Linux Musix

Musix is ​​a live CD, a remastered KNOPPIX for computer music. It benefits from the expertise of the CD-ROM knoppix, and then boot from a CD-ROM on virtually any Intel PC ... I have not tried dozens of sound cards, but a priori, the most commonly used computer music (on PCI bus or USB) should not be a problem. For example on my desktop PC, my wireless card works without MSI PCI DIY!
The latest version (March 2007), very close to a version 1, is stable and works perfectly. The operating system is Debian Linux, with some local peculiarities. In particular, the support of French is very rough (the knowledge of English and Spanish are recommended). The original presentation is not very aesthetic, but it favors the easy to find a considerable number of applications (especially music) preconfigured with many examples (including the sequencer Rosegarden). The educational commitment is undeniable.
Of course, it is better to know the basics of Linux and computer music to exploit the enormous potential provided by the CD-ROM. But a beginner, just started and driven, must be able to find something easily, for little by little, progress in computer music!
Now we easily find on the internet all the documentation about Linux and free software of computer music. The excellent French site http://www.linuxmao.org is a very good starting point.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I tried two configurations: one with fixed P4 3 GHz and 1024 G of RAM, and a laptop centrino 1.7 GHz and 512 M RAM. The sound cards are respectively an intel i810 VIA (on board), and an Intel 82801DB-IDCH4 integrated portable. I also tested a USB external MIDI device, and it has been well recognized (it should be no problem with sound cards that support the driver snd-usb-midi).
On my machine fixed, ALSA does not support (yet) the registration on the other hand for the laptop, it's all good!
The performances are excellent, without installing anything! The path for a year is great, because live CD dedicated to the computer music made it difficult to make a complete project without installation on the hard disk. I arrived safely with 512 M of RAM to run Ardour + Jack + rosegarden + + zynaddsubfx Qsynth (with a big cast audio) + Hydrogen!
It should, however, especially when done stupid things, raise from time to time the jack sound server (but there is a button well placed for that!)

OVERALL OPINION

I use the latest version for a month, but it's more than a year that I am this distribution. The earliest versions were very friendly, but not usable (instability, non-recognition of USB drives, ...), even for service. The choices made by developers to improve the stability and speed of all (although we would have liked more recent versions of some software) make the current set perfectly usable on a live CD-ROM (data stored on a USB key or external hard drive).
I particularly like the ease of access to rosegarden4, fully configured, with many examples and scripts, with excellent integration of Lilypond and DSSI plugins ... Ardour is in a stable powerful enough ... The choice of software is generally very good overall.
The overall aesthetic is questionable, the French language is folk, but frankly, for the use we make of such a CD-ROM, it does not matter! (There are many Linux distribution "eye candy" also).
Being a free software, the value is irrelevant. For a hardcore Linux user, which makes a hard disk installation, it's probably not the best choice, but for a live CD, after comparing several equivalent is (for now) the best choice.