Migrating to Open Source

[Thunderscreech]

I'm going to go Linux on my desktop. Since I'm no longer doing school at the moment, I don't really need anything to be windows-specific (I'm looking at you AutoDesk) anymore.

I have an AMD Athlon x2 5200+ CPU, an NVIDIA 9800 GT video card, 4 Gigs of RAM, and 620 GB of space on the HDD. I also have a 500 GB external HDD.

I guess my main question is where do I start, OS-wise. I've looked into Mint and Ubuntu. I've also looked at Ubuntu Studio, because I'm planning on getting a USB recording interface sometime soon and setting up something to record my noise stuff.

I'm also planning on using this machine as a music/movie player for my room, if that makes any difference.

[relwof]

Originally Posted by Thunderscreech

I'm going to go Linux on my desktop. Since I'm no longer doing school at the moment, I don't really need anything to be windows-specific (I'm looking at you AutoDesk) anymore.

I have an AMD Athlon x2 5200+ CPU, an NVIDIA 9800 GT video card, 4 Gigs of RAM, and 620 GB of space on the HDD. I also have a 500 GB external HDD.

I guess my main question is where do I start, OS-wise. I've looked into Mint and Ubuntu. I've also looked at Ubuntu Studio, because I'm planning on getting a USB recording interface sometime soon and setting up something to record my noise stuff.

I'm also planning on using this machine as a music/movie player for my room, if that makes any difference.

Ubuntu is great in general if you don't have a lot of experience with Linux (and not necessarily bad even if you do). Not sure if the latest version plays DVDs out of the box, but there are ways to get that working with most distros.

Hopefully some others can chime in with actual experience using Linux in a recording/DAW context. Ubuntu Studio looks promising, but whatever approach you go with (linux distro+recording application+USB interface) I'd strongly recommend you try and find some positive reports of that specific combination actually working for someone. And if you intend to monitor "through" the interface or use any plug-in effects live, you'll want a combination which minimizes latency (especially with a USB interface).

[relwof]

Originally Posted by Thunderscreech

I'm also planning on using this machine as a music/movie player for my room, if that makes any difference.

One other thing - if you're wanting to view video content on anything other than a "vanilla" monitor (the NVIDIA 9800 GT purportedly has an adapter for HDMI?), check to see that someone has figured that out as well. Support for "extra" features in linux drivers for video hardware often lags a bit.

[L-A]

Ubuntu Studio + XBMC?

That would serve you right if you partition to keep your media stuff outside the system disk.