| Multimedia-oriented Ubuntu Studio arrives |
May 11, 2007
Ubuntu Studio 7.04, a Ubuntu Linux variant aimed at audio, video, and graphic enthusiasts, was released on May 10 by its U.S.-based project team. The distribution, based on a 2.6.20 kernel and the GNOME desktop, includes a collection of open-source applications that assist with multimedia creation.
"Think DeMuDi but expanded," the team said on the project's website. "Our goal is to improve the quality of multimedia creation tools within Ubuntu and provide a single disk install."
"With this release ... we offer a feature that is somewhat reminiscent of Ubuntu Server," the team said. "On installation, you can choose between the Audio, Graphics or Video tasks and choose also to install a number of plugins, which for this release is mainly aimed at audio production. We have endeavoured to keep as many of our packages in the standard Ubuntu repositories as possible," the project team said.
The Audio version, the team said in the release announcement, provides a different kernel from that used with the Video and Graphics versions, "which has low latency to enable easy JACK work."
"For Gutsy (the next Ubuntu version), we will be providing a fully real-time enabled setup. We have built upon the usability and support of Ubuntu as a foundation, and are certain that this was a wise choice, for we have access to a wide range of packages in the repository, and a stable base system," the team said.
For the video task, the team chose the GStreamer-based PiTiVi, "as our central NLE. PiTiVi is written in Ubuntu’s favorite scripting language, Python, and the GStreamer back-end enables it to use all the GStreamer-compatible codecs that are installed, and thus taking advantage of Feisty’s Easy Codec Installation," the team said.
"It also uses our favorite widget set, GTK+, and thus keeps with the theme and flow of the Ubuntu Studio desktop, and tries also to stay usable in any environment, in keeping with Ubuntu Studio’s aim that media production should be simple and accessible," the team added.
Key features, according to the team, include:- GIMP 2.2.13 graphics editor
- Pidgin (formerly GAIM) 2.0.0beta6 instant messenger
- OpenOffice.org 2.2.0 office suite
- Postfix 2.3.8 mail agent
- X.org 7.2 window manager
- Python 2.5.1rc1 programming platform
- HTTPD 2.2.4 Web server
Read the rest of the release announcement and visit the project's home page to learn more about Ubuntu Studio.
You can download Ubuntu Studio 7.04 for i386 machines here (direct link to the 868MB DVD ISO image). You also can use BitTorrent.
You can take a screenshot tour of Ubuntu Studio 7.04 here.
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