Linux

Back up your music data to an external & a cloud backup. Then the OS matters less.

Your lack of time is the biggest issue, followed by your music needs (which are not impossible but I also know its not plug and play).

I would recommend going with win11 for simplicity and times sake. I would also recommend at least trying out ameliorated windows11. https://ameliorated.io/

Basically their stock run book makes the OS far more secure and private by setting up an admin account and then making your account a standard user (the way it should be done). Then it strips out all the bloat, restricts services, and installs open source alternatives like libre office and libre wolf. It also drastically changes the UI, which most of it I like and some is meh, but its all much better than the crap stock UI. I run this as a VM for all the stuff I still need windows for and I love it. Nothings ever going to make windows not windows, but this is pretty close and a simple click install. I highly recommend it.

Tldr, I recommend sticking with Windows or using two separate machines, one for music production running Windows, the other for running everything else with Linux.

Music production isnt great on Linux in my experience at least right now. If you use any paid plugins that are windows only, there's a good chance they won't run. I haven't used ableton or cakewalk but I use reaper which has a native Linux version, and even that had a lot of issues. Anything with ilok is a no go, even plugins that dont, I had a hard time getting working or if they did work, they crashed A LOT.

Gaming and other general use has been fine for me, ive even done video and photo editing on Linux and been happy with it.

If you want the easiest experience, I typically recommend Fedora KDE spin or kubuntu. KDE is a desktop environment that is very similar to windows and highly customizable. You'd likely feel at home on it. Immutable distro might also be a good option if you really want the "IDC just do the update" path. Harder to break, easier to manage from what ive heard but I haven't used them personally so maybe others that have can chime in.

I made a windows only box for music production and use Linux on my main PC. It runs windows 10 and is rarely connected to the internet except when I need it to be. If you wanna run Linux and make music, it can be done, but I had a terrible time with it and have given up for now.

So make a separate machine for music production and run Linux on your main pc or just run Windows is my advice. So far, this has been the best setup for me. I don't worry about my privacy, I can make music when I want, and I don't have to worry about incompatible plugins, crashes, stupid nonsense that gets in my way when i wanna make music.

There's no reason to hope that you can change to a new operating system and you can copy paste exactly what you did in the other, completely different operating system. However that doesn't mean its hard. There are distros that make it really easy to transition too. I had a really easy moving over, but I was fine with adapting to new workflows and software and OS.

I run Linux while having 3 kids, my fiancee, a full time job that has a lot of OT, family health issues I have to support etc. Life is always busy and will always be busy. I pace myself with what I want to learn based on how busy my life is at that time. Not pacing I would burn out. I advise the same.

I also think being pissed off at Microsoft isn't enough to get into Linux for the long term. Its enough to just start. You need to be able to want to learn something new because if you make the switch, run into an issue with some distro, can't get past it, you'll end up right back where you left off.

Best of luck either way. Definitely do your research first and follow good rules for backing up your data.

I don't know what all these doomsayers are doing. I installed Bazzite and it just worked. I decided I didn't want an immutable system so I switched to Garuda, and it just worked. I have Nvidia and didn't have to do anything extra.

Of note: Microsoft is offering an extended support program for Windows 10 consumers. It's $30, or free if you opt in to Windows Backup, or you can buy it with Microsoft Rewards points. I would see if you have any of those points and go that route. It means you can delay 11 safely for another year.

I hope you mean torrenting and not tormenting 😸

Just install Linux on an external SSD and test it.

It all boils down to how willing you are to troubleshoot an odd problem or post on a linux nerd forum. I transitioned from win10 to fedora KDE pretty painlessly, though I did have to hit up the fedora forum for an answer to a weird hardware issue specific to my machine. Learning to use the command line for doing a few weird customizations I wanted was a bit of a stumble too (though I've heard from my mint using buddy this isn't an issue on Mint?)

My steam library works fine with the default proton option enabled and my day to day experience has me forgetting that I'm even on a weirdo operating system made by FOSS cultists (love you foss cultists, mwah.) I literally do just press a button every couple of weeks that updates the system in the way that you're looking for.

I use Windows 11 for work and honestly don't know why so many folks complain about it. I like working in it better than 10.

The forced Microsoft login is absolutely a valid privacy concern - I get that. The copilot integration is annoying and not helpful but can be turned off. The general UI and compatibility is pretty good. I'd just go ahead and upgrade to 11.

I had my first kid a little over 2 years ago, and my interest in twiddling with my OS plummeted. I use Linux, and it's great for what I do, but I don't do any sound stuff. I bet you could do it but that there'd be a lot of twiddling with your OS.

From what I've heard of seen in the Linux community music production on Linux is not easy. There is a fair amount of tweaking to get audio working and connecting instruments.

Are you intent on ableton and cakewalk (holy shit I haven’t heard cake walk in a minute)?

For ableton, I’d even consider Mac.

I have never personally used ableton and I was not very advanced with FL studio, but at least LMMS seemed to be FL studio like .

You can do Linux if your situation meets these criteria:

• your hardware is supported. it likely is, but check. Usually running a live usb is sufficient.
• The proprietary software you want to run is supported in some stable way - like, platinum steam support, or the developer supports and intends to continue supporting Linux. do dual boot temporarily and make absolutely sure.
• you are psychologically capable of declining to try to fix everything. While Linux just works for me, I've learned to recognize escalating effort in getting some new cool piece of software or hardware to work. wait until what you want is at least in beta. aside from that, it's just not supported. Don't frozzle the frimfram as /u/linuxminordeity told you to, because after that, you'll have to bidnap the uperpon. ..and on and on. just accept that people are working on it and it's not ready. contribute somehow, if you feel like it. but accept. If it can't be installed through typical channels (website package for linux, the repositories, or flatpak) it just doesn't work.

tbh, it sounds like you don't want to have to think about and test it. ..and if that's true, then you shouldn't be switching operating systems if you can reasonably avoid it.

I mean Windows 11 can do annoying things, but it's not gibberish. Reminds me of XP to Vista, but less about performance issues and more about incessant GUI tweaks no one asked for.

I'd say update it and make do, then move to Linux down the road if it annoys you enough to motivate that decision.

It's not all bad, I am enjoying the HDR features, which is the only reason I updated before the Win10 EOL.

That said, I do plan on making a Linux VM and playing around to get a feel for it.

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.

Not the exact answer you’re looking for, but a $500 Mac mini would be a fantastic solution. That or an entry level MacBook Air.

I run Linux on my desktop for most things but all my music production is done on MacBooks. If you want a turn key solution, this is the way.

Every vst, midi device and mixing console I have just works. Well worth the sub $1000 investment.

Hell, my touring setup runs off a 8 year old MacBook Pro you could likely pick up for under $400.

Your easiest way is to upgrade windows normally and if you dislike all it's bloated software, just install Atlas OS on top of it. It's just a software that will go through your windows and debloat it as much as possible. Simple as that. Easier done than reinstalling windows for an LTSC version. I personally have a dual boot with a win 11 with Atlas OS specifically for the software I can't install on Linux.

Your win10 computer doesn't get nuked from orbit after magic date. Others pointed out music software is not portable enough.

I got a new win11 computer with space for linux. Can remote desktop (free options) into old computer. This is more convenient than dual booting. If you don't use internet or install new software, not much will break on it. My old computer didn't work for linux because of waking from sleep issues. My new computer is $450usd minipc 7840hs dual lan, 2 usb4 ports, that allows me to expand from 3 to 4 monitors with a desk edge portable touchscreen usb monitor. win11 is not that bad because it allows for a single task bar on the front monitor. The iGPU is a big upgrade over 1650super I had, and 32gb/1gb nvme is also an upgrade that gives me the room to install linux. I haven't yet.

Linux is pretty easy for software installs. Mint is a good choice, because google will have the most hits. There are some distros that come with closed GPU drivers, but that is not particularly difficult to do yourself. win11 on a new computer can be ok, though, but I have had issues with every monitor waking from sleep every time (unplug/replug solution), or sleep command not lasting more than 3 minutes. Boot time is much quicker on new computer though, so shutdown not as painful. But if sleep worked flawlessly on this one in linux, would be good reason to go with.

No. Don't do it.

You're not experienced enough to install and maintain a Linux installation. Fuck those who says "Bite the bullet and just install Debian! It will never crash!" They won't fix it for you when it does.

You don't have anyone who's supporting you physically. They are not a phone call away. They are ten forum replies away and won't be there when you need them.

Windows 10 is no longer supported, but no one is forcing you to either uninstall or upgrade. You can keep running it if you don't care about potential security problems.

Windows 11 is bad, but not as bad as you accidentally sudo removed /etc/fstab in Debian. Between bad and unusable, ask yourself which one you want less. This is assuming you spent your whole life using Windows and less likely make major mistakes.

You can schedule your migration to Linux in the future though. Just build a second machine. You must have the money to build a second one. Don't fuck with your production build.

Some things designed for Windows just don't work on Linux, Windows LTSC is a great choice for those situations. Some people have had better experiences, but debloating scripts have always been finicky and fragile for me. LTSC comes out of the box without the usual crap and there's no risk of it all coming back after an update.

You can grab a copy of LTSC 2021 and activation if needed, which will come with the Windows 10 UI and updates until 2032.

I would NOT recommend biting the bullet for Windows 11. If you want to use it, just make sure you have a virtual machine of Windows 11, and have specific purposes for it. That way, you'll be able to sandbox the data as necessary.

I ended up switching to Linux recently for same reasons, but my kids are older and i had time to nerd out and go full Archwiki. Ableton was one of the last holdouts that was keeping me from switching.... and I spent a good month dicking around with wine trying to get it to work. And I couldn't! I ended up selling my Ableton license and buying Bitwig, which is natively supported in Linux, and actually pretty amazing... (I don't expect you to switch, just telling my story. It has really fun modular synth-like interface, with all the other VST support and quite good out-of-the-box plugins etc.)

I also couldn't get Affinity Photo working in wine.... and gimp doesn't quite do it for me. So I'm not sure what to do there, so my photo editing hobby is on hold til I figure that out.

That said, some of my other windows stuff works magically in wine (sierrachart, games, etc.).

So with all that in mind, I'd say if you don't have time to figure it out, and still want ableton to work, it might not be worth the mental load until you have more time on your hands. Unless you have an old laptop lying around, it wouldn't hurt to just try it and see what you can get working.

It sounds like you’re really sensitive to workflow disruption at this time in your life. You can’t change from Windows to Linux without some pretty hefty disruptions, same as if you chose to go from Windows to Mac. If you really don’t feel like you have the personal bandwidth to deal with the workflow disruptions and learning curve, you should go with Windows 11. If you hate it, it’s not like Linux won’t still be there for you to investigate later when your life calms down.

I went the other way, just installed LMDE and it all worked (AMD system) Then didn't use stuff that didn't work. Steam.worked but im not really gamer, the few non taxing games all worked no issues

Figured I'd get a handle and disto hop later but cant be ass'd, used to it now and 80% of what I wanted worked with zero issues from thebhet go, another 10% I evetually got around to tweaking and works no issues and the other 10%, fcuk 'em and their lack of Linux supoort.

18 months, all on, no dual boot etc

I use my desktop primarily to play online shooters, so I don't see Linux really being an option in the timeframe I have to decide. If Proton/Bazzite/whatever gets the anti-cheat shit for games like Call of Duty and Battlefield together by mid-October, I'll probably do an about face. But as of now, it just doesn't make sense to make it so I can't use an expensive thing for its intended purpose just to stick it to the man or whatever.

In short: I jumped on Mint some months ago and it just works.

The first time I jumped on Linux, I got burned haaard. I picked openSUSE, and I'm not sure if my hardware was crap or that distro is finicky, but nothing worked and it was just issue on issue on issue and I hated it.

Fast forward a couple years and Mint is nothing like that. It worked as it should out of the box and the only real tinkering I had to do was update the driver for my GPU manually because it was still so new.

Sure, some things work differently, but it's not too complicated to get into.

You can enable automatic software updates and configure the built-in backup program Timeshift, so you can revert the system to a previous snapshot if ever something should go real wrong.

But with all that said, I see that neither Cakewalk or Ableton are easy installs, as they're not officially supported on Linux. Will require some tinkering to get working. So maybe for that reason only Win11 would be the better choice. Or try dual booting to get a feel for it, best of both worlds.