"Pedro Figueiredo" <pedro.ml1@xxxxxxx> writes: > I'm about to switch to linux too and I'm trying to decide among > A/Demudi and PlanetCCRMA. How would you compare these two? I have tried both, but do not really know them in depth. So please take the following just as my own little opinion, nothing more... Short answer: they are both good so pick one and try it :-) You could even install both (in separate partitions of your hd) and looke what you prefer. > Because I will be using a computer with no network access, I can't > afford frequent updating and patching. That's my biggest concern. I think it is a good idea to have an audio computer dedicated to this one task. So you would not need network. But then the development speed of audio applications is such, that sooner or later you *will* want to do updates. It should be possible with both of these distributions to download packages on another machine and install them from CD or similar. BTW: both use the debian tool 'apt-get' for installation and updates, which is a wonderful program. > Also, having played around with Debian 3.0 and Red Hat 8.0 (which I > believe were released at about the same time) Red Hat seemed much > prettier and up to date. Debian 3.x is the 'stable' branch of the Debian distribution, which means that it's rock solid, but quite conservative regarding newest software versions. For audio applications this is probably not what you want and AGNULA uses much newer versions of the audio applications then Debian stable. But don't worry: even the so called 'unstable' Debian branch is much more reliable then the name might suggest ;-) > Unfortunately, it [RH 8.0] was running a bunch of > servers and processes out of the box that I never asked for (printers, > send mail, drivers for all sort of hardware...). Hmm, until now Debian did about the same thing. The coming Debian release and also the coming AGNULA/Demudi release will be based on a new Debian installer. I have heard that it does a much better job. But I think you will *still* have to do quite some fine tuning yourself (on both distri- butions) if you don't want all these demons. At least you're off the network, so it's not so much a security question. > Debian seemed to allow for better fine tuning and advanced configuration, That's probably true, but I'm sure there are ways to do the same with a RH based distribution. What makes the whole decision a bit complicated is the fact that both of these audio/multimedia distributions use another distribution as the base for their audio related software. So you cannot just choose between Planet CCRMA and AGNULA/DeMuDI independently of the RH/Fedora or Debian question. Regarding *audio applications* I personally prefer Planet CRRMA over A/Demudi now, but A/Demudi makes very good progress and the two will probably be in a very similar state very soon. Regarding *base distribution* I clearly prefer Debian over RH/Fedora, but this is just my personal preference. (I just hope Debian can come over this stupid firmware thing which makes my RME soundcard unusable under Debian and A/Demudi. They refuse to include the RME firmware as it is not under the GPL and does not come with source code (whatever this might be in the case of firmware). While I'm very fond of the free software idea, I think it's just brain-dead fanatism in the case of firmware of a soundcard or somesuch. I think it hurts us users of free software and helps the powers which would like to make this whole free software thing disappear for their own profit... Until then I'll boot Planet CRRMA for audio and Debian for everything else... ) I hope I could help a little bit Robert Epprecht > Thank you, Pedro have fun
