Brainstrorming for Ubuntu Studio 13.04 (Blueprints)

[ttoine]

2012/10/20 Len Ovens <len at ovenwerks.net>:
>
> On Sat, October 20, 2012 12:28 pm, Kaj Ailomaa wrote:
>
>> Some of the things that we would like to do in the future (not in any
>> special order):
>>
>> * Write a comprehensive user documentation dealing with all of the various
>> multimedia workflows - audio, graphics, video, photography and publishing
>> (underway)
>> * Write developer documentation (underway)
>> * Test system tweaks that improve performance for various workflows and
>> finding best ways to implement them (ongoing)
>> * Develop a gui control application to adjust Ubuntu Studio system
>> settings (replacement for the outdated ubuntustudio-controls)
>> * Develop a workflow orientated panel
>> * Improve/update Ubuntu Studio artwork
>> * Research each of the workflows (audio, graphics, video, photography,
>> publishing), and make sure we have a relevant list of applications
>> included on the live DVD (ongoing).
>
> For the audio workflow (as if we didn't have enough :) we have been asked
> to add LMMS. I would suggest adding it right away so that we have ample
> time to make sure it will work live. Adding it with the extra software
> icon seems problematical. It seems all the repos it or it's depends need
> are not enabled by default. This may effect if the ISO will build too.
>
> I think we need a mixer for standard audio cards, the xfce4-mixer we have
> now is not as nice as alsamixer in a terminal from my POV. pavucontrol is
> the standard desktop mixer for pulse but it doesn't lend itself to card
> level control in a recording situation, inputs in particular. It also
> doesn't touch card levels at all in some cases. This would be a mixer for
> the mixer menu not for the volume icon. I happen to like qasmixer. It
> would be nice to start it with a wrapper that points it at whatever the
> device is jack is using or hm:0 if jackd has yet to be run. (this can be
> switched from within the app as well) Any other mixer app that is better
> would be fine too.
>
> I don't know if it's possible or makes sense even, but it seems we spend
> some time helping people set the right sound interface for jack. It would
> be nice if on first login a dialog asked which card is your recording
> interface? and preset jack. Maybe as a part of -controls.
>
> We seem to be right in the middle, we have "hey it would be nice to make
> some music with my computer, someone lent me this keyboard for a week",
> those who know exactly what they want and those from win/osx who want a
> replacement for whatever they are used to. So SW that is easy for the
> newby who has never done music at all with any computer (maybe doesn't
> play anything either). The expected things for those used to Linux audio
> and something to help those switching from another OS. We handle the
> middle one just fine I think. The other two harder. LMMS is suggested as
> something that makes music simple for anyone. Also being based on some
> windows SW may help as a transition place... though it doesn't play well
> with other apps and moving on to other apps means starting over pretty
> much. I think documentation focused on the someone moving from some of the
> other workflows to the workflows we have or are available may be a good
> idea.
>
> As you can see I am not near as good at stating things in one line as ailo.
>
>>
>> - For reference, here are the blueprints for 12.10
>> http://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/topic-quantal-flavor-ubuntustudio.
>>
>>
>> / Kaj Ailomaa
>>
>> --
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>>
>
>
> --
> Len Ovens
> www.OvenWerks.net
>

Documentation:
 - I think I can find some time to work on documentation, for audio
recording, and publishing (I know very skilled people), and basic
documentation for the other workflows (I don't know well video and
graphic production). As a beginning of each workflow, we can make a
resume of every applications used, what are they used for, and what
is/are their equivalent in Windows or Mac worlds (of course when
possible).
 - We should have a place about "hardware choice" depending on the
workflow: where to check that a hardware will work with Ubuntu Studio,
and Linux in general. And second point, we should make some advice
section about hardware. I don't mean about performance and what to
buy, but about what we know that works well. Example: Texas Intruments
firewire chipsets works well when Via ones are not very stable with
Linux, etc... it will avoid users spending too much time on forums,
Google, etc...
 -  I don't think we should re-invent the wheel and develop a jack
setup in -controls. Qjackctk is a good GUI, and perhaps we should just
write a good howto, with general information, some tweaks, and, of
course, screen captures!

Improving performance:
 - It is a good thing, but is it really needed for other workflow than
audio ? The same question for -controls ? So for me this is the same
point. Some interesting documentations about that are here :
  + http://wiki.linuxmusicians.com/doku.php?id=system_configuration
  + http://subversion.ffado.org/wiki/IrqPriorities
 - Maybe it would be possible to use
https://code.google.com/p/realtimeconfigquickscan/ and to create a
script that would apply recommendations ? Maybe could we use it in
-controls ?

Ubuntu Studio Artwork
 - Do we really need to spend too much development time on artwork ?
Maybe we can first focus on making it working well. And then, if their
is some time left, on themes, etc... Imho, starting from a vanilla
Ubuntu or a Vanilla Xubuntu is the better way to save time, and we
should only change the background, the logo and the minimum stuff: "If
it works don't fix it".
 - I am pretty sure that most of users don"t care about theme if it
works well. And users who want to have a "cool" theme will find a lot
of stuff on gnome-look.org or xfce-look.org. Maybe we should just use
a beautiful theme, already available, instead of re-inventig the
wheel. It would save a lot of time to the dev team.
 - For desktop background, maybe we should use the ubuntustudio.org
website to aks for contributions, and then choose the best one.

Audio applications
 - Including LMMS would be interesting. Is there really so many
problems (licence, etc...) ?
 - We need to check that ladspa and lv2 plugins are stable before
including them in the meta packages.

That is all I see at the moment.

Toine