[ubuntu-studio-devel] continued as per request, from IRC

Sat Aug 22 01:53:15 UTC 2015

All of the debates about "Ubuntu" and things like privacy only concern the Unity
DE and all that phone-centric stuff. UbuntuStudio, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, 
Kubuntu at all should be considered exempt.  The only worry there is if they
will be around in the future if either Canonical runs into too much trouble or
future upstream Ubuntu diverges too much from the Debian base and GNU
base. If Debian packages could not be installed or if X and Wayland could
not be run there would be real issues. Even if Mir and X or Wayland could 
not cooexist in the same install there would be serious issues. Short of that,
I see no reason to steer people off any Ubuntu flavor.

If I need to install Linux for someone who needs updates for security, UbuntuStudio 
or Ubuntu Mate are much better suited than my Debian Unstable development system 
simply because I do not have to cherrypick security updates. Debian Stable gets too 
old too fast, so does Mint these days.

When my distributed Vivid snapshots get too old for use in the field, I will probably
have to port everything to a fresh US or Ubuntu MATE install for distrbution for this
very reason. Debian Unstable snapshots may work fine but must never be updated
by nonhackers and that can be dangerous. No way in hell I'm putting my sister on 
Debian Unstable for that exact reason. IfUbuntu ever dies this will be a hassle.

On 8/21/2015 at 9:38 PM, "Mike Holstein" <mikeh789 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 4:49 PM, Len Ovens <len at ovenwerks.net> 
>wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 20 Aug 2015, Mike Holstein wrote:
>>
>> 15:48 < zequence> holstein: I really urge you to put your 
>thoughts down
>>> and write
>>> an email instead
>>> 15:48 < holstein> well, its fashionable to not like ubuntu..  
>and, thats
>>> something larger than ubuntustudio.. but, when folks go to 
>#ardour, for
>>>                   example, and the major piece of advice is 
>"whatever you
>>> do,
>>> dont use ubuntustudio", i would like to think about why
>>>
>>
>> That is not really true, "don't use Ubuntu" Yes I see that... 
>and probably
>> with good cause. It is possible to get good results with Unity, 
>easy to get
>> bad results. Certainly Studio sometimes just gets lumped in with 
>Ubuntu.
>> And when suggesting a distro made for Audio, generally kxstudio 
>or avlinux
>> are the two mentioned. However, I have heard UbuntuStudio 
>recommended
>> sometimes as well. (especially lately as kxstudio has had some 
>issues
>> related to KDE)
>>
>
>i dont share that viewpoint, personally, that folks shouldnt use
>ubuntustudio. i feel like i had to make an effort, though, to sit 
>in
>#ardour, and address each comment that i saw, for a time, and ask 
>that
>folks try the more recent versions before making blanket 
>statements..
>
>
>
>>
>> Studio has some good stuff:
>>         - xfce
>>         - a good set of applications
>>         - audio and RT allready works
>>
>> On the other side:
>>         - LTS releases with sometimes the buggiest release of 
>some
>>                 required audio utilities.
>>         - LTS releases mean that by the time the next one comes 
>out
>>                 the old one is hopelessly behind. Kubuntu may 
>have
>>                 the best way of dealing with this by trying to 
>make
>>                 each release LTS-able. Anything based on debian, 
>tends
>>                 to be release based.
>>         - It is not easy to update an LTS, the policys for 
>adding a new
>>                 version for anything besides bugs is not an easy 
>road to
>>                 take.
>>
>> It takes a lot of work to keep an LTS current and we just 
>haven't been
>> able to do that. Both kx and av add the latest versions to their 
>repos
>> within days (minutes sometimes)... they can do so because they 
>own the
>> repos and manage them.
>>
>> We could set up an upgrade repo ppa, but I do not know if that 
>is what
>> Ubuntu is all about. Ubuntu flavours are meant to use the Ubuntu 
>repos.
>>
>> Directions we could go that remain Ubuntu-ish but still make a 
>good distro
>> for audio:
>>
>> remove module-udev-detect from pulseaudio and run jackd as the 
>only back
>> end. So jackdbus would start at session start and pulse would 
>use either
>> jack or dummy as it's only backends.
>>
>> Create a udev utility that replaces module-udev-detect for PA 
>with
>> something that adds a plugged in audio IF to jack on the fly. 
>The user in
>> -controls would be asked or allowed to determine if the new 
>device became
>> the jack maser device or if it was added via zita-a2j/j2a. If 
>the (probably
>> USB) new device was to be master, the internal would then get 
>added via
>> zita-a2j/j2a.
>>
>> These two things alone would make Studio unique in the Linux 
>audio world
>> and would solve more than 50% of support requests both in 
>ubuntuStudio and
>> in other places like #Ardour.
>>
>> Make performance mode default with the option when battery 
>operation is
>> detected to goto a slower speed or ondemand. (in general a slower
>> _constant_ speed is better for low latency)
>>
>> Note on performance mode: I have found that performance mode 
>runs cooler
>> at high CPU use than ondemand. Ondemand is good for mostly idle 
>use.
>>
>> Allow sw update stuff to be turned off while doing audio 
>intensive stuff
>> (stop cron works for me).
>>
>> Any place I have mentioned starting jack should include 
>a2jmidid, using
>> a2j_control seems to be more reliable for me than using a2jmidid 
>directly.
>>
>> Note that this whole topic is audio only and does not address 
>other
>> workflows in Studio. It happens to be what I know :)  Also, I 
>have not
>> mentioned the tweaks we already do for audio which should remain.
>>
>> --
>> Len Ovens
>> www.ovenwerks.net
>>
>> --
>> ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list
>> ubuntu-studio-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
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>>
>>
>
>
>-- 
>MH
>
>likethecow.com