Linux Production Workflow, Audacity Software Deterioration
A discussion regarding the transition of a production workflow to the Linux operating system reveals technical hurdles with audio editing software. Audacity is criticized for a perceived decline in functionality, specifically regarding scrubbing features and stability compared to older versions. The goal of moving away from Windows to achieve digital freedom from corporate overlords remains a primary objective despite these software setbacks.
linux· audacity· hindenburg pro· software production· open source
00:00 Mwahahahaha! Adam Curry, John C. Dvorak. It's Thursday, January 29th, 2026. This is your award-winning GiveOnNation Media assassination episode 1838. This is no agenda. Observing the Ops and broadcasting live from the heart of the Texas Hill Country here in FEMA Region Number 6. In the morning, everybody. I'm Adam Curry. And from northern Silicon Valley where I have to tell you I'll be at the Oakland meetup this Saturday. Thanks for asking. I'm John C. Dvorak. Oh man, I was so close this morning. To what? To doing the show on Linux. I was wondering. I'm so close, but when I sat down this morning to, because I've been using it for the past couple of days, the production workflow for me, because I use Hindenburg Pro to do clips, using Audacity, what did they do to that program?
01:03 It's been slowly deteriorating. They screwed that up. You have to have an old version. I don't, I, well, I didn't know there was an older, I mean, I don't know if there's older versions available, but you can't scrub properly, you know, cause when I'm, when I'm doing scrub, uh, so you have the, You have the clip and then you hit a key and then it plays forward and you can hit another key and it goes faster or you hit the shift key and it goes slower and then you can hit an in point and an out point and then X and then you cut it and I mean, I go super fast. This was a factor. Why is it called scrub? Because it's analogous to the old scrubbing of the tapes across the head. Like that.
01:48 You surely have heard of this term scrubbing? No, never. So there was that and then Audacity is like, oh, I'm just going to crash. Okay. I can't. So now I have to find something. You're just going to crash. Yeah, I'm just going to crash. It's like your old buddy from college. Exactly. I'm just going to crash here. I'm just not going to work. So I'm like, production-wise, I'm just not there. The playout system is good. I was ready to use that, but I just could not get into a production flow. And I know everyone's going to tell me, oh, you should use Reaper. You should use, just run it on wine. Okay. Run it on wine. There you go. That's what you should do. So I've got to find, if I don't have the right tools, then I can't do it. But the, the playout system was working pretty well.
02:45 How close are you? Well, I mean it's really just fixing the recording and editing and I think I'll be there. I think. I don't know. It's quite amazing. Why do you have to do the recording and you're not doing any recording and editing during the show? No, but I mean, I might want to switch completely or so you only have to. You don't want to even boot the windows. No, it's a separate. This is a whole. I don't want to be on the windows box at all. I want to be at all. I want to be free man. Libra. I want to be free of the corporate overlords.
