System requirements

[n00b saibot]

Hi everybody,

Looking into running Fedora 10 on a new laptop I'm purchasing for music production.
I intend to install the planet CCRMA package.
It should be able to work in real time (midi) for live performance

What sort of hardware am I looking at?

[sideways]

Something with a dedicated audio card, onboard audio will struggle with real-time latency. And get a fast dual-core cpu.

[n00b saibot]

Is there any particular sound cards that this wont work with. first time even reading up on a linux system and have heard that lots of hardware isn't compatable, is this true?

I'd imagined linux being a programmer community based development, there would be drivers available for nearly anything

[sideways]

yeah, nearly everything works. Many modern laptops come with an Express Card slot, and you can get several audio cards for this, just google "express card audio card", eg http://uk.europe.creative.com/produc...&product=16642

midi (in and out) can go via a usb connector, that's also pretty straightforward.

Might be best to test with the onboard audio first, and if performance is good enough then leave it, otherwise try one of the funky express card audio adapters

[n00b saibot]

thanks a bunch.
also what programming language would be the best for me to learn? Python seems to be popular

[sideways]

Originally Posted by n00b saibot

thanks a bunch.
also what programming language would be the best for me to learn? Python seems to be popular

Python's a nice language to start with, pretty simple and powerful, loads of online tutorials and examples. In the commercial world you'll find C/C++, Java, C# and Visual Basic are popular, along with SQL and shell scripts (if you work with Unix)

You can spend a lifetime learning languages it's how you apply them that matters.