Really want an honest answer here and not a full blown Linux cult answer.
I’m a new dad (kid is 1.5months old) who used to game pretty hard and do music production in cakewalk and ableton, but the crotch goblin is getting in the way. With windows 10 support coming to an end, I’m faced with a choice to either jump on the Linux train or take the safe way out and eat win11. Please keep in mind that I run a super clean machine (no porn (that’s what mobile is for) or tormenting or anything sketch) and have no intention of doing anything unclean. I have a lot of music prod data that I don’t want fucked and a steam library that I want access to but don’t really care about the data associated with them (saves, profiles…i could care less). So it’s really my ableton and Cakewalk files I want to keep. There was a time I college 2010-2011 where I borrowed a CS majors Ubuntu laptop for a few months to just get work done (just webbrowsing and office app stuff). Shit was annoying and difficult to understand but I was able to make it work-ish.
I’m savvy enough where I can adult Lego a PC together but struggle when it comes to software and troubleshooting and really don’t have the time for that stuff.
Basically, I’m not in the position right now to learn a distro and struggle around with all that crap and I need to keep my music shit. I also despise Microsoft and AI in general but I’m perfectly fine just eating it for simplicity. Is there a low effort Linux solution to my situation? Looking for automatic updates where I just click “express install i don’t fucking care” and im not searching for drivers every day.
My build is basically what’s shown below minus the SLI’d 1080s and with 32gbDDR4. Any upgrade apart from the gpu would essentially mean a wholesale at this point. I used the 2nd card to build my wife a pc since SLI is effectively useless now.
normally id say “linux is free, there’s no harm in giving it a go”, but between your lack of free time, nvidia graphics card, dependence on proprietary software, and previous experience (and slight distain) for linux i’d say just go with win 11.
there may be a way to get your music software to work in linux, but youll likely need to mess around with wine configs and it may never actualoy work right.
if you are interested ever, fire up a vm and play around with linux to get comfortable with it. maybe when win11 reaches eol (or even before) you’ll want to make the switch.
none of this is said to scare you away from linux. searching for drivers is rarely a thing in linux. there are built in tools in most distros to deal with graphics drivers, but apart from that, given the open source nature of linux, everything else is just handled by kernel modules and are basically seamless unless you have some weird proprietary hardware. linux is fairly easy to use these days, but there is quite a bit of a learning curve because it is a fundamentally different os than windows, and the way you solve problems is very different.
I’ve wanted to be able to spend the time to jump to Linux for a while but the sex trophy demands attention. Maybe when I can leave him alone without fear of strangling himself on a stray wife hair or less, i could look into it. I’ve also thought about just dropping another 2-3K on another future thinking machine and using my current for Linux experimentation. Maybe I start the crotch goblin on Linux with this machine after I buy new and transfer everything to a new one.
Save your money. Kids are expensive. Dual boot or use a live ISO and toy around with Linux mint. Keep Windows 11. You got a lot on your plate. I loathe saying this but use windows for the important stuff and get your Linux thrill from a dual boot or side project. Linux can be full time but until you can jump all in you seem to want backup from others to tell you to go the sane/safe route for now.
I’ve also thought about just dropping another 2-3K on another future thinking machine and using my current for Linux experimentation. Maybe I start the crotch goblin on Linux with this machine after I buy new and transfer everything to a new one.
This is actually a pretty good idea considering your current specs may not actually be able to support Windows 11. It’s a little unclear whether you’ll be able to get it running because while your motherboard meets the TPM 2.0 requirement, your CPU is technically listed as not being supported.
It won’t officially work, but it’s not too hard to get it going. I just moved a similar box to 24H2 LTSC.
OP, you’ll probably need to run “setup.exe /product server”, or follow a recent guide. You’ll also need to do this for every major upgrade (i.e. yearly)
I agree though with the plan to use this as a test ground. I also recently upgraded a Lubuntu system to similar specs, and it runs pretty smoothly. But learning Linux takes a lot of time they don’t have.
Could also just setup a bootable Linux USB and run his system from that
If you’re not in a position to change your workflow and deal with new stuff, you can simply use windows 10 lts for a longer support and postpone the decision between linux and windows 11.
Personally, I’d recommend trying linux some day. It can drain some free time at first, but in the long run, you will find yourself dealing with much less bullshit than windows, and actually saving time in your life. Some linux users like to make things complicated and pass their time tinkering with the system, so it passes an image of linux being like that, but if you run a simple and stable distro, things will work nicely and will rarely require your time. I’m running fedora for a few years, and my laptop became so boring. I just use it for my work and hobbies, and turn it off when done. No bullshit.
EDIT: Didn’t notice your system specs at first. While it looks like your motherboard technically supports the TPM 2.0 requirement for Windows 11, it also looks like your processor might be too old to be supported by Windows 11. Check to be sure before going down the path below. You might only have an option of going to Linux in this case.
Unpopular opinion from a user who uses Linux as his daily driver for everything:
If you’re using stuff like Cakewalk/Ableton and want to be able to do so again in the foreseeable future, stick with Windows. You said you’re not super savvy at troubleshooting, so I wouldn’t want to send you down the path of trying to get Windows software running on Linux through WINe because it’s sometimes pretty finicky. Especially with a rugrat in the mix, you just don’t have the time to be fucking with it.
Windows 11 Activation: https://massgrave.dev/ (In case you no longer have a free upgrade path)
WIndows Debloat: https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat (A powershell script for getting rid of bloatware, telemetry, and other crap from Windows)
How To Set Up Windows 11 Local Account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlhyl3P5Dxw (to avoid having to use a Microsoft account to log in)
Also, I strongly suggest a clean wipe instead of upgrade, as the upgrade path leaves a lot of weird stray stuff that can be annoying. Back up everything that’s important to you on an external drive (or really any drive except the one your OS lives on) and re-install the OS, set up a local account during install, use Massgrave to activate Windows, and then use the Debloater to get rid of bloat.
But isn’t ableton works fine in bottles as I remember they have autoinstaller of it.
That’s still asking for them to learn to use something entirely new that they might simply not have the time to learn about: Bottles. This person said they’re not savvy at troubleshooting. The last thing they need to be confused about is even getting Bottles running and then installing Ableton.
If its difficult to boot up I’ll prob never record music again. The struggle is real.
Nothing to learn if you’re just doing desktop stuff.
I would say the biggest problem is the music production on Linux. Especially VSTs - those are still hit or miss. And unfortunately the DAWs you mentioned doesn’t have Linux support.
For example I was really trying to do music for several years on Linux, but in the end I gave up and now I’m dual booting Windows… 😿
Rather than leave another long reply to read, I’ll leave my thoughts simple: if you have another computer you’re not using, try Linux mint and see if it fits your needs. If it’s too much and you can’t get the time needed to figure things out, 11 might be the choice (for now).
But either way, keep Linux on the second and learn a little bit as you get time to! :)
Dad of 4 kids here, I would say use the system that let you concentrate more on the kid and less on tinkering the OS.
Fedora could be a nice successor since it runs extremely stable, best way to be clean and safe are doing the updates, but I say this with 15 years of Linux experience.
Better stay on win 10. Family first.
Dad of 4 kids here, I would say use the system that let you concentrate more on the kid and less on tinkering the OS.
Dad of 3 here with 20something years on Linux already. This is the correct answer. Just go for win11 if that’s the simplest route for you, Linux will be there once you have the capacity to learn it. With a new baby you’ll be exhausted, you have a crapload (sometimes quite literally) new things to learn already and you just won’t have the time to do all the things you used to (as you already know). Making things more challenging for you by switching to something completely new just eats the very little time you have for yourself.
My work laptop has 11 running on it and it’s good enough. OS on that thing is not my call anyways, but at least on my workload it gets the job done.
Just gonna add that Windows 11 Enterprise IoT Edition is Windows 11 without all the bloatware, and it’s easy to get it for free from the massgrave.
Go with windows. Especially because of your abelton use, you will not be able to keep it. With steam if you play multiplayer competitive games then it won’t work either on Linux.
So, the questions really are can your hardware support Windows 11 and if not can you easily flip to Linux.
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The Asus Z170 motherboard looks like it supports TPM 2.0, but it doesn’t look like the i7-6700K does as that is a 6th gen Skylake CPU and Win11 starts at 8th gen. You might double check that with the TDM tool Microsoft offers though.
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Cakewalk and Ableton appear to work in Linux, but not without some tweaking.
My suggestion would be to do nothing. If you can’t update without a rebuild and you can’t migrate without a lot work, just do nothing. Your Windows 10 installation will still work. You won’t receive any additional updates for it, but if that is the best solution for you at this time, then that’s what you should go with.
For the kiddo: Get a body wrap. It lets you because hold the baby to you securely while you do other things. I worked on-call shifts handling downed MPLS circuits for a carrier back in the day with my daughter strapped to me. A couple years later she would get to visit me at work. She was the only 2 year old who technically had PBX configuration experience (I didn’t know the keyboard was still connected).
Literally wearing the child right now.
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You basically answered your own question, to be honest. Linux is clearly not for you. Look into windows 10 LTSC. Teksyndicate made a couple of videos about it. Here is the one where he shows how to install it. He is also stuck on windows because of music. And for debloating windows 10, look into Chris Titus’ Windows Utility script
I recently sucked it up and upgraded Windows 10 to 11. Music production is getting better in Linux, but there is still a whole lot of existing music software with no Linux support. Cakewalk for example has no Linux support, and I imagine getting it working in WINE with VSTs and whatever else would be an immense chore. Same story with Ableton.
That said, if you don’t mind migrating to a DAW with Linux support like Reaper, Bitwig, or even Ardour - which is open source and free - producing music with Linux is the easiest it’s ever been. Just don’t count on Linux support from a lot of VST makers who often require you use their software to install their VSTs. You can usually still install those VSTs, but it sometimes requires less than legal methods, and may be a hassle.
If you’re a producer who mostly just uses a DAW as a recorder for hardware, it would barely be a change to your workflow at all. If you are reliant on Cakewalk and Ableton specific processes and VSTs, it would be much more difficult
Linux for gaming is easy. For the most part it’s plug and play. I’m on an AMD CPU and an NVidia GPU, and I even do VR in Linux.
As someone who does a decent amount of stuff with DAWs; VSTs are tricky. You might be able to create a similar workflow to what your used to, and many plugins might work decently well, but for me at least it was a lot of fiddling about and it isn’t as smooth as I’d like. My comfort compressor works, but the UI doesn’t render.
I’ve gotten my music workflow to work alright, but it’s wonky enough that I don’t do it as much anymore. Thinking about trying to start over with a new DAW and whatnot.
If privacy is a concern there’s a decent amount of stuff you can do to strip down Windows 11.
What screws me is the DRM iLock software. I’ve tried running Reaper in Wine/Bottles but the playback with guitar is no longer realtime due to the emulation/translation going on.
I just switched to an AxeFx FM9 so I don’t need realtime playback as much but I can’t use any of my Neural DSP plugins.
Let me know if you’ve found workarounds.
Yabridge might help for the plugins, it’s kinda hit and miss though.
Add another SSD and dual boot. Keep the windows 10 install for the audio software and use Linux for everything else. Nvidia cards will work in Linux, you just have to install the driver. That’s just a couple of clicks in many distros. I would suggest sticking with a distro that uses X11 since Wayland can still cause some issues with Nvidia GPUs.
I’d say look after your kid and try out Linux a bit later when you have Leisure for it. You can use Linux and Windows in parallel on two computers networked with Samba.
