Better switch to Linux. It's not perfect but I am sure that you will be fine using Linux(Unless you want to use Adobe Suite or Few Corporate applications which won't be used by many)
So after weeks trying to get a high-channel count I/O solution working, I gave in, I found the best thing to do was to just get a M4 Mac Mini for my audio/studio work. And leave Linux for everything else. I was setup within an hour on macOS.
There’s unfortunately still too much resistance and it can cost $1000s trying to get to a working solution or ultimately in my case: a non-working solution. It cost me about $6000 trying various options — not all wasted, but still, not cheap to find out that nothing works.
AI doesn't have less respect for Copyright than any other tech company. AI has less need for the corporate connections to those copyright holders.
This of course comes from the neoliberal philosophy where the only remedy you have is to withdraw service. We've gutted the actual rights of actual creatives.
Familiarity is not really a good reason against Linux, however. Just install a Linux distro that comes close in looks. What are these Linux distributions these days? Pop OS? Elementary OS? Most people are only using their browsers anyway.
Unless someone breaks that cycle of Windows being the dominant OS.
I don't know how many times I've had to tell Windows that I don't want Edge to be my default browser and OneDrive should not open at login.
I've never been able to get Linux working right on one of my laptops, on another only rolling releases work.
These rolling releases like to break every 3 to 6 months.
Windows is much more stable on both laptops.
With my mini PC eGPU combo Linux just won't recognize the eGpu at all.
I have had tons of grief with NVIDIA cards that work stellar on Windows and the answer I always get talking to Linux folks is “LOL NVIDIA? You’re an idiot for buying NVIDIA.”
My friends who daily drive Linux have accepted that I’m particularly cursed. Either that or they privately think I’m a moron. Regardless none of them seem to be able to explain my issues or help.
Ironically your second sentence is an example of the impact on time and energy the switch will have: someone who just decided to switch from windows to linux will have to take the time and spend the energy to chose between the dozen of linux distributions before any practical consideration.
Counterintuitively; using the latest kernel can be more stable as bug fixes are merged.
RME does have a few supported cards (I use one) but they're mostly the ADAT ones. And the driver is in-tree.
That will last for as long as it takes for the value of privacy and ownership erodes further and then it'll get switched back to on by default.
Maybe it's been fixed, but I brought this on release last year, it never worked right with Linux.
Hours upon hours of trying to fix it for naught.
I actually prefer Linux as a daily driver, I have the Ultra Core V2 version of the same laptop and rolling releases are generally fine for 3 to 6 months. At which point I just reinstall , while leaving Windows intact.
I guess if you want to buy a slightly older laptop or at least one with a slightly older CPU things are fine.
Refurbished Thinkpads excel particularly well here.
Both Wifi and Bluetooth doesn't work on a fresh Windows install, I have to physically connect a USB DVD player to install the drivers from the DVD that came with the package (in 2024! btw). On Linux everything just works out-of-the-box. Okay maybe not everything, I did have to patch my kernel for bluetooth drivers, but other than that it's a LOT smoother in every way than on Windows.
Imagine how useful it would be for software vendors (Microsoft included): "We have implemented new feature X, how are our users interacting with it? Let's ask their Recall AI about it".
This could essentially become telemetry on steroids.
In the start telemetry was seen as outrageously user-hostile spying, too. Look where we are now. We are all frogs, at least Microsoft is banking on it.
Linux still isn't really ready for normal people who have other things to do.
Arguably if it's within your budget and you just want your computer to work, buy a Mac.
I make music and I don't want to fiddle with external drives so I'm basically stuck on Windows.
My biggest issue with Macs is not being able to replace the SSD. Eventually all SSDs must fail. Might not be in 2 years, might be in 6 or 7, but at that point the entire laptop is useless.
I hope to god that Valve takes the opportunity they have with Steam OS to give us a potential real alternative to Windows that focuses on gaming support. Cause that's literally the only reason I'm forced to continue using this Microsoft adware slop of an OS.
If you haven't already, check your BIOS for TPM/fTPM settings (or if you're on Intel also look for "Intel Platform Trust Technology" or "Intel PTT").
Sure, in general that's good advice, but it becomes more complicated depending on the solution/situation...
I’d bought the RME card long before I was hoping to make it work with Linux. I'd been running Windows for a long time for work reasons, so I had my dev work and my music setup on the same computer (a 64 core Threadripper machine, with 128gb of RAM, and fast NVMe drives). A few months before, I'd sold my company, so for work at least I didn't need to be on Windows any more. Then I started getting random audio dropouts! Presumably because of all the crap Microsoft keep loading onto the OS with after every update.
The audio dropouts was the straw that broke the camel’s back. If a machine like that, with nothing else running on it other than my DAW, could start having audio dropouts, then you know something has gone horribly wrong with the OS.
That's why I wanted to get my existing RME card working on Linux. When I wasn’t able to use it, I then assumed I’d be able to get a network based protocol running (Dante/AES67). There was plenty of discussion about it online, it seemed viable, and it's a network, Linux can do networking! Also, I kinda like the idea of network based audio, I think it's likely to be more future proof.
So, I replaced one of my Ferrofish A32 Pro interfaces with a Ferrofish A32 Pro DANTE ($4300) [1]. It supports both Dante and AES67. I figure if I can’t get Dante running then the open protocol AES67 (with support in Linux-land) should work. That didn’t feel that risky. But no amount of finagling would make the interface appear via the virtual sound-card/router concept.
This had already taken weeks (maybe months) to not get anywhere, so I looked for a Class Compliant sound-card (or, one that definitely had Linux drivers) that could support the number of channels I needed (96 channels in and out), it also needed to support the AD/DA interfaces interfaces I already had (so connectivity via MADI or Dante/AES67), but there just wasn't anything. The only other sound-card out there was another RME interface.
So, that’s when I opted for a Class Compliant sound-card [2] for casual use on Linux ($324) and a new RME Digiface Dante sound-card ($1543) [3] that I could use with a newly purchased M4 Mac Mini ($3000). I also needed to replace another one of my Ferrofish A32 Pro interfaces with another Ferrofish A32 Pro Dante ($4300) to make the setup work.
I realise now that my earlier estimate of $6000 was wildly out, it cost $13467 to leave Windows and to get an alternative pro-audio setup working. There may well have been alternative approaches and I may well have missed a possible solution that could have either worked with the original RME card (which would cost nothing) or AES67 (that would still require me to replace 3 x Ferrofish A32 Pro interfaces, so would end up about the same cost), but I felt like I'd been pretty thorough.
I guess the reason I'm writing War & Peace here is that it's often not possible to know ahead of time whether any one setup might work. Drivers is one thing, but a pro-studio setup has more moving parts, and so if you don't know ahead of time whether any one setup will work, then it can be an expensive process to walk through the different options. And that's a problem that neither Windows nor Mac has. It's a real shame, because the stability of Linux should make it the best platform for pro-audio.
[1] https://www.ferrofish.com/a32pro-dante-converter-multimode/
There are some that don't support Linux and likely never will like Valorant or Call of Duty, and even fewer that dropped Linux support like Apex Legends.
That must be doing wonders for the click rate. I can see the pre-promotion powerpoint slide now: "User engagement with Copilot is showing exponential growth"
If you want it out of the box, there are laptops out there with Linux pre-installed, but it is not as common, unfortunately.
So I do not see the irony. They usually ask someone to install an OS, or they buy a computer pre-installed with an OS.
https://solidstatelogic.com/products/ssl-2-plus-mkii
It has pro quality converters and is plug-n-play.
The irony is that before doing the work for the switch, and even before doing the work of checking if the switch is feasible for their need, they will need to spend time and energy to select which linux distrib they should choose. Switching from linux to windows of macos doesn't have this issue
> We were partly inspired by Signal’s blocking of Recall. Given that Windows doesn’t let non-browser apps granularly disable Recall, Signal cleverly uses the DRM flag on their app to disable all screenshots. This breaks Recall, but unfortunately also breaks the ability to take any screenshots, including by legitimate accessibility software like screen-readers. Brave’s approach does not have this limitation since we’re able to granularly disable just Recall; regular screenshotting will still work. While it’s heartening that Microsoft recognizes that Web browsers are especially privacy-sensitive applications, we hope they offer the same granular ability to turn off Recall to all privacy-minded application developers.
The reason I have a need for so much IO is that nearly all of my processing goes through external hardware (EQs, compressors, delays, reverbs, filters, phasers, chorus, summing mixer, multi-FX units like Eventide H3000 & H8000) and I have a wall of modular gear + about 20 synths and drum machines.
But I also think context matters. Maybe you also need work that motivates you to use Linux or is impossible or quite inconvenient to do on Windows.
In any case, using Windows is fine. I don't think the user is to blame for the shortcomings of the brand. It's like with conscious consuming products that don't harm the environment. It's important to seek those, but if you have to go out of your way it's just not gonna happen.
I rather think it cost you $mac_mini to buy a mac mini, and $compulsion buying hardware for reasons I still do not understand.
Paul Davis has lurked here at least as long as you have, and it would have cost $0 just to ask if that card is currently supported in Linux.
I mean, for $13467 I bet I could buy a plane ticket to Shenzhen, hire a translator, and have them send an email to Collabora to quote a price to develop the firware/driver I can afford with the money I have left over.
I didn’t need to ask him, I already owned it, I just needed to dual boot Linux to find out, it cost me $0.
You don’t seem to understand that a soundcard needs connecting to everything else in a studio, so there’s no such thing as just changing one thing and it not having a knock on effect (unless you’re really lucky, which I wasn’t).
You also don’t seem to know that once a setup is right, it can last a decade or more, so getting the right combo of gear to minimise friction in a studio is worth it over time, even if it is expensive upfront.
If it makes you feel a little less morally superior, I sold the original soundcard and the two replaced AD/DAs for ~$7200.
And, you still miss the point of the story completely: the point was that it’s too risky for anyone considering building a pro setup on Linux. Especially compared to Windows and macOS where everything is plug and play.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t pockets of success in Linux-land, but that it can be costly in money and time to get it right, and it might never work for the setup you have.
It is risk.
> for reasons I still do not understand.
That’s obvious.
But the reasons are:
* I wanted to move away from Windows because it was unstable and pissing me off
* I already owned a high-end PCI RME card that connected to three Ferrofish A32 Pro converters
* If I could install Linux and have the RME card work then I wouldn’t need to change my studio setup
* There’s no official or stable driver
* So, a change to the setup was required
* To try and future proof the setup I looked to modern protocols like Dante and AES67 as they are taking over pro studios and are much more flexible — I also thought there was a reasonable chance it would work on Linux
* I couldn’t get it working on Linux
* Time is not infinite
* Therefore I bought a Mac for audio
* To avoid the expense of a Mac Pro I had to switch from a PCI based soundcard to a USB based soundcard (which I could plug in to the Mac Mini)
* I still use Linux on the original machine (for dev work), but with a class compliant soundcard for casual use. It’s relatively trouble free, other than half of my usb ports don’t work, but you know, meh
* I haven’t needed to use Windows since. So I consider it a win.
I have one machine that I can't even install Linux on because no Linux installer or live CD will even boot on it. No idea why, and I don't want to spend a lot of time and effort figuring that out given that it's my dedicated gaming box, a "PC console" basically.
OTOH I have a laptop that I specifically purchased to run Linux on it. Which it does, and all devices work just fine. The only catch is that battery life when browsing is about 20-30% less, and, as far as I can tell, this is entirely due to Linux browsers disabling video hardware acceleration by default on most configs. If I enable it, things get much better for the battery, but at the cost of an occasional browser crash.
The customer support story is also much better. Instead of dealing with IRC channels and Reddit post trying to figure out why the latest kernel ruined everything, you go to the Apple Store.
I literally run Tumbleweed on my second laptop, I like Linux.
It's just not for people who don't want to invest time into understanding how computers work.
This whole thread is about how Linux is difficult because you need to understand what hardware is actually supported and you're arguing that MacOS is different because you still need to understand what hardware is supported, but the apple store will sell you something else with a smile.
I'm not even denying that MacOS is a perfectly acceptable OS, I just don't understand your argument.
They shouldn't be selling 3rd party hardware, with an over 100% markup, that isn't well supported.
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/p/gaming-mouse/CH-931D101-NA/m...
It's less than half the price anywhere else.
But Apple's argument is it's not on them if a 3rd party mouse they happen to sell has issues.
With Linux you need to do significantly more work to get setup and every now and then a kernel update can ruin your day.
I want something Ubuntu stable that actually supports newer hardware, but that's just not where Linux is at.
The Linux community is amazing, but they lack the capacity to QA every possible laptop on the market.
Just a few days ago the sound on my Tumbleweed install decided to stop working. I thought about reinstalling, Chat GPT suggested I just accept audio not working and using a USB sound card.
Eventually, thinking as a last ditch effort, I asked Chat GPT how to completely reinstall the audio stack.
This went and removed my KDE desktop for some reason. Cool, I'll install Xfce from the tty.
I then installed Budgie since it's a bit easier to use.
All this because for some reason my sound didn't feel like working.
We, the types of people who visit this site, enjoy the process.
Not everyone does.
Macs definitely have issues too.
But you can go to the Apple store and have them figure it out.
Plus a routine update probably won't stop audio from working.
I've been using Desktop Linux for about 20 years.
It's better now, but it's still work to use.
Ubuntu releases LTS versions every two years. I jump from LTS to LTS by simple `do-release-upgrade` command. Takes about 30 minutes. And I only upgrade after the dust settles, i.e. after 3-4 months of the release.
Mint also releases upgrades regularly. I suggest upgrading regularly.
NVIDIA drivers work great, and receive updates.
You know that's not the only issue, and that it is not what I'm saying. You can try to convince yourself as much as you want that it is not an issue, the reality will not change
> Which Windows version?
Are you kidding ? there is only one in 2025 : windows 11.
> Which torrent is the right one?
Why are you even talking about torrent ?
I told you why I am talking about torrent. No one has a legit copy of Windows 11, no one actually buys it here, especially not individuals. Companies might.
Oh yeah, how would they know Windows 11 is the latest if not by looking it up?
Either way, as I said, someone will be asked to install an OS, or they will buy computers with an OS pre-installed (and they will eventually ask, even then). None of which require them to pick anything.