Things that Ubuntu sucks at:
1) Power management. It really blows.
a) My laptop keeps shutting down without any warning that the battery is low, and half the time Ubuntu doesn't even know whether my laptop is plugged or running off of battery.
b) My laptop is blasting the CPU cooler at full power, all the time. Under Win it's only audible when I do some crazy calculations.
3) Hardware acceleration seems to be often off in random places with various plugins.
4) I use a second language keyboard layout, and I'm used to Ctrl+Shift shortcut. Coincidentally, Ctrl+Shift+arrow buttons are awesome for text selection. Windows understands that. Under Ubuntu if you set keyboard layout key to Ctrl+Shift, the selection stops working.
5) Putty vs Ubuntu terminal. I'm used to Ctrl+C = copy, "mouse selection" = copy, and "right mouse click" = paste. It's extremely useful. Just doesn't work under Ubuntu.
6) Lack of file organization. I never know where programs are installed, where logs go, where configuration files are, and why they have to be in different places.
7) Little things like "Backspace button" = "go back" not working in Chrome. Like touchpad freeze while I'm typing (it just randomly stops working, even though the ckeckbox is checked in settings somewhere).
I realize I'm a Linux newbie (even though I've been using shell commands for a decade), so probably most of these problems can be resolved with some workarounds. My point is that they should be resolved out of the box.
5) Ctrl+Shift+C works as copy in the default Terminal setup; mouse selection to copy should work, and middle-click is paste.
6) dpkg -L <packagename> is your friend, logs are in /var/log, configuration is in /etc, and it's that way primarily so that they can be on different partitions.
5: The problem is actually that there are two copy and paste buffer in X Windows. There's the mouse selection buffer, which is copied on any highlight operation, and pasted via right mouse button, and the "conventional clipboard", populated by an explicit copy and pasted via explicit paste. This is further screwed up by the fact that few programmers have understood this and a large number of programs have tried to "fix" what they perceived as bugs in the clipboard in various horrific ways. See [1]. In particular, it seems like the programs that correctly deselect text when somebody else grabs primary has been going down lately. I've had a pretty good run with this actually working as designed on KDE lately, but recent Gnomes seem to be going back to mucking with it and I've been having trouble, and Chromium itself also seems dubious.
3 and 7 sounds like more poorly-supported hardware. Unfortunately, your Linux experience with proprietary hardware with no released documentation will always be bad. The situation is ever-improving but still not perfect. It is possible and maybe even likely your laptop will never work properly under Linux.
2) As for Photoshop, you can run it under Linux but it does take a bit of effort. http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&...
Well, yeah. That would stand to reason.
Signed, an eight-year-old Thinkpad user.
Also, I owned and used a G4 PowerBook from 2002 til 2010, when I sold it to a friend, who is still using it. I bow to nobody in my respect for the longevity of Apple's laptops lately. Just saying, if he had it for 4-8 years and was touring with it, yeah, it's kinda not shocking that it might show its age a bit.
You think a low-end plastic Dell (which will be far slower than the Mac he'd get) will beat an Apple over 4+ years as a touring musician? I don't.
It'd be nice, as an aside, if there were more dates and details in this story. Wonder why he didn't include those.
His story, while informative, is nowhere near close to that of a typical musician or even audio geek. It's not the platform but the software running on it that counts. The first thing Apple did when they bought Emagic and, as a result, Logic Pro was to kill the product on Windows knowing well users would switch to OS X just to use their favourite tool (why wouldn't they given the $1200->$499 price drop and a major feature boost in Logic Studio).
Most musicians nowadays want more than the ability to record and play back audio tracks. What about the digital audio workstation (DAW) choice on Linux; the virtual instruments and FX plugins; MIDI editing and automation; a UI intuitive and simple enough to use at a live show etc. Good software in the creative market seems to take years to build but the user base is so loyal it takes massive effort to get users to switch. There is a reason most software used in the studio is decades old (see Cubase or Logic, for instance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_Pro#History). There is also a reason why GarageBand had significant time dedicated to it at the iPad keynote. Musicians with computers tend to be geeks to a degree, but at the end of the day they have music to compose and perform, and the less time they have to spend on software and setting it up the better.
Basically, Linux not being embraced among the musicians is the same story of why you don't see very many people jump ship from Adobe Photoshop in favour of GIMP.
To a producer/artist, the DAW + plugins is another instrument that takes time to master. Unless there is a really great reason to make a change, why bother? I can move pretty quickly through Logic and Pro Tools, but I spent years working towards that. There is no way I'd even consider making a change unless another piece of software offered some incredible feature or drastically improved workflow.
Now, this may be changing with Ubuntu Studio, but unfortunately a majority of commercial hardware is still strictly Windows/Mac (and sometimes spotty at that). Our mostly self-recorded/produced/mixed album (http://glasscannonband.com/albums/the-chill-room) was done in Windows 7 with Sonar with a Firepod 24bit firewire interface. It wasn't perfect, but it worked.
I couldn't imagine walking into a recording session with a Linux setup and running into a bug (I experienced dozens upon dozens while experimenting with Linux) and trying to sort it all out while the band waits.
Again, I think this is just a time vs. money thing. The post even alludes to this ($3000 upgrade vs. $600).
If you wanna do digital recording, save yourself the hassle: go Mac or Windows with the wonderful REAPER software (from the same dudes that developed WinAmp!).
Best thing is to start with a distribution with audio focus (I'm using AVLinux http://www.bandshed.net/AVLinux.html). Then the base system is set up the correct way for your hardware.
The more reasonable framing would be $600 Dell netbook (what he ended up buying) vs a low-end Mac laptop option.
Regardless of which OS you'll choose to run on it, I doubt a Dell Mini 9 netbook will be a reliable mobile workstation. The author indicated that his income is dependent on him having a functional notebook. One would think he would reserve at least $300 a year for hardware.
I'm left wondering whether the Dell Mini 9 will serve him for the next 2.5 years. If not, then a MacBook Pro would've been cheaper.
Hey there, speak for yourself. I like to think of GarageBand as Notepad for music. Perfect balance of features just enough to jot down an idea or throw together a loop. Logic Express and Pro then allow importing of GB projects so the analogy tends to hold well.
I've started recording Audio with a refurbished PC (desktop from the company I was working with) with Ardour and Jack. Mixed everything at home in Ardour on a OS X system. Later changed that system to a linux based system and I am happy with it.
I've started with ardour so I never had the problem of "missing plugins" or VST plugins I "had to use". I really like the idea of having an inexpensive "recording computer" in my rehearsal room and having the beefier machine at home to mix the recorded stuff. For the last recording I've update the recording machine to a "newer" refurbished model and it still works great.
The linuxdsp plugins are great sounding plugins (http://www.linuxdsp.co.uk/) and there is even a commercial variant of ardour - the Harrison mixbus (http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_...).
There are some things going on in the linux audio world - and they may fit your bill.
Ardour doesn't do Midi in the current version - but this may be fixed with the upcoming version (I don't do Midi - so no problem for me)