Best multimedia app on Linux

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deepakdeshp
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Best multimedia app on Linux

Post by deepakdeshp »

Hello,
Is Ubuntu studio( US) the best Linux multimedia distro? Latest Release is 19.1 , but it will be supported only for 9 months.
If its the best distro , is it worth waiting for the 2.04 LTS release? Will it be supported for 5 years starting 2020?
Or is there a better distro for audio and video than US?
My desktop is Mint 19.3 which is based on Ubuntu, so is it possible to add all the US tools to Mint? If yes. how to do it?

Thanks for any replies.
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d.healey
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Re: Best multimedia app on Linux

Post by d.healey »

I don't believe there is such a thing as a best distro. There is only the best distro for you. Decide what you need from a distro and then look for one that meets those needs. I'm moderately happy with Linux Mint, I regularly edit videos and write music with it.
add all the US tools to Mint
Do you need "all" of them? Have you checked the Linux Mint package manager/software centre to see if the tools you want are there?
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deepakdeshp
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Re: Best multimedia app on Linux

Post by deepakdeshp »

d.healey wrote:I don't believe there is such a thing as a best distro. There is only the best distro for you. Decide what you need from a distro and then look for one that meets those needs. I'm moderately happy with Linux Mint, I regularly edit videos and write music with it.
add all the US tools to Mint
Do you need "all" of them? Have you checked the Linux Mint package manager/software centre to see if the tools you want are there?
I am a Music and video beginner . I was thinking of installing something fully loaded and get accustomed to it.

How does Mint music and video composing with say Windows 10? I dont want to go to Win 10 as its a painful experience. Just curious.
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Linuxmusician01
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Re: Best multimedia app on Linux

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

Like @d.healey said: there ain't such a thing as the best distro. You can pretty much install any Linux application in any Linux distro. Everything is in a repository on the internet. What I do recommend though is a long term support (LTS) version of a distro.

I think you should not yet compare music and video production on Linux w/ another OS. First you need to determine what exactly you want. Basic (non-lineair) video editing with KDEnLive is a breeze if you ask me (forget OpenShot). Music production on the other hand is very complex for a beginner. On any OS, that is. Has to do with latency, drivers (asio4all on Windows: brrrrrr), external audio devices and Jack on Linux.

Try to learn a thing or two 'bout Linux:
  • What is a distribution?
  • What distribution is best supported for you on the internet by the community?
  • What is a repository?
  • What is the KXStudio repository for music production in Linux?
  • How do you use the command line interface (CLI)?
  • What are the commands: ls, cd, ps?
  • How do user, groups and "rest of world" rights work?
  • Why doesn't my executable get executed?
  • Do I have to work with sudo or do I have to log in as root?
Then try determine (this is very difficult!) what DAW you'd like to use:
  • Do you want to use (free) Windows VST plugins of version 2.4 and/or 3?
  • What is a Linux VST?
  • Do you want to use a Windows DAW in Linux or do you want to use its native Linux version?
  • What is wine and when and why do I need it?
For video production in Linux you probably would be better off in another forum...

Good luck! :)


P.S. My tip: start by looking at Qtractor for your Linux native DAW.
deepakdeshp
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Re: Best multimedia app on Linux

Post by deepakdeshp »

Linuxmusician01 wrote:Like @d.healey said: there ain't such a thing as the best distro. You can pretty much install any Linux application in any Linux distro. Everything is in a repository on the internet. What I do recommend though is a long term support (LTS) version of a distro.

I think you should not yet compare music and video production on Linux w/ another OS. First you need to determine what exactly you want. Basic (non-lineair) video editing with KDEnLive is a breeze if you ask me (forget OpenShot). Music production on the other hand is very complex for a beginner. On any OS, that is. Has to do with latency, drivers (asio4all on Windows: brrrrrr), external audio devices and Jack on Linux.

Try to learn a thing or two 'bout Linux:
  • What is a distribution?
  • What distribution is best supported for you on the internet by the community?
  • What is a repository?
  • What is the KXStudio repository for music production in Linux?
  • How do you use the command line interface (CLI)?
  • What are the commands: ls, cd, ps?
  • How do user, groups and "rest of world" rights work?
  • Why doesn't my executable get executed?
  • Do I have to work with sudo or do I have to log in as root?
Then try determine (this is very difficult!) what DAW you'd like to use:
  • Do you want to use (free) Windows VST plugins of version 2.4 and/or 3?
  • What is a Linux VST?
  • Do you want to use a Windows DAW in Linux or do you want to use its native Linux version?
  • What is wine and when and why do I need it?
For video production in Linux you probably would be better off in another forum...

Good luck! :)


P.S. My tip: start by looking at Qtractor for your Linux native DAW.
Thank you for your detailed reply. Food for thought.
I wont need an introduction to Linux , as I am a Linux and Unix veteran who has used it for more than 20 years! :)
I wont use wine as its buggy and difficult to use. I would rather use native Linux applications.
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Re: Best multimedia app on Linux

Post by glowrak guy »

Most of the time, wine just sits there like a toad in the morning sun.
What is difficult? Reaper daw with Wine-staging 4.20 and newer are excellent
at running pro quality windows plugins, while surrounded by linux apps.
In my experience, wine is no more 'buggy' than other linux system apps.
I use it almost every day. I use Mint 18, Puppy Studio 1337, Puppy Bionic 64, pclinuxos,
Arch Manjaro, Bodhi (a ubuntu spin-off) and they all are capable of
audio productions.

Mint is easiest to deal with for software installations, and the variety
of packages available in the Mint package manager is the highest among major
linux distros. Can't really go wrong as a first choice. But using just one linux
is bad luck. Consumer grade Linux is a beta quality system put forth
to do mainstream full release work. Readiness is rewarded time and again.

Using just one daw is also bad luck. Speciality invites diversity.
Audio tools are specialized, myriad in number, and quality
varies wildly. No single daw is well suited to all use-cases.
And a daw gui may be abhorrent to one person,
and sheer bliss to another, with both working at the same task. :shock:

There is a solid core of linux audio apps, and what seems lacking to some,
is easily made up for by windows plugins in a wine-enabled system.
The LinVst plugin wrapper now enables almost all windows plugins
that work in wine, to also work natively with Linux native versions of
Bitwig, Reaper, and Mixbus.
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mk1967
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Re: Best multimedia app on Linux

Post by mk1967 »

d.healey wrote:I don't believe there is such a thing as a best distro. There is only the best distro for you.
Absolutely.
As for multimedia distributions, I would recommend either AVLinux http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/ or LibaZiK studio audio http://librazik.tuxfamily.org/base-site-LZK/english.php. Both work much better on my machines than Ubuntu Studio.

Michael
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thetotalchaos
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Re: Best multimedia app on Linux

Post by thetotalchaos »

Is Ubuntu studio( US) the best Linux multimedia distro?
Yes, it is.

Ubuntu Studio is properly optimized for audio performance out of the box, and also have an unique application (ubuntustudio-controls) that syncs your sound servers (aka JACK, Pulseaudio and ALSA). It has great support, and its is the safest to upgrade to a higher OS version and in general. Also you have a huge collection of known and proven multimedia apps. It can boot as a live system from your USB drive, and it can be installed on both BIOS and UEFI machines.
A less known and discussed fact is that most of the included multimedia applications are packaged by Debian Multimedia team, the biggest and serious team in the field of Open Source Linux Multimedia, and are ported directly into the Ubuntu repositories.
Regardless of what some other experts might say, Ubuntu Studio is not inferior to LibraZiK or other pro user oriented multimedia distributions like AVLinux, KXStudio or Archlinux among others. US has the most useful, well made and intuitive application store, have a huge collection of fonts, and it support many languages compared to the alternatives. The first impression matters. :wink:
https://ubuntustudio.org/

PS: LibraZiK is a great one as well. It is French and based on Debian Stable. Lately it has an English support, but your live system starts on French unless you manually change the boot line while you are in the Grub boot menu. It does not allow to upgrade your distribution, the way Ubuntu Studio can. It is more focused on Linux Audio and it has a rich documentation on their website. In my opinion this is the best Linux Audio distribution, but i am not recommending it to a new Linux user. No disrespect, it comes to a target user group in my opinion. Ubuntu Studio is intentionally made to be more user friendly. LibraZiK targets particularly Linux users. Such users, that can handle a clean Debian.
http://librazik.tuxfamily.org/base-site-LZK/english.php

Best regards Totalchaos, a Linux Audio veteran
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