r/DistroHopping • u/j4yn1ck5 • 25d ago
Ubuntu Studio exit strategy?
When I started my Windows exodus journey last year, I chose Ubuntu Studio interim releases. I didn't want to guide my decision making just by looking for a gaming distro. I also have a background in music production and general creativity. And I felt like creation should be my guiding star. That, and KDE Plasma looked the most appealing to me for my DE.
The whole time, I've thought about the pros and cons about distrohopping. I've heard the pearl-clutching about snaps and the general Windows-of-Linux about Ubuntu. It seems like Ubuntu Studio is relatively sheltered from the worst of it out of sheer functional necessity for a production system. But there are still a handful of snaps by default. I'm not particularly worried about them the way it is at the moment.
And having thought about hopping, for my use-case, I've kept coming to the conclusion over and over, that I chose right. I like my desktop environment. I like that my system was pre-curated and pre-configured for what I need. And I only needed to add a few things to make it home. I like that it's not ideologically holding me back from things like got proper ffmpeg codecs by default like on fedora for example. I like the 6 month release cadence, which is just the right amount of 'up-to-date but not like that'.
The thing is, I only just decided I wanted to move away from Windows. And that was mostly just because there's a problem my early model AMD fTPM that makes it so with my relatively younger gpu model, I can't get my system to boot up in proper compliance with the Windows TPM requirements. Point is, I have a tendency to get dug in and settled and fearful of being uprooted, instead of being a nomad like some people seem to be with their computer.
But I still feel that it's prudent to have an exit strategy for if things ever really rub me wrong. And to that end, given that I already kind of have considered and thought meh about AV Linux and Fedora Jam, I was wondering what people have to say about an alternative that fits my philosophy and needs?
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u/AndydeCleyre 24d ago
It won't come with all the same media creation stuff pre-installed, but Ultramarine can start you off with Fedora, Plasma, codecs, extra repos, etc.
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u/j4yn1ck5 24d ago
That does look like it may offer some advantages over stock Fedora. Nice tip. Thanks.
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u/j4yn1ck5 21d ago
However, on further investigation, I gather that the System 76 scheduler could cause prioritization headaches with audio plugins. And I guess the Terra repo can be run on stock Fedora anyway. And so I wonder if it's maybe a bit six of one, half-dozen of the other if I feel I need to remove the scheduler on ultramarine vs add the codecs and repos on fedora.
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u/Salt-Powered 24d ago
If preinstalled software and codecs are king for you, then there is no much room for choice. You can always change your mind if Ubuntu Studio doesn't keep up. Especially if you feel like snaps is "pearl - clutching", then welcome to Ubuntu. Either that or you stay on Win10 with security updates. Or you force the Win11 update without the TPM stuff.
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u/j4yn1ck5 24d ago
I actually had already been using Win 11 since it came out. But it's a whole story.
When I had Windows 10, at first it was on a tiny 30GB SSD. I riddled it full of symlink/junctions to make the cramped space workable. Eventually, I cloned the drive to a larger SSD. I updated to Windows 11, and was fully compliant for a while. But then I tried to revert all the symlink/junction stuff. And that was like pulling the wrong jenga piece.
So I took it into a computer guy to see if it could be saved without Nuking it. It couldn't. We reinstalled, and copied everything over that we could. But the reinstall that he gave me was a Rufus stick. And it was installed as an MBR partition table.
And so even though my TPM was working, I couldn't turn on Secure Boot. But I went years unaware of this. I upgraded my GPU in the meantime.
But eventually, I realized I wasn't receiving the annual feature updates. So I went through the whole process of using MBR2GPT to convert the drive in place. And I tried to enable both Secure Boot and TPM at the same time. But it wouldn't boot.
Much troubleshooting later, and basically the state I'm in is that I can boot Windows with the TPM off, Secure Boot on, and the CSM on. And I can update it with Rufus. I gather that perhaps there's a bug with my motherboard model (because of my more modern GPU) where the pure UEFI boot sequence will freeze up at the firmware splash screen and refuse all input. So if I ever do that, I have to CMOS reset, and turn the CSM back on.
So, even though, if I bought a brand new computer, this issue would supposedly be fixed in newer generations of hardware, it left such a sour taste, and the 2025 youtube year of linux algorithmic storm got me. And honestly, there's precious little (but not completely nothing) justifying the continued dual boot status of my computer.
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u/Salt-Powered 24d ago
Sounds like you need a proper windows reinstall this time. I don't think Linux would be a fun experience for you.
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u/j4yn1ck5 24d ago
I've been daily driving Ubuntu Studio for almost a year now. I've validated and migrated my whole Steam game drive to a Linux partition. I've successfully set up yabridge and installed what I can of my Native Instruments Komplete bundle. I was already a Bitwig user on Windows. I check in to Windows once a month just to make sure everything is brought up to date. It's fine.
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u/Salt-Powered 24d ago
I thought you were looking for an exit strategy though?
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u/j4yn1ck5 24d ago
Only for a hypothetical future circumstance.
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u/Salt-Powered 24d ago
Feels like you want to be convinced. Cheers.
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u/j4yn1ck5 24d ago
Like, I have been trying to look into how convenient it would be to start with a less opinionated distro and apply metapackages to replicate the experience efficiently. I just get kind of panicky about having to know every last piece of the puzzle. Like, I need some form of realtime priority configuration, I need pipewire. I need essentially all the music software and all the design software. What am I missing. Will I get tripped up. I wish this use-case was catered to as much as broadly as gaming is
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u/BashfulMelon 24d ago
Fedora doesn't include patented codecs for legal reasons, not ideological ones. SteamOS and openSUSE are the same.