Which distro to use for two old hardware setups: 1) streaming 2) realtime audio
 

Hi,

I hope someone can help me to start off in the right direction, choosing just one or a few Linux distributions that I will explore. I work with sound art, music, audio and I also live stream.

I am setting up Linux on two old desktops and if I get it to work also on an even older laptop. Desktops has Intel core duo, 2gb ram and 150gb HD. Laptop is a pentium M, 2006.

I am choosing between Mint versions or Ubuntu, 32 bit or 64 bit. If it is a good idea I could have several OS on each computer.

Desktop one would be used mainly as an always on streaming computer using OBS studio software. I may add some audio recording software too. And maybe simple video editing.

Desktop two would be a experimental audio machine. Main software would be PureData and some other sound synthesis software. I may put Windows xp on it too to be able to use some old software.

Laptop I can wait with for now, but it will have xp in it also.

It would be good to be able to access google drive on them.

I hope to choose a Linux version that will allow me to use as much resources I can from the old hardware without having to spend many hours on finding custom solutions just to make it work. Then I rather sacrifice a bit of power to be able to spend less time tweaking Linux.

I have gotten the advice to use Peppermint. Also I have gotten the advice to use Ubuntu Studio which use xfce and have realtime kernel, for the audio computer.

Thanks!

Hi.
 

In your scenario I'd usually just started installing some, tweaking and playing with them and see how they work (plus older RAM is cheap to upgrade...) tho quite honestly many may figure out my opinion on the subject, just what I've landed with on mine the most. Ie: the end of my signature. :D

Have fun! :hattip:

Kind of hard to get quality audio in real time on older stuff. Some hardware like M-audio or Line-6 might offload some of that inside their boxes.

In reality they put a near realtime patch in some distro's. That doesn't mean that all the drivers are real time. This was the downfall of real time in mainstream linux. Not sure if they will ever get it back.

If you need to record/play along you may have to bear with a small lag depending on what you are doing. If you want something near recording studio then you'd need to move up to modern hardware I'd think. (just an opinion)

If you just want to record at home then sure, ubuntu studio has maybe the most audio/video in one disc.

These two computers will just be extra equipment, main work I do on my mac (old too, but works fine). When it comes to real time, I need it only to run my PureData patches and reflect changes in real time, not play in a traditional way with super low latency. Initial tests on Ubuntu Studio 32 bit seems to give a low enough latency even with the inbuilt sound card (maybe around 20 ms) mousing around on the "preinstalled" modular synth software (forgot the name). That said, if the latency need to be very high it may be a bit sucky in the long run. I will find out eventually.

I have installed the 32-bit version, but I am thinking that I maybe should have installed the 64-bit instead?

Thanks!