Eugenia

Because LMDE runs on Debian, you won’t have the extra fixes for audio that ubuntustudio offers (mint runs on the same repos as all ubuntu flavors). Also, LMDE is debian, and their packages are older.

Regarding ram, reaper uses way, way less ram than any other daw, because it’s the most optimized of all. The creator of it, who also did winamp back in the day, is known for his optimization black magic.

Not the case with all laptops, e.g. some asus ones, and not even the tuxedo ones that require drivers.

Laptops from over 5 years ago are well supported by Linux (for the most part). However, the very modern laptops have bits and pieces that aren’t supported, from fan profiles, to the new intel webcams etc. They will run Linux, but you might fry them if your fans don’t work properly. So your best bet would be to get either an old one (I got a Macbook Air from 2015 with 8GB RAM, works great), or get a Tuxedo, or a System76 one, or a couple more Linux-specific ones. And it’s not because suddenly Linux does worse job supporting hardware, but it’s because these machines are. getting more complex and they need drivers for every little thing. Back in the day, things were more generic (e.g. the fans) and worked with a single driver.

With 4 GB of RAM you will be limited, so either XFce or Mint are your best bet (and edit their StartUp pref panel to disable some services – that will save you 200 MB of RAM). I wouldn’t put Gnome on a machine with 4 GB of RAM, it’ll start swapping before long.

Not sure why you say that “ubuntu studio is absolutely not an option”. You don’t give any reason why it’s not an option. Ubuntu studio has special scripts to make things like jack2 work in pipewire correctly, for one. I couldn’t get Presonus StudioOne to get any sound on my Mint installation without that ubuntu studio setup script, for example.

Reaper is nothing like Ableton, it’s its own thing, and you’ll need to get used to it. Ardour is another option, Bitwig, and some others I mention here: https://mastodon.social/@eugenialoli/113358203445896735

LMMS is mostly for electronic/midi music (the UI is like FL Studio’s). For recording, you’ll need to download their .appimage dev-build (they implemented it a few months ago). Still no vst3 support in it though.

And you’ll need to get a supported audio interface, you can’t judge audio quality via BT.

Personally, I’d go for Linux Mint and do these things: 1. Install a theme that pleases you visually, 2. Edit startup sessions to not load useless things (I’ve even turned off bluetooth) 3. Uninstall fwupd (you don’t need that on a mac), 4. Uninstall the evolution-data-server 5. install the ubuntustudio pipewire config script, 6. install the daw you like, and use the pipewire connection kit to make sure you get sound out of it.

On my Mint, I’ve been able to get it down to 700 MB of RAM on a clean boot (out of 1.3 GB by default). That gives some headroom to do better web browsing or media work.

I do the same for my friends and family, installing linux for them while their laptops only have 2 or 4 gb of ram. XFce with debian on slow hardware, mint on 4 gb laptops with medium speed. However, for something really low end, do consider Haiku, as I wrote earlier.

With that little ram, you’re better off with jwm, lxqt, lxde, or icewm. Not xfce or mate, that require over 600-800 MB of ram just to start up. In fact, with so low ram, you’re better off with something like Haiku.

No, none of them are. I tried 2-3 versions of it, none is good. However, Android on the other hand, which is also linux-based, is good. Go for Murena’s e/OS, or LineageOS.

You can still install other distros, but the power profiles won’t work well, and you might fry your cpu if the fans don’t kick in – for example.

I avoid flatpaks, so I don’t mind.

Linux Mint, because I don’t like to tinker with the system, I like good defaults (and Mints has them).

Linux will eventually make it seriously to the desktop in the next few years, possibly going as high as 15%-20% of the userbase (in my country Greece it’s already at 9%). But only because MS is going to destroy its Windows base by making it subscription etc.

My favorite idea is Linux or Android-derived, or a completely new, Rust-based AGPL-licensed OS, running on 100% open RISC-V hardware. Same for its phone equivalent. All chips must be open, no secret code in them.

I wish I could… I can’t drive, and I have celiac disease so bad that it has destroyed my gut so much, that even gluten free cakes make me sick.

Unfortunately, that’s the wrong thinking. There are different kinds of mods for controversial topics. Let’s say: UFOs. Mods on one lemmy instance might allow only sightings (that’s the deal with the reddit one, for example), but another one might allow also for abductions (as it should, since it’s part and parcel with the whole thing for many people). So disallowing communities from existing on different servers, it controls the narrative and creates pigeonhole opinions. It needs to be something for everyone instead.

The phenomenon is here since the late '40s. So militarizing space now might be about the phenomenon (or at least, in part). My problem is that many people think that this whole thing is a distraction. It’s not. It seems that several Congress members, from both parties, are interested in unveiling where trillions of dollars went by the military, that can’t account for most of it. And by digging, they found the ufo program, and they’re trying to get to the bottom of it. Instead, people see it the other way around: a monolithic evil government trying to distract us or scare us so they get more money. This is just laughable from where I sit, having experienced what I experienced, and having closely looking at what’s going on with the congress.

This kind of meme is disheartening seeing on Lemmy, that’s supposed to be full of open minded people. And I write that as someone who saw a real UFO in 1990 in Greece, together with others. The tech in 1990 was not there for the US to create a silent, gravity-defying, appearing and disappearing in-front-of-our-eyes vehicle. So this meme, AND the comments from the other lemmy posts in the last 2 days about the recent ufo events are rather insulting to me. The phenomenon is real.

Edit: Also, I don’t understand the downvotes! You downvote anything you find going against your grain? My experience is my experience and it’s equally as valid!

I use the Murena /e/ OS (developed in France). It’s android-based, but totally degoogled (more so than LineageOS). Happy with it so far. I also installed Ubuntu Touch in an older phone, but it’s definitely not ready.