From eeickmeyer at ubuntu.com Thu Oct 10 16:38:38 2024 From: eeickmeyer at ubuntu.com (Erich Eickmeyer) Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2024 09:38:38 -0700 Subject: [ubuntu-studio-devel] Ubuntu Studio 24.10 Released Message-ID: The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu Studio 24.10 code-named “Oracular Oriole”. This marks Ubuntu Studio’s 35th release. This release is a Regular release and as such, it is supported for 9 months, until July 2025. Since it’s just out, you may experience some issues, so you might want to wait a bit before upgrading. Please see therelease notes for a more complete list of changes and known issues. Listed here are some of the major highlights. You can download Ubuntu Studio 24.10 from ourdownload page . Special Notes The Ubuntu Studio 24.10 disk image (ISO) exceeds 4 GB and cannot be downloaded to some file systems such as FAT32 and may not be readable when burned to a standard DVD. For this reason, we recommend downloading to a compatible file system. When creating a boot medium, we recommend creating a bootable USB stick  with the ISO image or burning to a Dual-Layer DVD. Minimum installation media requirements: Dual-Layer DVD or 8GB USB drive. Images can be obtained from this link: https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/24.10/release/ Full updated information, including *Upgrade Instructions,* are available in the *Release Notes *. Upgrades from 24.04 LTS should be enabled within a month after release, so we appreciate your patience. New This Release Minimal Installation We have now implemented minimal installations in the system installer. This will let you install a minimal desktop to get going and then install what you need viaUbuntu Studio Installer . This will make a faster installation process and lets you customize what you need for your personal Studio. Unfortunately, at least for the time being, we also had to get rid of the default shortcuts in the panel since it would cause an error when loading without the applications being installed. A solution for this is coming in 25.04. Generic Kernel The Generic Ubuntu Kernel is nowfully capable of low-latency workloads . As such, with this release,*we have switched from the LowLatency Kernel to the Generic Kernel*with the boot options to enable the low-latency configuration enabled by default. These options can be changed viaUbuntu Studio Audio Configuration and customized depending on your use-case and your workload. If you don’t need the low-latency and wish to have a computer that is more energy-efficient, you may wish to turn off all three options. The choice is yours. Plasma 6 Ubuntu Studio, in cooperation with Kubuntu, s*witched to Plasma 6 this cycle*. This switch was not without issues, so we expect many of the issues to be Plasma 6 related, especially when it comes to the default configuration and theming. New Look Ubuntu Studio had been using the same theming, “Materia” (except for the 22.04 LTS release which was a re-colored Breeze theme) since 19.04. However, Materia has gone dead upstream. To stay consistent, we found a fork called “Orchis” which seems to match closely and have switched to that. As you can see from the screenshot, it has more vivid colors, round corners, and a more modern look. We hope you enjoy it. We are aware of a bug involving adark bar under windows which may be an issue, but sometimes switching the window decorations to another variation of the theme is a solution. PipeWire 1.2.4 This release contains*PipeWire 1.2*. With PipeWire 1.2, FireWire devices requiring FFADO are supported./Do note that the Ubuntu Studio team does not have any FireWire devices and could not test this./ PipeWire’s JACK compatibility is configured to use out-of-the-box and is zero-latency internally. System latency is configurable viaUbuntu Studio Audio Configuration . However, if you would rather use straight JACK 2 instead, that’s also possible. Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration can disable and enable PipeWire’s JACK compatibility on-the-fly. From there, you can simply use JACK via QJackCtl. Complete Deprecation of PulseAudio/JACK setup/Studio Controls Due to the maturity of PipeWire, the traditional PulseAudio/JACK setup, where JACK would be started/stopped by Studio Controls and bridged to PulseAudio, is now*fully deprecated and the option is not offered anymore*. This configuration is*no longer installable via Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration*. Studio Controls may return someday as a PipeWire fine-tuning solution, but for now it is unsupported by the developer. Ardour 8.6 While this does not represent the latest release of Ardour, Ardour 8.6 is a great release. If you would like the latest release, we highly recommendpurchasing one-time or subscribing to Ardour directly from the developers to help support this wonderful application. To help support Ardour’s funding, you may obtain later versions directly from ardour.org. To do so, pleaseone-time purchase or subscribe to Ardour from their website. If you wish to get later versions of Ardour from us, you will have to wait until the next regular release of Ubuntu Studio, due in April 2025. Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration’s Dummy Audio Device now also has a much-requested*Dummy Audio Input*. Additionally as described above, Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration has an option to configure the default boot parameters that are commonly used to enable the low-latency capabilities of the Linux kernel used in Ubuntu. For more information about that, see theUbuntu Studio Audio Configuration page. We’re back on Matrix You’ll notice that the menu links to our support chat and on our website will now take you to a Matrix chat. This is due to the Ubuntu community carving its own space within the Matrix federation. However, this is not only a support chat. This is also a creativity discussion chat. You can pass ideas to each other and you’re welcome to it if the topic remains within those confines. However, if a moderator or admin warns you that you’re getting off-topic (or the intention for the chat room), please heed the warning. This is a persistent connection, meaning if you close the window (or chat), it won’t lose your place as you may only need to sign back in to resume the chat. Frequently Asked Questions *Q:* Does Ubuntu Studio contain snaps? *A:* Yes. Mozilla’s distribution agreement with Canonical changed, and Ubuntu was forced to no longer distribute Firefox in a native .deb package. We have found that, after numerous improvements, Firefox now performs just as well as the native .deb package did. Thunderbird also became a snap so that the maintainers can get security patches delivered faster. Additionally, Freeshow is an Electron-based application. Electron-based applications cannot be packaged in the Ubuntu repositories in that they cannot be packaged in a traditional Debian source package. While such apps do have a build system to create a .deb binary package, it circumvents the source package build system in Launchpad, which is required when packaging for Ubuntu. However, Electron apps also have a facility for creating snaps, which can be uploaded and included. Therefore, for Freeshow to be included in Ubuntu Studio, it had to be packaged as a snap. We have additional snaps that are Ubuntu-specific, such as the Firmware Updater and the Security Center. Contrary to popular myth, Ubuntu does not have any plans to switch all packages to snaps, nor do we. *Q*: Will you make an ISO with {my favorite desktop environment}? *A:* To do so would require creating an entirely new flavor of Ubuntu, which would require going through the Official Ubuntu Flavor application process. Since we’re completely volunteer-run, we don’t have the time or resources to do this. Instead, we recommend you download the official flavor for the desktop environment of your choice  and use Ubuntu Studio Installer  to get Ubuntu Studio – which does *not* convert that flavor to Ubuntu Studio but adds its benefits. *Q: *What if I don’t want all these packages installed on my machine? *A: *Simply use the *Ubuntu Studio Installer* to remove the features of Ubuntu Studio you don’t want or need! Get Involved! A wonderful way to contribute is to get involved with the project directly! We’re always looking for new volunteers to help with packaging, documentation, tutorials, user support, and MORE! Check out all the ways you can contribute! Our project leader, Erich Eickmeyer, is now working on Ubuntu Studio at least part-time, and is hoping that the users of Ubuntu Studio can give enough to generate a monthly part-time income. We’re not there, but if every Ubuntu Studio user donated monthly, we’d be there! Your donations are appreciated! If other distributions can do it, surely we can! See the sidebar for ways to give! Special Thanks Huge special thanks for this release go to: * *Eylul Dogruel*: Artwork, Graphics Design * *Ross Gammon*: Upstream Debian Developer, Testing, Email Support * *Sebastien Ramacher*:**Upstream Debian Developer * *Dennis Braun*: Upstream Debian Developer * *Rik Mills*: Kubuntu Council Member, help with Plasma desktop * *Scarlett Moore:*Kubuntu Project Lead, help with Plasma desktop * *Cristian Delgado*: Translations for Ubuntu Studio Menu * *Dan Bungert*: Subiquity, seed fixes * *Len Ovens:* Testing, insight * *Wim Taymans*: Creator of PipeWire * *Mauro Gaspari*: Tutorials, Promotion, and Documentation, Testing, keeping Erich sane * *Krytarik Raido*: IRC Moderator, Mailing List Moderator * *Erich Eickmeyer*: Project Leader, Packaging, Development, Direction, Treasurer -- Erich Eickmeyer Ubuntu MOTU Project Leader - Ubuntu Studio Technical Lead - Edubuntu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From erich at ericheickmeyer.com Tue Oct 15 16:40:09 2024 From: erich at ericheickmeyer.com (Erich Eickmeyer) Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2024 09:40:09 -0700 Subject: [ubuntu-studio-devel] [Erich Eickmeyer] Contact In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <33a5c8e8-dbec-4892-abdf-498c13dd8f8a@ericheickmeyer.com> Hi Eugenia, You're welcome, but I'm not the only person involved with Ubuntu Studio. You, with these emails, can also be involved, and as such I highly recommend joining the Ubuntu Studio Developers mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel so that you can participate and send these requests there rather than emailing me personally. >Friction Looks good, and that's quite possible. I'm not sure if anyone on the Debian Multimedia team has any eyes on it as we typically follow them for the packaging, but hopefully they do. Typically we don't include RCs of software in the repos unless that software has already been released previously and the RC fixes some major bugs with regards to building. >Scribus We used to include Scribus by default, but dropped it to save space on our .iso images since Ubuntu Studio is, by far, the largest Ubuntu flavor. It is still supported and can be installed as part of our `ubuntustudio-publishing` metapackage. >Freecad CAD is borderline and worthy of discussion of whether or not it is within the scope of Ubuntu Studio and, therefore, which category it belongs in (graphics or publishing). Remember, whenever we add a package it increases our .iso image size, and we need to keep that down as much as possible, so we must be very critical. As it is now, Freecad is available in the repositories among other CAD applications, so we must be thoughtful about which CAD applications we include, if we choose to include one. This should be a discussion on the mailing list, so I *highly* encourage you to join. >LMMS LMMS is an application we already include by default, and is synced from Debian, so where Debian goes we go. >More plugins, zsynth, dexed Adding more plugins and what-not would be something I'd like to do now that the dust is settling from multiple transitions over the course of the past two cycles (time_t64, plasma 6), so there's a lot to be discussed. Joining the email list or discussing it in Matrix is a good idea. https://matrix.to/#/#ubuntustudio:ubuntu.com Anyhow, thanks for the email, and I look forward to seeing you on the email list and on Matrix. Erich -- Erich Eickmeyer Project Leader - Ubuntu Studio Technical Lead - Edubuntu On 10/13/24 22:59, Eugenia Loli wrote: > Hello Erich, > thank you for the new version of Studio! > > I have some news about video compositing, as we discussed in the past. > Apparently, there's a brand new app that should be packaged. It's > about to hit RC1 very soon: https://friction.graphics/ > It's an After Effects clone and actively developed. The guy who makes > it doesn't like Flatpaks/snaps, so the app is not well known yet. But > it definitely is going to replace Natron for most people on Linux. > > Additionally, another idea would be to install Scribus by default, as > it is part of the creative process for many people. > > Another would be Freecad and/or QCad (the GPL version). Especially now > that Freecad is going to hit v1.0. It is possible to create art with > them, as a lot of architects also learn to draw at school. > > Finally, please consider adding LMMS when the new version is going to > get released. They're very actively working on git to add VST3 and > recording, making it more full featured. Adding more plugins and audio > apps like zsynth, dexed etc would be great too, so new users get more > tools at hand after installation. > > thanks, > Eugenia > > > > On Fri, May 12, 2023 at 4:59 AM Erich Eickmeyer > wrote: >> Hi Eugenia, and hello from Seattle! >> >> We already do include kdenlive and Krita by default. The one that we're missing is Natron, as it's in neither the Ubuntu nor the Debian repositories for reasons that are unknown to me at the moment other than it has never been packaged. As a packager myself, it can be a very tedious task. It has been in the back of my mind for quite some time. With Ubuntu Studio being a volunteer project, time is sometimes something we don't have enough of. >> >> As DaVinci Resolve, Houdini, and Reaper are closed-source applications that go against licensing terms, we cannot support them in any way. Even pre-configuring them would show support, and that would be crossing a line into territory that we simply do not have capacity for. Additionally, since they are closed source, dependencies can change without notice, which makes them moving targets, so we simply cannot support such moving targets. >> >> That said, thank you for the suggestions. Unfortunately, we are bound by the limitations imposed by the Ubuntu Technical Board as part of being an official flavor of Ubuntu, so some of these suggestions simply aren't possible, while others are. >> >> Thanks, >> Erich >> -- >> Erich Eickmeyer >> Project Leader - Ubuntu Studio >> Technical Lead - Edubuntu >> >> On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 5:40 PM Eugenia wrote: >>> Name: >>> Eugenia >>> >>> Email: >>> eugenia17 at gmail.com >>> >>> Website: >>> http://www.eugenialoli.com >>> >>> Message: >>> Erich, >>> hello from Spokane! >>> >>> I just donated a bit that I could for ubuntu studio. I have a bit of feedback, if I may. I think it'd be great to include kdenlive, Natron, and Krita on the distro by default. Sure, these are kde/qt apps, but they belong in the distro that hails as the best multimedia distro. We like it or not, kdenlive is the superior video editor on Linux (apart from Davinci Resolve), Natron is the superior compositor in terms of usability (Blender's is too problematic for casual compositing), and there is nothing else as powerful as Krita! >>> >>> I'm sure these can be downloaded from the repos, but it's important to include these by default. It would really enrich the out of the box experience for media users. >>> >>> Another interesting idea would be to have the distro ready, with full dependencies and changes pre-configured to run closed source media apps, like Resolve, Houdini, Reaper, and a couple other pro audio apps that are available for Linux. Just so the users who might want to use these closed source apps, to not have headaches after manually installing them. These apps have demos, so you could install their demos to test them (no need to buy them). >>> >>> take care! >>> Eugenia >>> >>> >>> ________________________________ >>> Time: May 11, 2023 at 5:40 pm >>> IP Address: 71.231.105.117 >>> Contact Form URL: https://ericheickmeyer.com/contact/ >>> >>> Sent by a verified WordPress.com user.