Forging a new path

[Karlheinz Noise]

Cory -

My two cents, coming from an utter novice.

You've raised some solid points. But to answer them I think you have to ask yourself one fundamental question: Who is this distro for? As I see it, there are two choices:

1. Linux users who also do A/V
2. Musicians/artists in general

There's some crossover obviously, but choosing which one will greatly affect your philosophy. My impression was that UbuStu was for audience #2. If that's the case, your distro should favor:

- Longevity over being up-to-date
- Simplicity over configurability
- Standalone over networked (e.g. no Synaptic)

In general, you want your distro to be as easy to use as an iPod.

Unfortunately this can put you at odds with Ubuntu - it might even require a fork. I doubt you'll want to go that far, but it is something to think about.

Anyway - some suggestions:

- More info on the UbuStu website! I've been there a few hundred times, and JUST TODAY I saw this page:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio/Applications
...which should be linked from the front page. I still have not seen any sort of system requirements anywhere, not even in the WIKI. Making information like this easy to find will cut down TREMENDOUSLY on questions from newbies such as myself.

- A "what we need done" page on the site, with instructions on how the community can do it. (Also linked from the front page.)

- Include documentation for all applications in the distro. By that I mean local copies, not URL's. Put it in a folder on the desktop or somewhere equally obvious.

- Seek out experts outside the Linux community. Julius Orion Smith and Richard Boulanger come to mind. Getting people like Bob Katz and Rip Rowan on board wouldn't hurt either.

- Find out if you can get sponsorship from a music school, a la Planet CCRMA. Convince some professors to use Linux apps in their classrooms. (This should be a bit easier now that MuseScore is around...?)

A lot of this would mean extra work at first, and would mean that you'd go from a distro maintainer to more of a P.R. flack. But in the long run it would get more help for you, and be better for the distro. Whether that's something you're willing to do is a question only you can answer.

Again, that's all coming from someone who's still a newbie.

-Karlheinz 
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http://www.khznoise.net/karlheinz

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