I am from the Analog test and measurement equipment era , though I do have two Digital multimeters.
I am intending to buy a Computer , and want an operating system in it which will accept software for test and measurement of audio equipment.
I realise that many audio engineers use Apple/Mac systems though I prefer not that system unless there is no other comprehensive option.
I don’t much like Windows either , thus I am asking here ,
will the Linux operating system accept the various test and measurement software ?
or do the Manufacturers of test and measurement software only design and manufacture for Windows and Apple/Mac operating systems ?
Yes , you are correct , I am really not knowledgeable about computer systems ,
thus any information will be appreciated ,
or a direction to a Thread in this Forum , or to anywhere , where the above has been comprehensively explained.
I am intending to buy a Computer , and want an operating system in it which will accept software for test and measurement of audio equipment.
I realise that many audio engineers use Apple/Mac systems though I prefer not that system unless there is no other comprehensive option.
I don’t much like Windows either , thus I am asking here ,
will the Linux operating system accept the various test and measurement software ?
or do the Manufacturers of test and measurement software only design and manufacture for Windows and Apple/Mac operating systems ?
Yes , you are correct , I am really not knowledgeable about computer systems ,
thus any information will be appreciated ,
or a direction to a Thread in this Forum , or to anywhere , where the above has been comprehensively explained.
John Vanderkooy and Richard Mann wrote an article in Linear Audio volume 13 called "An Open-Source Electroacoustic Measurement System". They ran various measurement scripts under Gnu Octave (with the "signal" package installed) that use the sound card as a signal source and measuring device. Their scripts can be found on the Linear Audio website, see https://linearaudio.net/sites/linearaudio.net/files/vol 13 rm&jvdk readme&m-files p1.zip and https://linearaudio.net/sites/linearaudio.net/files/vol 13 rm&jvdk readme&m-files p2.zip
In their article they mention several problems they ran into when running their scripts under Windows, things like unintended sample rate conversions, gain settings getting overwritten and excessive latencies. Things went much more smoothly under Linux.
In their article they mention several problems they ran into when running their scripts under Windows, things like unintended sample rate conversions, gain settings getting overwritten and excessive latencies. Things went much more smoothly under Linux.
Yep try and avoid using pulseaudio as this automatically does sample rate conversion mixing etc. It for example will do the LF filtering if you plug in a multi-channel DAC thinking its 5.1 surround. Windows can also have bass boost installed. All can be disabled but it takes time. Use the ALSA hardware devices directly in linux i.e. hw:0 etc. sox is a simple way of generating test sine waves. You can use the play command.
sudo apt install sox
play -n synth sin 1000 gain 0
If you want to know what sound cards you have
aplay -L
sudo apt install sox
play -n synth sin 1000 gain 0
If you want to know what sound cards you have
aplay -L
Last edited:
Back up Baudouin all the way , it took a bit of programming and installing extra ALSA apps including the mixer which needs the terminal to display and I had to fight to remove ALL and I mean ALL Pulse Audio apps including the tray volume control but it sounds wonderful for a built in Samsung Blue Ray player and expensive audio card .
Please note some browsers require Pulse Audio that didn't bother me although it might bother some.
I can list all the ALSA apps required if wanted ?
And --yes I can install LT spice but I wont as it requires Wine a MS app.
Please note some browsers require Pulse Audio that didn't bother me although it might bother some.
I can list all the ALSA apps required if wanted ?
And --yes I can install LT spice but I wont as it requires Wine a MS app.
hi alan
been using linux for a while now. if your unfamiliar with linux then you should probably start with a "light" debian linux, just because this type of linux has a very large number of packages and the management of said packages is very easy.
try DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
gaz
been using linux for a while now. if your unfamiliar with linux then you should probably start with a "light" debian linux, just because this type of linux has a very large number of packages and the management of said packages is very easy.
try DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
gaz
As somebody who advises computer users elsewhere on malware/viruses/hackers Wine can be used by hackers as it "speaks " to MS ( not on the surface ) that's why I categorize it a "MS app " --back doors are back doors that's why I stopped using Windows 7 Prof.
I got fed up paying out for a PC when it was "owned " by Redmond.
Removing snooping usually caused the usual "blue screen " as well as installing apps MS didn't approve of --mostly security features.
One good app though was Everything it showed up Windows hidden coding and where to find it but MS fought back and kept on blocking it .
That was many years ago after a few LInux distros I settled on Manjaro Light ( without a lot of what they thought I wanted ) .
So far very happy although a lot of websites think I am a bot as I have blocked a lot of network ports and booted out Google everywhere it was hiding as an app on my system.
Yes it cramps my ability to make full use of the web but I put safety first having helped many people who put entertainment first and suffered for it .
I got fed up paying out for a PC when it was "owned " by Redmond.
Removing snooping usually caused the usual "blue screen " as well as installing apps MS didn't approve of --mostly security features.
One good app though was Everything it showed up Windows hidden coding and where to find it but MS fought back and kept on blocking it .
That was many years ago after a few LInux distros I settled on Manjaro Light ( without a lot of what they thought I wanted ) .
So far very happy although a lot of websites think I am a bot as I have blocked a lot of network ports and booted out Google everywhere it was hiding as an app on my system.
Yes it cramps my ability to make full use of the web but I put safety first having helped many people who put entertainment first and suffered for it .
So Linux is great, I’ve played with it since Red Hat 6.0/SuSE/Mandrake era around 2000 (I feel old), I’ve run everything from Gentoo for nearly 3 years as a daily driver, to a simpler distro's like Ubuntu, and Manjaro on my current laptop.
Viewing it as a general use case, I find if you stray off the beaten path and want to do something that is not popular, it can easily and exponentially become a massive headache to deal with. I assume a test/measurement setup is not a mainstream setup.... But even the popular distros can "break" easily when just using them as intended.
I did have a macbook for a couple of years, whilst it wouldn't break like a linux install, it was not always easy to get equivalent (or linux) software working, even though they theoretically should. Maybe that has changed (until they moved to ARM type processors).
If I was setting up a test/measurement system, I would likely stick with a Windows install. My experience these days is, you install it, it works, and there is a ton of software (free and paid) that does what you need with very little hassle. If windows breaks it generally blue screens or stops booting, if it stops booting you just reinstall it and start again, and it doesn't take long to do, as long as you backup your data or use something like onedrive. These days that seems to happen very rarely, and I load up all sorts of junk to play with.
On Windows 10 you don't have to worry about library version being incompatible (as you do on linux). I don't really like Windows 10, but I've had very few problems with it. My Manjaro laptop stopped booting after a standard update broke, had to do all sorts to get it booting again, took me hours to fix. At least with Windows I know it just easier to reinstall and not trying fixing it.
With a test/measurement system you just want it to work, and yes Windows updates can get in the way, but personally that has never been a show stopper or caused a problem for me. With all the software available I would choose Windows over Linux, and that would be for all electronic development type work.
Plus you can get the Windows Subsystem for Linux. I did install that a while ago, got it working, and had no use for it. I have all native windows apps I need to do my work/hobby/whatever else I want.
Viewing it as a general use case, I find if you stray off the beaten path and want to do something that is not popular, it can easily and exponentially become a massive headache to deal with. I assume a test/measurement setup is not a mainstream setup.... But even the popular distros can "break" easily when just using them as intended.
I did have a macbook for a couple of years, whilst it wouldn't break like a linux install, it was not always easy to get equivalent (or linux) software working, even though they theoretically should. Maybe that has changed (until they moved to ARM type processors).
If I was setting up a test/measurement system, I would likely stick with a Windows install. My experience these days is, you install it, it works, and there is a ton of software (free and paid) that does what you need with very little hassle. If windows breaks it generally blue screens or stops booting, if it stops booting you just reinstall it and start again, and it doesn't take long to do, as long as you backup your data or use something like onedrive. These days that seems to happen very rarely, and I load up all sorts of junk to play with.
On Windows 10 you don't have to worry about library version being incompatible (as you do on linux). I don't really like Windows 10, but I've had very few problems with it. My Manjaro laptop stopped booting after a standard update broke, had to do all sorts to get it booting again, took me hours to fix. At least with Windows I know it just easier to reinstall and not trying fixing it.
With a test/measurement system you just want it to work, and yes Windows updates can get in the way, but personally that has never been a show stopper or caused a problem for me. With all the software available I would choose Windows over Linux, and that would be for all electronic development type work.
Plus you can get the Windows Subsystem for Linux. I did install that a while ago, got it working, and had no use for it. I have all native windows apps I need to do my work/hobby/whatever else I want.
Test lab for Manjaro Linux-
Labrador-
GitHub - EspoTek/Labrador: EspoTek Labrador is a USB device that transforms your PC or smartphone into a fully-featured electronics lab. This repo holds all of the source code!
All Open Source of course not closed like MS
Contrary to general view your soundcard in ALSA can be changed using Alsa Mixer --easily.
Never had a problem with Manjaro rolling updates you never have to install a new version like Ubuntu forced its users to do a while back.
Even better Manjaro wont takeover your PC to install updates or install many gigabits of data using up your SSD .
Labrador-
GitHub - EspoTek/Labrador: EspoTek Labrador is a USB device that transforms your PC or smartphone into a fully-featured electronics lab. This repo holds all of the source code!
All Open Source of course not closed like MS
Contrary to general view your soundcard in ALSA can be changed using Alsa Mixer --easily.
Never had a problem with Manjaro rolling updates you never have to install a new version like Ubuntu forced its users to do a while back.
Even better Manjaro wont takeover your PC to install updates or install many gigabits of data using up your SSD .
Anyone has any experience with ICP12 usb oscilloscope circuits?
PC Oscilloscope
According to the site they are supported under win/ios/linux/pi.
PC Oscilloscope
According to the site they are supported under win/ios/linux/pi.
I used to design measurement systems using LabVIEW, always running on Windows. In a corporate environment, where the bench test system typically had to handle all manner of other widely used Windows based software simultaneously. I'd chased the idea of running on Linux, but it seemed like the manufacturer of said LabVIEW spared only minimal effort to appease that idea, while embracing MS products (such as "Silverlight") wholeheartedly.
At the moment, I'm running Windows 10 "Enterprise LTSC" which I'd only heard about on this forum. I immediately went to ebay, purchased a key and new SSD, did the download the seller provided and put the two together on this laptop about a week ago. I noticed the seller's listing was removed about a day after purchase and have been unable to make contact, as I'd get another one for a future PC purchase in a heartbeat if possible. You can only activate it once, so forget migrating to another hardware instance later. I wanted to thank the folks here for discussing it, but lost track of the thread - even upon searching for it - Thanks so much for bringing this "LTSC" version to my attention!!
This version is intended for "mission critical" applications - something I would have loved to have when I was working in the industry creating LabVIEW automated tests. It's not intended for the general consumer, as it leaves out all the various channels for MS to market to and monetize upon consumer level users. Example; My other Windows 10 and 7 systems all got the recent MS internet browser push, while this system did not. When you shut it down, it turns off like an old TV set - which makes me wonder what the other OS versions are really doing upon shutdown. It has no "live tiles" with news, weather, Xbox or Windows Store. It seems to only run what I put on it; which is like a dream come true for a MS OS and follows what it's intended to be. Apparently.
This is definitely what I'd use for a new PC based measurement system. You're (as an individual) not supposed to be able to get it, so obtaining one that you can activate may be tricky. I was lucky; the license activated successfully with the key / download I obtained from an international ebay seller -
At the moment, I'm running Windows 10 "Enterprise LTSC" which I'd only heard about on this forum. I immediately went to ebay, purchased a key and new SSD, did the download the seller provided and put the two together on this laptop about a week ago. I noticed the seller's listing was removed about a day after purchase and have been unable to make contact, as I'd get another one for a future PC purchase in a heartbeat if possible. You can only activate it once, so forget migrating to another hardware instance later. I wanted to thank the folks here for discussing it, but lost track of the thread - even upon searching for it - Thanks so much for bringing this "LTSC" version to my attention!!
This version is intended for "mission critical" applications - something I would have loved to have when I was working in the industry creating LabVIEW automated tests. It's not intended for the general consumer, as it leaves out all the various channels for MS to market to and monetize upon consumer level users. Example; My other Windows 10 and 7 systems all got the recent MS internet browser push, while this system did not. When you shut it down, it turns off like an old TV set - which makes me wonder what the other OS versions are really doing upon shutdown. It has no "live tiles" with news, weather, Xbox or Windows Store. It seems to only run what I put on it; which is like a dream come true for a MS OS and follows what it's intended to be. Apparently.
This is definitely what I'd use for a new PC based measurement system. You're (as an individual) not supposed to be able to get it, so obtaining one that you can activate may be tricky. I was lucky; the license activated successfully with the key / download I obtained from an international ebay seller -
Last edited:
I exclusively use Linux and WINE for the last 8 years, no issues here using them.
Even REW runs fine in WINE in the past installs.
Although I have never got a decent scope program to run it as it has been about 5 years since I have explored it, I never really tried hard to make it work either.
Except for the scope issue I can't think of any app. that I have not got running in WINE lately except for Autodesk stuff.
I am currently looking for some 3Dprinter apps so that I can ditch windows all together, but I do keep it around for those just in case apps that do refuse to run in it.
No big deal for me, as it is there if I need it else I stay in Linux.
Cheers !!
jer
Even REW runs fine in WINE in the past installs.
Although I have never got a decent scope program to run it as it has been about 5 years since I have explored it, I never really tried hard to make it work either.
Except for the scope issue I can't think of any app. that I have not got running in WINE lately except for Autodesk stuff.
I am currently looking for some 3Dprinter apps so that I can ditch windows all together, but I do keep it around for those just in case apps that do refuse to run in it.
No big deal for me, as it is there if I need it else I stay in Linux.
Cheers !!
jer
Last edited:
I am on Linux for some 20yrs and I prefer LMDE, now version 4. I use win applications ARTA and LTSpice, both run through wine. If you want to go that way I recommend replacing wine by winehq. This requires some cryptic command line entries you will find on the internet but then works like a charm.
REW is a java app, runs perfectly under native linux OpenJDK8. It actually runs OK under any newer OpenJDK, just one extra jar must be copied to the REW directory.
The Cura slicer app runs perfectly under linux.
For 3D design, I tried FreeCAD, but ended up with Fusion360 in vmware player + Win10 + HW graphics accelleration (OpenGL). As much as I prefer open source, the difference in productivity and usability was just too huge...
Thanks !!
Yes I forget to mention REW is written in java and works in both.
Cura, I had no idea that it would run in linux, I have Fusion 360 but my License is due to run out shortly if it hasn't already, I never really got to use it much during that time due to other projects getting in the way.
I recently discovered Design Spark's Mechanical 5 and very impressed with it but never used it due to being a windows app from the beginning so I never really took a good look at it.
Recent reports say that it will run in WINE so I am looking in to that, my latest efforts have failed due to some dependency I missed, gonna give it another try since Cura is now included in it.
Typically I use Ultimate Edition Linux and have Kubuntu 20.04 installed now pending the newest release of UE6.9 that I was beta testing a week ago.
Been a while since I have posted anything and it is Good to be back on here even just to say hello !!
jer
P.S I use HQwine as well, I have Circuitmaker 2000, Kicad and Diptrace running it and those two were the most essential pieces that I need, not to mention Ltspice and Eagle for project viewing, I had a version that would run in linux but they killed it. others include Quartus II,Arduino,Atollic Studio, STlink,Mplab and Mplab-x, STM32 Cube IDE, Eclipse and varius speaker cad programs, not sure if I had gotten Visual Analyzer running it before or not but it is next on my list of things to do and a quite few more all run in linux.
A good 3D package is all I am looking for now, everything else runs fine.
Great Stuff Here !!
Cheers !!
Yes I forget to mention REW is written in java and works in both.
Cura, I had no idea that it would run in linux, I have Fusion 360 but my License is due to run out shortly if it hasn't already, I never really got to use it much during that time due to other projects getting in the way.
I recently discovered Design Spark's Mechanical 5 and very impressed with it but never used it due to being a windows app from the beginning so I never really took a good look at it.
Recent reports say that it will run in WINE so I am looking in to that, my latest efforts have failed due to some dependency I missed, gonna give it another try since Cura is now included in it.
Typically I use Ultimate Edition Linux and have Kubuntu 20.04 installed now pending the newest release of UE6.9 that I was beta testing a week ago.
Been a while since I have posted anything and it is Good to be back on here even just to say hello !!
jer
P.S I use HQwine as well, I have Circuitmaker 2000, Kicad and Diptrace running it and those two were the most essential pieces that I need, not to mention Ltspice and Eagle for project viewing, I had a version that would run in linux but they killed it. others include Quartus II,Arduino,Atollic Studio, STlink,Mplab and Mplab-x, STM32 Cube IDE, Eclipse and varius speaker cad programs, not sure if I had gotten Visual Analyzer running it before or not but it is next on my list of things to do and a quite few more all run in linux.
A good 3D package is all I am looking for now, everything else runs fine.
Great Stuff Here !!
Cheers !!
Last edited: