lucm - start with #3 first. Get really good at it, to where you start receiving compliments from people from which you respect their recorded output.

Then move on to recording your own band and dealing with all the potential personal interaction issues.

Then figure out if you want to be in the middle of a whole bunch of other people's business when you sign up to record their bands.

None of that has to do with what interface to buy or which OS you might like to use.

Keep this in mind also, there are tons of people doing this nowadays. Just search your local Craigslist for audio interfaces, and you'll see tons for sale in any major city. There's a reason for that as well that's not unlike all of the people buying entry level acoustic guitars and Casio/Yamaha portable keyboards thinking they are going to be the next big thing.

I would start by trying to learn recording for the fun of it. If you get good at it, consider very carefully making the step over the line to try making money at it.

There's a really nice intro class to this from Berklee College of Music and it's FREE. This is a great class. https://www.coursera.org/course/musicproduction

Moving from fun to making money - It can, not necessarily will, take the fun out of it. There are nearly countless people that are good at home recording now. To do bands properly, you need a big enough space where it's not going to sound like crap. That's going to be much more important than the equipment that you buy.

Subscribe to TapeOp magazine - free to persons in the US. Interviews recording engineers, producers, etc. all that make a somewhat of a living at it, some much more than others (Trevor Horn was featured awhile ago).

Well enough from me. This stuff can be great fun. I make a little money at it as a live sound engineer and trainer, but I couldn't depend on it for a living.

My Songs, photos, writing,etc.
My Sound Cloud