[PD] [OT] Ubuntu Studio and other media-related distros

Derek Holzer derek at umatic.nl
Sun Jul 13 12:01:05 CEST 2008


Hey gang,

In a search for distraction from the project I'm really supposed to be 
working on, I decided to update my (until now stable but very outdated) 
Gentoo media editing machine. A couple days of circular package blocks, 
missing dependencies and vanishing libraries later, I'm really curious 
why I once decided it was a good idea to compile everything myself ;-) 
(Note to Gentooers: "emerge --update --deep world" once a month, or get 
the thing stable and never touch it again! If you wait too long, and 
your current packages go out of Portage, it can be hellish!).

So if and when this machine is hosed, what would be a good distro to put 
on it? I don't feel much like the super-hacker I was a four or five 
years ago when I got into Gentoo, but I like a distro that I can 
configure to be extremely minimal and transparent. And what is 
absolutely necessary is that it has well-configured versions of all the 
audio softs that I depend on, such as Ardour (w/ VST support!), Jamin, 
LADSPAs, JACK, etc. Realtime/prempt kernel = A-OK. Ability to use 
PD-Extended is of course a plus, and also the ability to mount HFS+ 
drives without destroying them (as Ubuntu has done to me in the past) is 
also necessary.

I looked at Ubuntu Studio, but I wanted to ask who actually uses it. 
 From the page it seems like maybe it's not well-maintained, and that's 
another requirement for me after messing around with different 
audio-related overlays for Portage that eventually get abandoned.

If Ubuntu Studio isn't the right one, can anyone suggest another option? 
My last criteria is that it has a coherent user community and excellent 
docs (strongest point of Gentoo, and from what I recall a weak point of 
straight Debian, IMHO).

thx + best!
D.

-- 
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl ::: http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista
---Oblique Strategy # 84:
"How would you have done it?"




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