Ubuntu Studio

I'm a fairly poor fellow, so I have to cut costs where I can. It seems the single best way to do that is to dive into the Linux operating system. There is quite a learning curve to this proposal, however. So, you should either just settle with Windows or OSx unless you are willing to do at least some work in learning at least some rudimentary things about operating systems. Probably the most frustrating thing about Linux to the new user is the sheer number of flavors it available. And to understand that, you have to put yourself into the frame of mind of an Open Source development paradigm. You see, anyone is free to modify the work done by someone else, so long as attribution is given. This is referred to as a 'fork,' and the resulting mod is known in the community as a 'distro.' The single best reason to get into Linux is that it can take a machine designed to run on windows and make it faster and more secure than what Windows OS achieves on the identical hardware.



There are literally hundreds of distros to choose from, however. Just tons of different options that can be useful for a more advanced user to get precisely the kind of optimization they are looking for. That being said, I would recommend that any first time users stick to either Linux Mint or Ubuntu. I use Linux Mint, myself, but I have modified it by adding in some Ubuntu packages. It's not really my objective to get into my reasons for that here. Specifically, the packages I have added to Mint come from a fork of Ubuntu known as Ubuntu Studio. It's probably the way to go to just get that entire distro if you've never tried Linux before. And I mention this in my blog because there's tons of advanced software for studio work that comes built-in to that version of Linux.

I don't know all of the ins and outs of the software I have managed to get for free. There's simply so much stuff to look through that it can be intimidating to get started with it all. It might not cost anything in terms of actual dollars, but there sure is a time investment required to go this route. Though, I can't imagine the stuff that you have to pay for in Windows or the stuff you get from OSX is all that much easier to learn how to use. At any rate, you probably owe it to yourself to at least check it out.