Gentoo or Lenny

[grooveman]

Hi,

I have been wanting to build a linux studio for some time now, and after many years *winces*, I'm setting my foot down. I think....

I want to know what the best OS is for this? I want something stream-lined, and relatively easy to manage. I am accustomed to Gentoo Linux, OpenBSD and Debian Linux (in that order). I also use Ubuntu but that can be such a bloated install, I'd prefer to keep it more trim. Since OBSD is not linux, I'm ruling that one out as well, so that leaves Gentoo and Debian Lenny.

On a Gentoo system, you compile everything from source, so if there is a ton of compiling maintenance, it seems like I'd rather go this route, and stick with the package management system (portage) which is very flexible with compile flags and whatnot.

However, if the compilation is minimal, Debian is nice because it is so much less effort to maintain... that is appealing. What I don't like, however, is having most of a system installed using packages, then installing other parts from source, then when update time comes, everything breaks because the binary packages don't know about the source packages and vice-versa.

Anyone try both of these systems? Any comments or recommendations here?

Thank you!

G

[spm_gl]

From my experience, I'd avoid using Lenny for audio work. Because of the package/source problem. Most current audio software is not available as packages, and if you want to compile it, you discover that the necessary libs are not available either. So you end up compilng half your system from source anyway, and every update breaks everything.

[Havoc]

I would say go with what you are most used to. Whatever you choose you'll have problems and then something familiar is easier to troubleshoot.

I'm using Gentoo for about years now and it works for audio. Maybe not as smooth as one of those dedicated distro's. But once you want to do something outside the book (like another desktop, or something not audio related) they are harder to manage. So I always come back to Gentoo.

Doesn't mean gentoo is without flaws. Maintenance can be a pain if you don't update weekly at least. My laptop sits at kde4.2 and now I should update some packages to 4.3 and I have a load of blocking packages. I dread the day I'll have to wade in.

[brummer]

Most current audio software is not available as packages, and if you want to compile it, you discover that the necessary libs are not available either. So you end up compilng half your system from source anyway, and every update breaks everything.

That's a good reason for use debian/sid. The developers of the sidux team make a great work with this blending age distro, a rt-kernel is available, in the sidux wiki you found a good description how to turn your installation into a "Studio".
The upgrade path isn't as hard and possible probs are well documented in the sidux forum daily.