Re: [LAU] Until now Debian seems to be the right decision :), better performance than Ubuntu

From: Simon Wise <simonzwise@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Tue May 31 2011 - 16:36:41 EEST

>> So - if you want to use the current DAW packages that are part of
>> debian, especially if you want to run jack2, you need to be using sid
>> and not using stable.
>
> Where did you get this idea? Ardour2.8.11 w/jack2 works OOTB on
> debian/squeeze.

there has been a lot of changes in sid and testing recently as the new stuff
that was waiting for the release moved into those distributions. Jack2 was very
new to squeeze. The differences between squeeze and wheezy, as you mention very
correctly below ... if you have a setup that works, there is no need to change
it, no need to keep chasing new versions. If you are using an svn version of a
core part of your setup you probably do keep an eye on improvements, and there
are a lot of interrelationships between libraries in audio.

I see a few good choices - you can look after these interrelationships yourself,
find a solution that works then leave well enough alone and get on with making
music, or you can search for a distribution that works out of the box, and stick
with it.

Or, if you want to occasionally upgrade to newer versions of your main apps it
isn't a bad idea to have a system that maintains recent versions underlying
libraries, so you don't need to spend so much effort each time but can rely on
the maintainers of that system to do that for you. That does not happen with
debian stable, by design it stays the same for its lifespan, and gets further
and further out of date.

> debian-multimedia.org works just fine as additional repo. for squeeze,
> wheezy and sid.
>
> Could you please provide an example where it /breaks/ things or produces
> conflicts?

Look at the debian multimedia maintainers list to see how often things break. It
is quite often.

> I beg to disagree: I'm running a mixed system
> (stable/testing/experimental) without re-installing (just copy it over
> to new hardware - i386 architecture) since debian/woody. Apt-pinning
> helps a lot and `aptitude` does a great job at resolving dependencies.
> I've posted some /etc/apt/ files earlier in this thread.

sure, there are many ways to manage a system. Threads like this were a great
resource when I set up my system.

>
>> This
>> work is continuing very quickly, but will not be in stable until wheezy
>> becomes the new stable in 2013. In debian terms "stable" means
>> unchanging, frozen, fully predictable, security related fixes only ...
>
> perfect.>2 years of making music without worrying about the system :)

yes, that is why I put it that way - if stable provides what you want, then
certainly use it, and now is the perfect time to do so because it is as up to
date as it ever is.

If it doesn't have all you need and you add things from outside then it isn't
the carefully prepared stable debian any more, and the advantages of a very
thoroughly tested system with minimal problems is gone. Then you need to choose
your strategy. There are many sensible ones, I have only describe my particular
choice in case it may be useful.

Simon.
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Received on Tue May 31 20:15:01 2011

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