaudio.org
http://www.ferventsoftware.com/ (Studio 2 Go, a Linux based LiveCD for audio production)

There is also Audacity, it can run under Linux, OSX, or Windows. It's feature limited though.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net