Article: The Value Proposition In Computer Audio: Nuts, Bolts, and Building Blocks - Building a Home for Your Player Software

[bobfa]

@bluesman

 

This is great and it will help a lot of folks out. 

 

I have found that the OS can matter but maybe less that I expected.  If the Playback software is "tuned" to the environment then the OS becomes less relevant.  I have not used Windows or macOS as the core software for my music playback system because I felt more obligated to manage it more tightly with OS updates and the like.  Several of the Linux distros that are "music" oriented have a web based console to control the operation.  To me this improves the overall usability of the dedicated computer for music.  Yes it limits in other ways.  Some of these distros run from a command line menu system using SSH.  This can be frustrating for some and way over the head of others.

 

I really have no skin in the OS selection game.  I do have some worries about the long term viability of say custom hardware with custom linux installed. I also worry about where Microsoft is going with Window 10 and their data collection efforts in Windows 10.

 

In the last couple of months I have been happily surprised by software on Raspberry Pi and on X86.  That is cool.

 

Thanks again.