Debian Is The Way!

I’m two years into my Linux journey and I’m adamant about completely moving everything I use to Linux. And I’m 90% there; the only thing holding me back and keeping me running Windows on my office/studio PC is Capture One.

With that, I’m quickly finding out that Debian is the way to go for all of my computer needs. Two years ago I pulled out an old PC (from 2006) and decided to try to turn it into a large network attached storage server. After doing some research on YouTube, I settled for Ubuntu Server like most people do when they first start out in the Linux world today. I got that to work and ended up opting for it being a web and cloud server instead of a local NAS.

A few weeks after realizing that I knew what I was doing and buying another tiny PC from Craigslist (a Lenovo M72e Mini) that ran my Windows programs decently, I decided to “sacrifice” my 2015 Lenovo laptop and install desktop Ubuntu on it. Meh! Wasn’t really digging it. Linux Mint? Meh! KDE Neon? Meh! Kubuntu? That was the one. I ran this for a little while and enjoyed it, but I was still learning. Still learning that there needed to be some software configuring to run these operating systems on this older, budget laptop. So I had my problems with it.

During this experimenting I purchased a Dell OptiPlex 7040 SFF on Craigslist, planning to use it as a testing server, but not too long after I had someone on Reddit offering to send me two RAM sticks for the 7040 surprise me with a OptiPlex 7080 SFF and an OptiPlex 7050 Micro, four RAM sticks for the 7040. Now I had to figure out what to do with all of these computer. Short story, I migrated my current (at the time) web/cloud server over to the 7050, set the 7040 up as a NAS for my photography work with Ubuntu Server, used the 7080 as my new office/studio PC (first running Windows 11 only, then dual-booting it with Kubuntu), using the Lenovo as a testing box for various operating systems and a “Linux learning box”, and eventually turning the 2006 PC (a HP Compaq DC5700) into a backup server for both the web server and NAS.

For the next year Kubuntu was the workhorse operating system for all the I needed to do: browsing the Internet, music production (REAPER and Studio One), some photo editing (playing around with RawTherapee and GIMP), and SSH work one all of the other devices on the network. Then I wanted to build a dedicated box for recording audio; a box that did nothing but run REAPER and connect to a NAS for backup. And for that I built it around Debian 13.

The REAPER Box

I wanted this to run a smoothly as possible on a 2013 mini PC running an 3rd generation Core i5 and a spinning disk hard drive, so I did some research and learned how to program i3 Window Manager. That was some work. Base Debian with no desktop environment, i3, JACK, and REAPER ran very well on that box. Well enough to record my entire last product on it (shameless plug). But I saw JACK running a lot different on my Kubuntu system in ways that I couldn’t replicate on a base Debian system no matter how much Googling I did or how much software I installed or scripting I did. The things I was looking to do was to automatically have JACK recognize the additional USB audio interfaces that I’d recent added to the setup as well as run a new piece of software that I’d purchased and really wanted to incorporate into that system, Tape 16. So I decided to try some Ubuntu-based distributions since the Ubuntu Studio Audio Package was what had Kubuntu working so well. I tried installing Kubuntu since I was familiar with it, but it was too heavy for this machine. Then I followed that up with Lubuntu since I heard it was lightweight. Neither ran as fast as Debian with i3. So I decided to go back to Debian, but this time with a desktop environment to help elevate some of the headache of rebuilding that Debian/i3 machine because I sucked at documenting everything I did to get it working; customizing i3 is cool, but not very fun. Xfce it was because it is said to be the lightest of the X11 desktop environments. Why X11? It was what I built the old setup around and it worked. Why change it? For what I need here, I don’t see any benefits to Wayland. This is a single display machine running a 1600×900 display via VGA. I don’t need much. I’m happy with this setup. I’m still having the troubles of getting it to behave like the Kubuntu system does, but I’m continuously working to get that working because I really want to use these two extra M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R I got for an amazing price on eBay (because the guy didn’t know how they worked and sold them as partially functioning).

The Main Computer

Speaking of Kubuntu. The OptiPlex 7080 is still running Kubuntu 24.04 as my main operating system with Windows 11 on the side; these are running on two separate system drives. I love the way this system runs on the Linux side and it would probably save me a headache if I just ran the recording equipment through this system since it is 90% what I want, but I want to keep the music stuff separate from the photo editing and casual computer stuff. It feels better that way. I’m running all of the things that would help or hurt me if I moved this system over to Debian 13. I’ve become very comfortable in Kubuntu and not sure how much of a change Debian with KDE is going to be, if any. But again, I’m bad at documenting and note taking and have put a lot of work into getting this system setup the way I want it over the past two years and not sure if I’m ready to do that again. Also, the issues that I’ve been having with Tape 16. It works perfectly on this system and I’m not sure if the Debian issues I’m having with it are just the hardware in the other machine or if it’s a compatibility issue with Debian. This is a new piece of software designed by one guy, and I’ve been told that most of the Linux port testing has been done on Ubuntu versus any other system. I’m really thinking about going Debian and i3 on this system, though. I feel like that would be a fun combination with the physical (desk) setup of this system. I’d really need to find a Ubuntu Studio Audio Package equivalent for Debian before I make this move though as I’d still like to do my Studio One work on this machine.

The Laptop

I’ve been back and forth on this one. I bought this laptop back in 2015 when my old studio computer died on me; the HP Compaq DC5700 that go turned into my backup server. At least I thought it died. I went the laptop route because I had falling into what I think is a trap of having the laptop “because it can do everything”; be my studio PC, my travel laptop, my lay in bed and watch Netflix machine, etc. But after getting back into a space where I have all of my “toy” with me, which I was without for a five year period between 2019 and 2024, I’m not really a big fan of laptops. They aren’t expandable, I don’t find myself leaving home and doing anything that I would need a computer for while on-the-go, and if you rely on it for everything and you lose or damage it, you lose or damage everything. So I’ve used it to play around with some Linux distributions, used it as a system to SSH into other system while on the couch, and also just forgotten about it at times and left it sitting in a corner. All of that within the past year and a half. But I’ve recently decided to install Debian 13 on it as well and see what I could do with it. I’ve put REAPER on it and played with the idea of using it as a machine to do rough audio mixes on while not having to sit in front of big studio monitors and instead use headphones on the couch or in bed, and something to pay bills on so that I don’t have to come to the office and turn on the big boy computer. We’ll see where this goes. I’m thinking about going back to i3 on it as well. I don’t know why I have such a fascination with i3.

The Servers

Kubuntu Server is doing me just fine and I’m having no problems with it. I just want to go all in on Debian. I’m not sure if I’m ready to try to reconfigure three servers from the beginning again; especially the web server. So switching over all of my servers to Debian is something that I’m going to have to do a little more thinking about, but it could be a fun project. Maybe.

If you’ve made it this far, I’ve said all of this to say: I like Debian. I like Kubuntu as well. It’ll be the thing I recommend to anyone who just wants a Linux operation system to do “regular” stuff. But Debian is my go to for anything I’m building for myself. We just have to get Capture One running on it so that I can ditch Windows!