Linux sound software has been the foundation of my music studio since the late 1990s, but as we all know, that software won't produce so much as a peep without the right hardware. Setting up a stable Linux system for audio production can be problematic enough, and the wrong decision about your hardware can render your otherwise powerful system mute and tuneless.

Have you ever dreamed of building your own music studio? I know you did and it may come true someday (or not), but until then here are some very interesting 100% FREE, Open Source Linux distributions with enhancements and features aimed at music, sound and even video production.

I recently discovered a fairly new project that has an interesting take on Linux music production: the Open Octave Project. The goal of Open Octave is to provide an environment for audio and MIDI production specifically for orchestral music and film scoring.

This week we have more straight reporting from Studio Dave with a look at some conference activity, cool developments in the world of Ardour and news about some new and updated programs for your complete Linux music production studio.

Linux is often overlooked when it comes to music production. For a long time, there were good reasons for that. The complicated sound system, lack of professional-quality software, and limited hardware compatibility have all contributed toward a bad reputation for Linux when it comes to quality audio tools.

Ubuntu Studio is a multimedia editing/creation flavour of Ubuntu. It’s built for the GNU/Linux audio, video, and graphic enthusiast or professional.Ubuntu Studio is an unofficial derivative of the Ubuntu open source operating system, based on Ubuntu, which is explicitly geared to general multimedia production.

"...peer production is about the social production of value, directly through social relations [...] For peer to peer self aggregation to occur, we need distributed infrastructures [...] Peer to peer is about non-rival goods that can be reproduced at marginal cost and abundantly.

There is an extensive amount of free audio software available on the Linux platform which is both mature and sophisticated. In fact, Linux has all the tools needed to be a serious contender in music production without a user having to venture into the commercial software world.

Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production.

Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines.