[sc-users] Linux Distros

[Renick Bell]

It isn't nearly as easy as Ubuntu to set up, but I've been really
happy with Gentoo. The install process is a bit of a pain, though it's
getting easier with 2006.1.  It's getting even better for audio
because of the ProAudio overlay:

http://proaudio.tuxfamily.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

It makes it really simple to get a realtime kernel:

http://proaudio.tuxfamily.org/wiki/index.php?title=Howto_RT_Kernel

I find that for playing with the latest versions of software, Gentoo
makes handling dependencies easier, as I can get relatively new
versions of stuff without stepping outside of the package manager;
Portage is a really great package manager with *tons* of packages. I
also wouldn't let the compile times scare you; many non-Gentoo users
overestimate the amount of time it takes. Only compiling things like
the KDE desktop, OpenOffice (use the binary rather than compiling it),
or X.org really take a long time.

Plus, Gentoo can be really fast and lightweight. My laptops are up and
running in less than 35mb of RAM.

-- 
Renick Bell
http://www.the3rd2nd.com