[rednab]

Ardour is GPLv2 open-source, but they still do somewhat pointedly attempt to dissuade you from building from source ¹).

Now, I fully understand why. And I think charging for pre-built binaries is a totally valid way to attempt to finance an open-source project. The amount they're asking certainly is a pittance compared to the commercial offerings.

But LMMS just feels friendlier to me.

¹) https://ardour.org/building_linux.html

[jacquesm]

LMMS is a great little program too but in much the same way that a professional mix table is less 'friendly' than a four track recorder.

Both have their uses. What bugs me about LMMS is that it is hard to use its output in any other way than just to send it to your devices, interop with other software isn't all that good unless it is on the plugin side.

And neither Ardour nor LMMS come close to midieditor for the editing of raw midi files, and that's a shame because midieditor isn't very well supported and a bit fragile (it crashes with alarming regularity).