This is my third attempt. Partly to rage quit Windows, and partly to gain utility and control with some professional AV software.
I have converted an old Asus netbook to Ubuntu netbook remix and used it for a while. I was impressed with how much better that tiny thing ran with Linux than Windows. But in the end it still had less power than a TI-84. So I stopped using it, and never really learned Linux proper.
I dual boot my Chromebook, so I can use gimp for photos on vacation, but everything I do with the Linux partition is cut and paste from articles by people who know what they’re doing. (I was motivated to post here by a meme about that.)
I’m thinking of dual booting my main desktop, because I need Windows for some fairly processor intense A/V software I use for work. So what would be a good distro to look into for a novice and where should I look for a tutorial? I would ultimately like to see if I can use Linux to run my AV software in emulation and add drivers for some professional audio interfaces. I’m fed up with windows and trying to see how far I can get without it. Your help is appreciated in advance, and if this is inappropriate for this topic, let me know and I’ll delete it.
Out of curiosity, what do you mean with AV software, antivirus or audio / video? If the latter is the case, check out Blender, Kdenlive, OpenShot, Flowblade, GIMP, Krita and Inkscape for graphical and video work. Pix is great for managing your photos and RawTherapee might be sufficient for your raw photo editing needs. On the audio production side, if you need a simple but powerful audio editor, look for Tenacity (a fork of Audacity). For music production, you can wonderfully work with Renoise, Reaper and Bitwig Studio natively on Linux. To make Windows VST plugins work on Linux, check out the plugin host Carla. But there are also many great linux-native VSTs out there, for example the TAL-Sampler. Great quality, free plugins are offered too, for example from https://calf-studio-gear.org/. There are websites that list other sources.
Btw, it’s quite likely that your audio interface just works plug 'n play, if it is not too exotic. You can google that in advance though.
Reaper is on a line with ProTools and has a linux port. I never like Ardour. Too much fiddly stuff.
Ardour is another decent pick for DAW, though it was a little unstable when I used it ~5 years ago
Yeah, if your workflow is centered around recording and arranging audio, then it can work decently. But if you’re having anything to do with MIDI / virtual instrument based composition, I wouldn’t recommend it. Their MIDI implementation has for the longest time been based on sample time instead of musical timing, so it was very janky. They have worked on that, but the implementation of “proper” MIDI is still very new and still needs work. Also, their inline note editor is just terribly uncomfortable to work with, and they refuse to have the MIDI editor in a separate window, like most other DAWs out there. And yes, the situation with bugs and stability is not really ideal. It’s not terrible and most definitely suitable for hobby or semi-professional work, but I wouldn’t rely on it professionally.