Anybody tried ASork (free linux recording-studio-on-a-cd)?

I've tried aGNUla-demudi and (better) studio-to-go, but not that particular one.

Would you recommend anything over, say, garageband or similarly cheapo tools?

I haven't used Garageband, so I'm not sure what it's up against exactly. I did like the "Studio to Go" package a lot, though. The only reason I didn't stick with it is I couldn't get a few niggly sync problems sorted out - I have no linux programming skills - and I don't have as much time as I'd like to make music as it is. I still look at the thing sitting in its little box and wish it had worked better for me, and not just b/c I had to pay out for win xp and cubase to get on. Three of the softsynths - the "alsa modular synthesiser", "zynaddsubfx" (something like that) and the virtual pipe organ "aeolus" were really good. I miss the pipe organ a lot.

I've not tried this distro. There's no mention of the kernel realtime low-latency module, so I'm curious if it's just a given that it would be in there.

I use ardour for recording, but haven't really played around with many other apps for linux due to lack of time and not wanting to hassle with anything that has trouble compiling in native 64 bit.

"studio to go" is patched for low-latency, yes. That aspect of it was really good.

None of these look like they'd run on Mac hardware -- am I wrong?

no you're not wrong. the point is you can build a PC for $200 and use this, not to install it on your mac

I'm not familiar with this distribution. Planet CCRMA at Home, from Stanford University, is a fantastic set of add-on packages for Fedora / Red Hat. The learning curve is steep, and I'd recommend planning on a two-to-three year learning period if you're unfamiliar with linux.

I find the toolset useful and inspiring. From synthesis to composition to effects to looping to recording. Thousand-band graphical equalizer. Echoplex clone. Wazoos out the wazoo. Not only free but developed by real people you can actually talk to.

I used to consider the common lack of presets to be the final hurdle to user-friendliness. I now consider the lack of presets an aesthetic advantage.