Hello everybody! Happy to be here
No matter how much I think I've learned (I must be pretty thick lol) I am a forever Linux newbie and do not think I've got enough of a grasp on how crazy modular things are in Linux to be able to get things together, so I'm glad you guys are here.
My music experience
Started playing guitar at 14, started playing covers at 16, became a private guitar instructor for beginners at 17, have a few "compositions" that I've recorded for myself, first on a Tascam 4-track cassette tape, which at some point I synchronized to a 386 with Cakewalk Pro 3.0 and a Roland MC-300 and an Alesis HR-16B, later a Tascam 8 tracker came along and then I have had a variety of recording "PC environments/contraptions". Cakewalk 3.1 marked my life but doesn't run in wine though I still use it thanks to (DOSBOX + Win 3.11) I also use Cakewalk Pro Audio 7 from I think 1998 or so? Both I find essential music wise in my not perfect workflow. Cakewalk Pro Audio 7 does work beautifully in wine and I can write very fast on that thing on the event list. It's a matter of muscle memory for me. Got to use Cubase back in the late 90's and coming from the old analog days I really felt in love with the mimicking of racks, connecting them and loved the skeuomorphic effort behind the initial iterations of Cubase but I then would still use my faithful Cakewalk Pro 3.0 to do the sequencing and would do some sort of MIDI loopbe to connect Cakewalk to anything else in Windows or in the Hackintosh. My workflow using Cakewalk products was ruined after Cakewalk 8 (way before Sonar). I discovered Mac when I put together my first Hackintosh in 2008 and the aesthetics of Snow Leopard made a long lasting impression in me. I would then run Windows 3.11 on DOSBOX with virtual MIDI cables in the Mac in order to keep using my faithful Cakewalk 3.0.
Going from Windows into Linux and Mac
I used Windows for many years but grew frustrated with each iteration. Learned a little VB5 on my own over the years, enough to make some educational fretboard displays for teaching and then came .NET and got rid of all my control arrays for good. I heavily resented that. I regret the notion in which "innovation" requires drivers to learn how to drive every time a new car model comes out. I'm glad the car manufacturing industry consistently features cars with steering wheels, glove compartments, seats and so on... AND I'm also happy I can actually use my muscle memory to hit the breaks!
So when I tried Mac, I noticed that if I wanted to reach the control panel to check let's say the connection to the network, I could go on the first iteration of OSX to the last one and reproduce the same exact steps to do so. Despite what I consider a decline in design choices ever since Mountain Lion came out, it seemed like they had some degree of commitment to core functionality and workflow unlike Windows in which reaching the network went from "The Network Neighborhood" to "My Network Places", to "Network and Sharing Center" to who knows what now and with a different clicking pattern to reach it every time. Renaming and relocating the steering wheel can't be called "innovation". I wonder what was their revenue for training entire teams of people in different industries that would migrate to their different operating systems. I find it incomprehensible stupid to have a new kid changing the names of the streets every few years and changing the driving lanes back and forth. I bet we'd have the cure for cancer now if we had a solid and consistent workflow without all these silly change of interface distractions. I want a prettier car, faster, more comfortable, more spacious, but I don't want to learn how to drive over and over, that isn't "innovative".
My introduction to Linux
During that time though I would recycle any computer hardware that would become obsolete and that's how I started repurposing older laptops with a variety of Linux distros. Hard drives where much more expensive then so I would run stuff from live USBs. I realized that live USBs where the most reliable way to have something that WILL ALWAYS WORK so it became my wish to have an All in One distro in which I could take all the Windows software I've ever used for making music, video , or graphics, no matter how old and run it on the same machine along with newer stuff, like virtual instruments and multitrackers for the audio and so on.
Showing some gratitude
The abundance of generous contributions of so many talented people to the community of musicians that use Linux makes it unfair to single out anyone, however, being the case that I've seen AVLinux's Glen out here I'd like to express my gratitude for his generosity, energy, time and effort. I've been using his MX Linux "Patito Feo" version for the last couple of years and have used before previous iterations of his Distro. I've been modding it to fit my needs so I can put together my All In One USB stick that I could use live in any computer, without the need for installation anywhere and in which I could just put all my Windows software and plugins. I've been able to happily achieve quite a bit of that but since it is a rather ambitious goal my lack of knowledge crashes the endeavor into a million roadblocks. I've reached a point in which I realize I can't go much further without help so here I am.
Best regards everyone,
Ed