Ubuntu Studio 10.04 - A First Look
Since my post on the Ubuntu Karmic upgrade has been the most popular of the last six months, and since I've already been asked, I'll go over my experience updating to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid) this week.
The "LTS" designator means that this release will have long-term support. LTS releases tend to be more enterprise-friendly, and will have more hardware compatibility, as well as support for three years, instead of the usual 18 months.
Ubuntu pushed Lucid out through Synaptic Package Manager. For those unfamiliar with Synaptic, think of it like a combination Windows Update Manager and Apple App Store. Almost any software available as an executable under Ubuntu is there, as well as regular updates.
To recap my hardware, I'm using a Dell B130 notebook. It's pretty barebones - 1.6 GHz processor and 1gb of memory. I dual-boot with Windows XP Home.
The download looked like it was going to take a couple of hours (even over my cable broadband). I actually left it running and made a three-hour round trip to Rhode Island after answering some of the setup questions. When I got home, it was still churning away doing the install. I was happy to see that, actually - no crashes. I would never leave a Windows install that way.
I had the option of loading a new Grub configuration (I used mine) and downloading the b43-fwcutter during the install. (Nice!) (This is a proprietary driver to run a Broadcom wireless card - which I have.) It also automatically updated the Ubuntu Studio packages. Very slick.
Upon restart, I noticed that the boot process was much quicker. The install also removed several old kernels from the Grub menu. When I logged in, the wireless card connected to my network much quicker than it used to.
There were a couple of minor issues. At first there were no window borders - no way to minimize or close without right-clicking on the system tray. A quick check of the Ubuntu Forums found a quick fix: reinstalling metacity and rebooting.
Jack was also giving me issues. I was getting error messages that Jack could not start, and I also could not start (the upgraded to 2.8.6) Ardour. I found I had to manually include my login to the "audio" group using "usermod." Very easy. Unfortunately, it only lasted a couple of starts, and now Jack crashes with regularity. I'm still looking into that.
I notices several package changes in the Ubuntu Studio menus. Creox seems to have been replaced by a package called Rackarrack. (guitar effects) I didn't like Creox too much, anyway. I have a new package called SooperLooper, plus a couple of others I haven't identified yet.
I did notice that Ardour upgraded to 2.8.6, which is the typical Ubuntu "one-release-back." Audacity is now the bleeding-edge 1.3.12 (Beta) release. Audacity is now showing no less than 320 additional plugins, all grouped in batches of 15. It looks like it's pulling the plugins from Ardour. Very nice.
There is also at least one additional video production package. I haven't really had time to put all that through the paces.
I've been working almost exclusively in Ubuntu for the last few months. My biggest hangup keeping me in Windows was Outlook. But, Evolution now has Google Calendar sync. I've also made the move to letting Gmail manage my multiple email accounts, now that it has nested folders.
The only things keeping XP on my laptop are these: Powerpoint 2007, which works so much better than OpenOffice Presenter; PhotoStory3 and MovieMaker, which are the fastest, easiest ways to make quick-and-dirty slideshow videos; and the fact that my Coby mp3 player refuses to be recognized by Ubuntu. From what I've read, it's something in the firmware of the player. I was also unsuccessful in using a projector under Karmic. I'll have to try Lucid.
As far as the user experience goes - it can't be beat. Ubuntu is faster and cleaner than Windows, easier to use, and more stable. I browse with Google Chrome, which is much faster than FireFox or IE. Setting up network printers is a snap. Ubuntu easily uses files on my Windows partition. Using Wine, I can run many Windows programs.
There are many other distros of linux. My friend Toni highly recommends Sabayon, and I will admit, it is slick. But with all the audio and video production work I do, Ubuntu Studio is priceless. (Get it... no price.... I crack myself up.)
The "LTS" designator means that this release will have long-term support. LTS releases tend to be more enterprise-friendly, and will have more hardware compatibility, as well as support for three years, instead of the usual 18 months.
- Upgrade
Ubuntu pushed Lucid out through Synaptic Package Manager. For those unfamiliar with Synaptic, think of it like a combination Windows Update Manager and Apple App Store. Almost any software available as an executable under Ubuntu is there, as well as regular updates.
To recap my hardware, I'm using a Dell B130 notebook. It's pretty barebones - 1.6 GHz processor and 1gb of memory. I dual-boot with Windows XP Home.
The download looked like it was going to take a couple of hours (even over my cable broadband). I actually left it running and made a three-hour round trip to Rhode Island after answering some of the setup questions. When I got home, it was still churning away doing the install. I was happy to see that, actually - no crashes. I would never leave a Windows install that way.
I had the option of loading a new Grub configuration (I used mine) and downloading the b43-fwcutter during the install. (Nice!) (This is a proprietary driver to run a Broadcom wireless card - which I have.) It also automatically updated the Ubuntu Studio packages. Very slick.
Upon restart, I noticed that the boot process was much quicker. The install also removed several old kernels from the Grub menu. When I logged in, the wireless card connected to my network much quicker than it used to.
There were a couple of minor issues. At first there were no window borders - no way to minimize or close without right-clicking on the system tray. A quick check of the Ubuntu Forums found a quick fix: reinstalling metacity and rebooting.
- Ubuntu Studio packages
Jack was also giving me issues. I was getting error messages that Jack could not start, and I also could not start (the upgraded to 2.8.6) Ardour. I found I had to manually include my login to the "audio" group using "usermod." Very easy. Unfortunately, it only lasted a couple of starts, and now Jack crashes with regularity. I'm still looking into that.
I notices several package changes in the Ubuntu Studio menus. Creox seems to have been replaced by a package called Rackarrack. (guitar effects) I didn't like Creox too much, anyway. I have a new package called SooperLooper, plus a couple of others I haven't identified yet.
I did notice that Ardour upgraded to 2.8.6, which is the typical Ubuntu "one-release-back." Audacity is now the bleeding-edge 1.3.12 (Beta) release. Audacity is now showing no less than 320 additional plugins, all grouped in batches of 15. It looks like it's pulling the plugins from Ardour. Very nice.
There is also at least one additional video production package. I haven't really had time to put all that through the paces.
- Usability
I've been working almost exclusively in Ubuntu for the last few months. My biggest hangup keeping me in Windows was Outlook. But, Evolution now has Google Calendar sync. I've also made the move to letting Gmail manage my multiple email accounts, now that it has nested folders.
The only things keeping XP on my laptop are these: Powerpoint 2007, which works so much better than OpenOffice Presenter; PhotoStory3 and MovieMaker, which are the fastest, easiest ways to make quick-and-dirty slideshow videos; and the fact that my Coby mp3 player refuses to be recognized by Ubuntu. From what I've read, it's something in the firmware of the player. I was also unsuccessful in using a projector under Karmic. I'll have to try Lucid.
As far as the user experience goes - it can't be beat. Ubuntu is faster and cleaner than Windows, easier to use, and more stable. I browse with Google Chrome, which is much faster than FireFox or IE. Setting up network printers is a snap. Ubuntu easily uses files on my Windows partition. Using Wine, I can run many Windows programs.
There are many other distros of linux. My friend Toni highly recommends Sabayon, and I will admit, it is slick. But with all the audio and video production work I do, Ubuntu Studio is priceless. (Get it... no price.... I crack myself up.)
Now isn't that funny - I downloaded 3 flavours of Lucid today: Ubuntu, Ubuntu studio and Kubuntu, and it's this last that I'm posting from as a live CD.
ReplyDeleteAs a live OS, 10.04 is slower to boot than 9.10, and there's less on the CD, even though it's sailed over the 700Mb mark (so I can't fit it onto a standard CD now). It definitely feels less glitchy after 15min fiddling that earlier versions though, and the KDE desktop seems much crisper. Fonts - my biggest bugbear with earlier versions are improved, and aren't far off Apple's offering i.e. usable but fuzzy compared to anything Microsoft offered in the last 12 years.
Curiously it seems to be working this PC much harder than I'd expect, with the processor fan whirring away, graphics card dumping loads of heat and the power supply working hard too. However this machine has a fragile MoBo, so that could well be the cause and not the OS.
Establishing a wireless connection was easy, and it recognised the netgear dongle and connected fine. I'm actually posting this through Konqueror, and that's seen a major upgrade too: previously it was the browser you used to download and install something else, but now it has tabs, doesn't screw up web pages too badly and generally seems quite usable. Nice one.
When I manage to get and fit a new MoBo I'll probably reinstall SL and Ubuntu studio alongside each other. The prob you mentioned with Jack seems very common, judging by the forum, and hopefully by then it will have been fixed. Sabayon is definitely a nicer system for everyday use, but if studio is good then I'll happily move to the fuzzy side to use it.
Now isn't that funny - I downloaded 3 flavours of Lucid today: Ubuntu, Ubuntu studio and Kubuntu, and it's this last that I'm posting from as a live CD.
ReplyDeleteAs a live OS, 10.04 is slower to boot than 9.10, and there's less on the CD, even though it's sailed over the 700Mb mark (so I can't fit it onto a standard CD now). It definitely feels less glitchy after 15min fiddling that earlier versions though, and the KDE desktop seems much crisper. Fonts - my biggest bugbear with earlier versions are improved, and aren't far off Apple's offering i.e. usable but fuzzy compared to anything Microsoft offered in the last 12 years.
Curiously it seems to be working this PC much harder than I'd expect, with the processor fan whirring away, graphics card dumping loads of heat and the power supply working hard too. However this machine has a fragile MoBo, so that could well be the cause and not the OS.
Establishing a wireless connection was easy, and it recognised the netgear dongle and connected fine. I'm actually posting this through Konqueror, and that's seen a major upgrade too: previously it was the browser you used to download and install something else, but now it has tabs, doesn't screw up web pages too badly and generally seems quite usable. Nice one.
When I manage to get and fit a new MoBo I'll probably reinstall SL and Ubuntu studio alongside each other. The prob you mentioned with Jack seems very common, judging by the forum, and hopefully by then it will have been fixed. Sabayon is definitely a nicer system for everyday use, but if studio is good then I'll happily move to the fuzzy side to use it.
Now isn't that funny - I downloaded 3 flavours of Lucid today: Ubuntu, Ubuntu studio and Kubuntu, and it's this last that I'm posting from as a live CD.
ReplyDeleteAs a live OS, 10.04 is slower to boot than 9.10, and there's less on the CD, even though it's sailed over the 700Mb mark (so I can't fit it onto a standard CD now). It definitely feels less glitchy after 15min fiddling that earlier versions though, and the KDE desktop seems much crisper. Fonts - my biggest bugbear with earlier versions are improved, and aren't far off Apple's offering i.e. usable but fuzzy compared to anything Microsoft offered in the last 12 years.
Curiously it seems to be working this PC much harder than I'd expect, with the processor fan whirring away, graphics card dumping loads of heat and the power supply working hard too. However this machine has a fragile MoBo, so that could well be the cause and not the OS.
Establishing a wireless connection was easy, and it recognised the netgear dongle and connected fine. I'm actually posting this through Konqueror, and that's seen a major upgrade too: previously it was the browser you used to download and install something else, but now it has tabs, doesn't screw up web pages too badly and generally seems quite usable. Nice one.
When I manage to get and fit a new MoBo I'll probably reinstall SL and Ubuntu studio alongside each other. The prob you mentioned with Jack seems very common, judging by the forum, and hopefully by then it will have been fixed. Sabayon is definitely a nicer system for everyday use, but if studio is good then I'll happily move to the fuzzy side to use it.
Maybe Konqueror isn't *that* perfect after all......
ReplyDeleteNow back in Sabayon. It's like jumping from W98 to XP (although neither experience is really like a microsoft product).
ReplyDeleteUbuntu should be relatively successful because of the social networking tools and MP3 shop, and punters clearly don't really care that much about the visual appearance of the platform they use for those tasks because a large number of facebook posts are made from mobile phones.
One funny thing - being a PC AND Mac user, I didn't even notice that the window buttons had swapped sides!
Anyway, good original post, and thanks for taking the time to write it.
Hi Mike,
ReplyDeleteOK, I have U-studio installed multi-boot (with PCLinuxOS and Sabayon). However I can't find anything at all that will let me set up wireless networking. Do I have to give it a cable 1st, download drivers etc and then enable the wireless? Kubuntu seemed to manage OK IIRC.
BTW - it takes one helluva time to install - > 1 hour without repository access. Grub 2 was great though, and recognised the other 2 Linux flavours (PCLOS completely failed in that respect).
It'd be helpful to know what kind of wireless card you have. You need to enable the restricted drivers if it's a broadcom card, and perhaps install fwcutter. You will need hardwired internet access.
ReplyDeleteBest bet is to find out what kind of card you have, and do a search on Ubuntu Forums. Let me know, and I'll help with what I can.
Thanks Mike. The bit I needed to know was "You will need hardwired internet access."
ReplyDeleteI've access to a couple of dongles, but there's an old Netgear stick that works well with all the other flavours of Linux (including Kubunu IIRC). I was just a bit taken aback at my failure to find nothing in there at all to handle wireless networking. The box is in the middle of a big update from the Sabayon repositories, but I may drag it in here later to update/sort drivers for US and PCLOCS to make use of the 5 meg broadband.
Y'know it's funny, but I just opened up Ubuntu studio to see if I could change the grub settings (using grub 2 as boot loader). If they had made the standard Ubuntu look like that straight out of the box I think they'd have had a lot more people queuing up for it.
ReplyDeleteI've got to get this computer to a fast LAN connection, because I'd love to see if US can actually be good for more than just recording and graphics.