Welcome to the new Linux Foundation Forum!

Tried Ubuntu, seemed limited

sysWOW94sysWOW94 Posts: 2
in Getting Started with Linux

Hi all, new guy here. Well, a bit ago I tried Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on my computer. It was nice - didn't seem as fast as Windows 8.1 - but I liked it. My problem with it was that it seemed kind of underdone - I'm going to lay out a couple problems here, one minor annoyance, and one major issue, and my question is going to be whether this is just Ubuntu's fault, and some other distro would work better, or is this all of Linux.

First, the minor irritant: The sound system setting wouldn't save. I had my headphones selected as audio output, and that setting kept getting lost, so that the audio would route to some sort of default device and I wouldn't hear it. It bothered me that the system couldn't seem to save such a simple setting.

But here's what really made me drop Ubuntu: A piece of software that's very important to me failed on it, whereas it works fine under windows. That software is Linux MultiMedia Studio (LMMS). I make electronic music on my computer, and I had two VSTs (plugins for the program - they're software instruments) fail under Linux whereas they work great under Windows. VSTs are coded as .DLL files for everyone's information.

One of them simply froze the program and never unfroze, and the other lagged the sound down to the point where it sounded awful. They both work without a hitch under Windows (in fairness, the one that froze the program does that once in a *LONG* while under Windows).

I use that program for my music creation all the time, and I didn't want to have to switch back to Windows constantly for it, so I got rid of Ubuntu. My question is, again, would a different distro be different, or is this just an unavoidable Linux problem?

The impression I got was that Linux (at least Ubuntu) is great as long as you don't want to step outside the boundaries of the stuff the developers thought of for you to do. If you do want to do that, then suddenly, everything goes to hell.

Thanks,

-syswow94

Comments

  • saqman2060saqman2060 Posts: 777
    sysWOW94 wrote:
    Hi all, new guy here. Well, a bit ago I tried Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on my computer. It was nice - didn't seem as fast as Windows 8.1 - but I liked it. My problem with it was that it seemed kind of underdone - I'm going to lay out a couple problems here, one minor annoyance, and one major issue, and my question is going to be whether this is just Ubuntu's fault, and some other distro would work better, or is this all of Linux.

    First, the minor irritant: The sound system setting wouldn't save. I had my headphones selected as audio output, and that setting kept getting lost, so that the audio would route to some sort of default device and I wouldn't hear it. It bothered me that the system couldn't seem to save such a simple setting.

    But here's what really made me drop Ubuntu: A piece of software that's very important to me failed on it, whereas it works fine under windows. That software is Linux MultiMedia Studio (LMMS). I make electronic music on my computer, and I had two VSTs (plugins for the program - they're software instruments) fail under Linux whereas they work great under Windows. VSTs are coded as .DLL files for everyone's information.

    One of them simply froze the program and never unfroze, and the other lagged the sound down to the point where it sounded awful. They both work without a hitch under Windows (in fairness, the one that froze the program does that once in a *LONG* while under Windows).

    I use that program for my music creation all the time, and I didn't want to have to switch back to Windows constantly for it, so I got rid of Ubuntu. My question is, again, would a different distro be different, or is this just an unavoidable Linux problem?

    The impression I got was that Linux (at least Ubuntu) is great as long as you don't want to step outside the boundaries of the stuff the developers thought of for you to do. If you do want to do that, then suddenly, everything goes to hell.

    Thanks,
    -syswow94

    First thanks for joining the forum. Linux is a system that does let people stand outside the box. In Linux you are limited to what works for linux. Programs that are ran under Windows should continue to the use that system. There are other open source programs like "wine" that try to run windows applications. Not reliable.

    You are using the tar zip file of LMMS version 1.0.2 for linux right? I don't like to compile packages on Ubuntu. Though it can be done, it is not very easy. You are better off using the supplied software in the repositories. Ubuntu was made as a linux desktop for windows-like users. Very easy to use where little technical skills are needed.

    What flavor of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS are you using? Plus, do you know the name of the software that is used to control the sound? Make sure all your computer hardware is compatible with Ubuntu or Linux in general.



  • sysWOW94sysWOW94 Posts: 2
    Istimsak Abdulbasir wrote:
    First thanks for joining the forum. Linux is a system that does let people stand outside the box. In Linux you are limited to what works for linux. Programs that are ran under Windows should continue to the use that system. There are other open source programs like "wine" that try to run windows applications. Not reliable.

    You are using the tar zip file of LMMS version 1.0.2 for linux right? I don't like to compile packages on Ubuntu. Though it can be done, it is not very easy. You are better off using the supplied software in the repositories. Ubuntu was made as a linux desktop for windows-like users. Very easy to use where little technical skills are needed.

    What flavor of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS are you using? Plus, do you know the name of the software that is used to control the sound? Make sure all your computer hardware is compatible with Ubuntu or Linux in general.

    I tried some repository of LMMS but it didn't have VST plugin support. I ended up using whatever download was available on the Ubuntu Software Center.

    I had to fiddle with the audio settings a lot to get it to make sound, though I'm pretty sure it was set for either ALSA or PortAudio.

    I was using the 64-bit Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

    My processor is an AMD FX-6300 and the graphics card is Radeon 7870, motherboard is an Asus, not certain right now which model but a pretty basic and popular one.

    -SysWOW94
  • saqman2060saqman2060 Posts: 777
    If you are still having sound issues, install pulse audio.

    Could you manually add the VST?
Sign In or Register to comment.