I'd been getting back into writing music recently, and building an analog home studio has been one of my dreams for quite some time. Unfortunately the cost would be prohibitive for my meager budget, even with just a Tascam Model 12 with a couple of outboard analog processors, so I'm left with no choice but to rely on a Digital Audio Workstation just like everyone else.
The selection of audio software on OpenBSD 7.5 is a bit limited though, and I'm not sure there's much that can be done about that. I can get MuseScore and Hydrogen, but Ardour is nowhere to be found. The Non suite is apparently not maintained, not included in the repository and is non build-able on my system. The closest thing to a DAW that I'm aware of on OpenBSD is a development version of Audacity, which is fine for recording and editing but is limited when it comes to plugins. Worse still, the version of Calf studio gear is rather primitive and missing all the great plugins I once knew, and Guitarix isn't available at all...
So I Downloaded AVLinux MX Edition 23.1 and was quickly reminded why I don't even like Linux anymore, in spite of all the great things that it can do... This experiment lasted maybe two days, but I've spent more than a week writing (and rewriting) what would eventually become this post because it just wasn't serving any useful purpose at first. It started as a flaming shit post, but after some cleanup it became a vicious angry rant that led to a rather harsh and possibly even false conclusion. Then it turned into some kind of review...
Honestly I don't even know what my problem was, but I've since had some time to clear my head and think about some things, and the result is now a short story told in the format of a review, but it's not actually meant to be a review, if that makes any sense. The whole thing clocks in at over 3400 words, so if you don't want to read the whole thing then feel free to just scroll right down to the end and skip all the whining and the complete mental breakdown that ensued and get straight to the (reasonable) point.
## The Good
AVLinux includes A LOT of useful software, and unless you're loyal to specific tools I'm sure you could find everything you need right out of the box. We get Ardour and Audacity (naturally), but also the trial version of Harrison Mixbus, which is based on Ardour, and the trial version of Reaper. So that's THREE different DAWs to choose from, or four if you consider Audacity a (somewhat simplified and limited) DAW. It comes with Blender, GIMP, multiple video editing and playback tools, and a good assortment of utilities for burning CDs, editing audio file metadata and more. Seriously, the list is long and seems to be quite thorough, covering things I didn't know I needed. It even comes with extra drum samples for Hydrogen, and if I remember correctly there's another drum machine as well.
But a digital recording studio isn't complete without plugins, and oh does it have plugins! More than I could ever find a use for. Of course it has Calf studio gear! What kind of "AV" Linux wouldn't include such an essential suite? Oh you play guitar? Here's Guitarix. Need to plug in to some JACK? Carla, Cadence and other C's I don't remember the names of... and a ton of other plugins I didn't even know existed. Sure there's a lot of redundancy, but then there are only so many things you can do with an audio signal, and there must be some differences that make it worth having so. many... PLUGINS. I don't have an exact number, but if you can't find a plugin that works for you and is already installed, then either you don't need it or it doesn't exist.
Probably most people don't care nearly as much as I do about the UI except maybe the GNOME and KDE crowd, but you do get multiple options to choose from. Most of them are window managers, and many of those are remixed variants of only a few WMs. I tried only one of them briefly, and there are more than half a dozen options in total. The default is the Enlightenment desktop environment, which is supposed to be lightweight compared to GNOME, KDE, MATE and Xfce, but it does have some limitations compared to the big fat hogs. That shouldn't detract from its value though, and some people love it. I'm sure there are workarounds for the limitations but I didn't take the time to find out.
## The Bad
> -burst of static-
> ...
> "Of course it was painful and full of bugs. It's Linux!"
Just kidding! Sort of... Nothing is perfect, nor do I ever expect it to be. Any operating system is going to have problems, it's just a fundamental truth of software and the universe in general. And while some of them are not real problems so much as annoyances due to my own ignorance and persistent failure to RTFM, there were some things which are not my fault and cannot be solved by reading any manual. Nonetheless, I was willing to at least try to work with it and set things up the way I wanted, but it wasn't easy. Here are just some of the highlights:
* I can't work without the mouse freaking out and touching things while I'm
typing, and disabling the touch-pad was simply not possible by any sensible means I could think of. The Enlightenment DE weirdly doesn't have such an option and I'm just too lazy to search countless forum posts for a sensible solution. But I was able to stop this nonsense by adding a call to xinput(1) in my .xsession file. It feels like a hack because the numeric value of the property to toggle is not static between logins, so I need the same command on two lines with two different values to make sure it definitely works.
* The default setup has a confusing menu hierarchy that made it difficult to
find any particular option or setting to configure things the way I wanted. And if that's not enough, it has multiple ways to go through that confusing hierarchy. Why there's the main ("start") menu that was not so intuitive for me to understand, and it has an MX sub-menu that may be the prime source of confusion. There's also an Enlightenment sub-menu that adds to the confusion... And here's the MX menu AGAIN sitting right beside the main menu on the desktop, just in case. Oh but wait, the same options (including the MX menu) can be found under YET ANOTHER MENU which you can get by just clicking on the desktop. The MX menu is always there for you, and it _really_ wants you to know... because it pops up every time you log in.
* According to a long and detailed YouTube video from one of the developers of
AVLinux, the Enlightenment DE has its own file manager, but it's rather dull and boring (my own opinion) and has limited features (the YouTube guy said that). So we also get Thunar to replace it, which is a thoughtful gesture until you try to TURN OFF auto-mounting of external devices and learn that it's not so obvious because there are multiple places to do it, but only ONE of them will actually work. This means trying to navigate that confusing menu system and hoping you found every possible way to TURN OFF AUTO-MOUNT. The last time I had to configure auto-mount was in 2017 when I installed Void Linux on the T430, because I thought it was normal and acceptable behavior for storage devices to just work by default when they were plugged into a Unix-like OS... It isn't.
* Enlightenment keeps complaining that it's not the latest version. Despite
updating everything through all the different package mangers, it still complains that it's not the latest version... Am I doing something wrong? Perhaps there's ANOTHER update button buried somewhere in that maze of a menu?
> -hissing-
* You get the Synaptic package manager. And the MX package manager. And also
apt, which still after ALL these years complains that it doesn't have a stable CLI interface (why not?) and sucks at searching because it often gives me some very long lists of results that don't even match the query in any imaginable way (that's why). It reminds me of that horrible experiment with OmniOS with it's package manager that was written in Python, except apt is a lot faster at spitting out useless results. Oh, and you get Flatpak, which apparently some people hate, and even the YouTube guy doesn't like it but accepts that it may be useful for some people and chose to include it... Turns out he was right.
* The default install of Hydrogen is some unusable development version, which
is odd because it came from the same default repository used by MX and antiX... and it was the latest (and only) version available. I had to use Flatpak to get a stable release that didn't stutter when trying to play back a pattern, but then this also confused me because depending on how I chose to launch Hydrogen, I might get the broken stutterbug because I forgot to uninstall it! At least Flatpak was included, because I'd forgotten it even existed.
## The Ugly
I know it takes a lot of effort to build a functioning Linux distribution and even to maintain one. I know many of the actual issues I encountered are not unique to AVLinux but instead are tied to the software, the underlying distro it was built on and even the Linux ecosystem in general. Par for the course. But there are some things which are particularly unusual and cannot be solved by whining, reading manuals or even contributing time to improve things. Only two are really worth mentioning:
* It is built on MX Linux, which doesn't rely on systemd outright but DOES
include it for those who really want it for some reason. Thankfully it is not enabled by default.
> -loud pops and clicks-
> ...
> -more hissing-
Yeah, I know... Who gives a flying frappe if systemd is included? If it's not running by default, what harm could it possibly do? Well, in my own snooty, pretentious, maybe even self-righteous opinion the mere presence of systemd makes MX (and AVLinux) tainted by default. Yes, _tainted_. And yet I STILL gave it a chance because I don't want to be so religiously opposed to things as to prevent myself from using other things which might actually be useful, because otherwise producing music on a computer wouldn't even be a concept to consider... (And no that's not a poke at the Amish, it's about dependencies).
* ...but when I installed cwm and tried to use it for my graphical session,
AVLinux refused to let me log in. Instead I got a report that said:
> "cwm is not one of the supported window managers".
>
> -explosion of loud static-
There was no obvious way to bypass this, and I just couldn't handle that... Suddenly it felt like I'd been lied to. Here we have a "free" open source operating system with an abundance of preinstalled software and plenty of redundancy for those who don't like a specific tool, and with multiple package managers and repositories to provide access to EVEN MORE OPTIONS. But despite the variety of window managers and desktop environments you could install, you cannot use ANY of them unless they're in the exclusive club of "supported" options (or you rip out the code that dictates this ridiculous decision).
> -squealing feedback-
> -hissing and crackling-
Perhaps it was a knee-jerk reaction but I screamed in horror:
> What in the actual f#!k is this nonsense? Get the f#!k off MY computer!
> Operation NOT permitted. PERMISSION DENIED. Flatpak up and GOTO /dev/null!"
In all my years of tinkering with free open source operating systems, this is the first time I've ever been denied such a thing, and this is the main reason why AVLinux was deleted. Not because it's Linux (which, you know... sucks), not because systemd (really sucks and) is needlessly included, not because apt is old and stupid, not even because the default configuration sucks and needs to be changed for the sake of my own sanity, but because I simply cannot tolerate constantly changing things and am apparently UNABLE TO CHOOSE the one damn WM that I really wanted to use.
> -mild buzzing-
## Intermission
Is there a way to override this "not supported" nonsense? Maybe, but I never tried to find out. If it is possible then it certainly shouldn't be hidden by such seemingly restrictive prompts. After all, I can't be the only pompous ass who would overreact to something like this and promptly dismiss the entire project as "not free" before deleting it forever, and I certainly won't waste my time re-configuring another WM just to make it behave like my cwm setup. That shouldn't be necessary unless cwm couldn't be installed for some reason, but then I'd have to be in a _really_ tight spot for that to happen.
At the very least we could just get a notification that says:
> "You're choosing a UI that we don't officially support, so this might break
> some things. But if you know what you're doing then go right ahead".
THAT I have seen before, and the user is clearly informed that they should NOT expect everything to just work the same way as the defaults, because it won't: When I tried switching to antiX I inevitably ran into the same old issues with apt and the same broken version of Hydrogen, which required the installation of Flatpak. That's when I remembered just how much a prepackaged desktop is customized, because there's a bunch of stuff that needs to be configured before you get the same experience as the default AVLinux (auto-mount need not apply).
> -strong buzzing and static-
Trying to light Hydrogen from the command center or the cwm menu failed because neither of them knew where to look, because Flapjak installs its pancakes outside of the standard $BATH, and I didn't know to set this up beforehand because I've never used Flatline before and didn't RTFM because I was stressed the f#!k out losing patients and simply wasn't thinking straight when I saw that it was in fact trying to tell me EXACTLY where it was going to implant my waffles. Maybe I just need to take a path, eat some packages and go to sleet to give my biny train a dance to retoob before confunguling yet another bokeh systree.
> -buzzing and static gets LOUDER-
Wait, did I say "siss tree"? I mean system... I think. Or maybe history. Hystorie? High storie. Eye meen high stow wee? Hiss tuh ree hiss at me highs tuh... minuh? highs tuh... hmmm. ant. eye. hiss. tuh. meen. Anti. hiss... Antihistamines. They kinda look like... beans.
> -a loud CRACK and a blinding flash of light as a fuse blows-
> -sparks fly, smoke fills the room-
BEANS! Beans for brains! Jumping beans jellybeans NET beans. Beans for web? Spiderbeans! Beanstalk. Stalking beans. Beanbag chair, those are rare... Pull your hair at the fair, do I dare? To care. That you stare like a mare. in a lair... With a hare! Bare from Nair, glare. FLARE. pair. wear... layer... ... tare... ... ... blare... ... ... ...
I'm certain there were other fun surprises lurking in the shadows of both antiX and AVLinux (and Void too! Oh don't even get me STARTED...), but I'd had quite enough and decided to wash my hands of this insanity. I installed FreeBSD and was all set up within a day or two. Relieved and refreshed, I started working on this (DEL: flaming shit post) (DEL: needless angry rant) (DEL: bad review) messy misadventure story and slowly started to see the error of my ways... again. Because it turns out FreeBSD was the right answer for me all along, but it's not the right answer for everyone, and perhaps the vast majority of people are just not nearly as uptight as I am when it comes to using a computer.
Despite the inevitable flaws that come with Linux distributions, I do believe AVLinux is a great project. I can only imagine the amount of time it took to put it all together, and I do appreciate that someone did it. But no matter what lies under the hood, the user interface can make or break any product, and there is no way to satisfy everyone when it comes to such a critical component. As such, in spite of ALL the other issues known or unknown, real or imagined, political or practical, AVLinux would be so much better if it didn't outright deny me the freedom of using the one window manager I chose to install.
If I can in fact use my preferred WM then the default behavior when trying to select it should be changed, because not everyone is willing to RTFM or search the web when things don't work the way they expect, and for those who do know how to figure things out on their own, wouldn't it be nice to have less reading to do because the operating system DOESN'T get in the way during customization? Not everyone wants the modern desktop experience, and not everyone will like the preinstalled options or take the time to configure them to their liking when they've already done it all before.
But I'm extremely stubborn and quite simply tired of searching for the perfect "desktop". I just want to get shit done without having to learn all the new gadgets and gizmos and what-have-yous. I want to stick with small and simple tools that don't get in the way, don't require me to reconfigure keybindings, don't require me to TURN OFF AUTO-MOUNT and don't keep whining about not being the latest and greatest version... because I've found what I like and I'm sticking to it, and I shouldn't have to read any manuals to get my preferred tools installed and working because I already know how to install and configure them, and that should be enough. But that's my journey after spending years in the console and then years under X running a single terminal in a minimal window manager that (as far as I'm concerned) doesn't even exist unless I'm running something that isn't a terminal, which is not that often.
Yes I think Linux sucks but that's not how I always felt about it, and I cannot deny that it is useful and does some pretty cool things, problems be damned. Setting aside my experiences, personal gripes and grudges, I would absolutely recommend AVLinux to anyone who doesn't want to use FreeBSD for whatever reason and doesn't want to spend a bunch of time installing and configuring things on whatever flavor of Unix they prefer. Almost everything you could possibly need for a digital multimedia studio comes preinstalled and can be run from a live USB image with persistence, so you can run it on any machine that has enough resources without touching a hard drive! You may feel that the default setup isn't your cup of tea and needs to be dumped, and if that's the case then your mileage may vary regarding how easy it is or whether it can even be done.
Nothing is perfect, but AVLinux goes a long way to give you options so you can at least get close enough without having to build it all from the ground up. Considering the cost of an analog home studio vs the cost of AVLinux, that is quite simply amazing and should be more than worth the potential hassles.
