Project: Linux Mint Artist Edition

[misfitplanet]

I would like to open a discussion on the creation of a new distro of Mint specifically designed for Artists with a special emphasis on securing and protecting creative data. A remastered Mint distro is a good way to start, if things are successful, it would be nice to see an exciting marketing opportunity for the Mint community. Wouldn't it be nice for an artist to slip their work in their pocket (thumb or portable drive) and knowing the machine behind them is empty of all traces of their private creations?

Goal of the Community Project: Create a Linux Mint Live distro specifically for artists. The distro will include Linux applications an artist would most commonly use. The distro would be a securely designed locked down version of Mint, whereby
- all networking drivers and files, and applications uninstalled (ethernet, wireless, bluetooth, browsers etc.)
- ram is wiped at shutdown
- partition used for artistic files is automatically encrypted
- swap is wiped several times with random data at shutdown
This of course keeps all an artists work absolutely private and untouchable by others. All applications of OS tools not related to the creation would not be installed.

This is a WIP, and the suggestion lists follow. I need some help with these lists.

Art Applications
Applications that an artist would most likely use.
- Gimp
- Blender
- Inkscape
- Celtx
- OpenShot
- Audacity
- VLC

Security Applications
Applications that assist in keeping an artists files encrypted.
- KeepPassX
- CryptKeeper
Note: Is there a program or script out there that could be included that detects any swap used and wipes it? How about wiping the ram? How about a partition? Is there program that automates the cleaning of all these things after work has been saved and encrypted?

Basic Linux Mint Packages
This list should include a bare bone list of packages need just to make linux work, i.e., the kernel, gnome, etc.

Packages To Be Avoided
This list should be avoided packages that most distros would contain, but for purpose of a network lock-down would be avoided, i.e., browsers, bluetooth, network managers, ethernet, wireless, etc.
It may seem weird not to have a distro without networking capability, but when it comes to security it is better to know and not trust. Knowing is keeping phyiscal separation, trusting is firewalls and virus protection. Even if you've only dabled in networking and hacking, you know firewalls and virus protection is not full proof, but physical removing all the software that allows the networking devices to run is. This will provide the ultimate satisfaction in creative and proprietary security for users, knowing no one can snoop or steal what you are not ready to share yet.

Proprietary Drivers
This list should be packages that will contain drivers, files for scanners, Wacom Pads, etc.

Anyone who would like to help me in the endeaver, please contact me pm.

[donald]

Hello! to the tech folks;

I too would like to second a motion for the proposal of an Linux Mint edition dedicated to and for graphics/multimedia arts. My daughter is studying graphics art and design and a spin of mint for artist would be a nice addition. I wished that adobe would offer more to (linux) besides a reader. I believe linux would be more wide spread and more used if adobe would jump on board. My daughter enjoys linux mint and would and could benefit from an editon tailored for artist. We are on a tight budget (as most are in these economic times); so being able to download and use linux mint has been a blessing. She wants a( mac) but the price is far from our( means) at the moment. Well anyway! thanks MINT for your services and great releases.

Respectfully!

[naviathan]

I'll third this, although I would like to add Cinepaint to the list of apps. I haven't been able to get it to work for the life of me. Would be nice to have an editor capable of more than 8 bit color.

[misfitplanet]

Didn't know about Cinepaint. I'll have to try to get it going. If I do, I send you a pm.

[richyrich]

Please, don't forget about Imagemagick.

http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php

[misfitplanet]

That's right. It's great for automated stuff like adding watermarks to all the folders in a directory.

[denissonofyvon]

Hi

I agree, a dedicated a Mint distro dedicated to arts would be very welcome and also a match to Mint's culture. One dedicated to graphic arts would be especially appreciated. I have been trying to switch my daughter (a graphic artist) to using Mint for years. Here are a few hurdles to Mint adoption.

-The ease of use of Wacom tablets (or lack of) on Linux has been an issue for me.
-Scanners and their drivers are key to these artists works.
-I can't seems to convince my own little artist to using Gimp. (It's been difficult just to convince her to try)
-Commercial proprietary applications are seen as time savers when compared to their open software equivalent.

Building a distro dedicated to artistic creators is not a simple task, totally impossible, if you don't have an artist or art professor on side to tell you what is important to their work.

That being said, please don't give up trying

[denissonofyvon]

Don't know if it helps but I found this post to be very interesting. Linux is seen by some as a decent alternative to Mac.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/brando ... core/12168

[colyn]

Take a look at Ubuntu Studio.

It's the best out there for what you want.

[denissonofyvon]

Colyn,

I had Ubuntu studio installed on an older computer. It's full of good looking tools, great esthetics's. I ran in a number of problems with my computer's graphic card with version 9. I also had some issues with the sound card then stopped experimenting with it (my kid got impatient seeing me struggle to install her Wacom tablet). Too bad really, I encourage the stronger Linux users to give it a try (I am afraid I was not good enough to give it a fair chance).

Denis

[denissonofyvon]

Hi

If there is still interest out there for a Linux Artist Edition...

I am currently experimenting with artistx a ubuntu derivative. Very interesting works great. Guess what, I installed it on a USB 16G drive using my Mint 10 "createur de disque de demarrage" great functionality guys!!! Mint is great, Mint is great, Mint is great.

Anyway, once in a while I test drive artistx from the USB drive, so far so good, no problems with graphic cards and most of the stuff works great with my hardware and the desktop looks great. I have not installed it permanently yet but considering it for my kid's computer, could I possibly convince her to drop Windows? Time will tell. I invite anyone to give it a try and also use the Mint function for creating live USB. Pretty cool.

http://www.artistx.org/site3/

[dante19992]

I would like to open a discussion on the creation of a new distro of Mint specifically designed for Artists with a special emphasis on securing and protecting creative data. A remastered Mint distro is a good way to start, if things are successful, it would be nice to see an exciting marketing opportunity for the Mint community. Wouldn't it be nice for an artist to slip their work in their pocket (thumb or portable drive) and knowing the machine behind them is empty of all traces of their private creations?

Goal of the Community Project: Create a Linux Mint Live distro specifically for artists. The distro will include Linux applications an artist would most commonly use. The distro would be a securely designed locked down version of Mint, whereby
- all networking drivers and files, and applications uninstalled (ethernet, wireless, bluetooth, browsers etc.)
- ram is wiped at shutdown
- partition used for artistic files is automatically encrypted
- swap is wiped several times with random data at shutdown
This of course keeps all an artists work absolutely private and untouchable by others. All applications of OS tools not related to the creation would not be installed.

This is a WIP, and the suggestion lists follow. I need some help with these lists.

Art Applications
Applications that an artist would most likely use.
- Gimp
- Blender
- Inkscape
- Celtx
- OpenShot
- Audacity
- VLC

Security Applications
Applications that assist in keeping an artists files encrypted.
- KeepPassX
- CryptKeeper
Note: Is there a program or script out there that could be included that detects any swap used and wipes it? How about wiping the ram? How about a partition? Is there program that automates the cleaning of all these things after work has been saved and encrypted?

Basic Linux Mint Packages
This list should include a bare bone list of packages need just to make linux work, i.e., the kernel, gnome, etc.

Packages To Be Avoided
This list should be avoided packages that most distros would contain, but for purpose of a network lock-down would be avoided, i.e., browsers, bluetooth, network managers, ethernet, wireless, etc.
It may seem weird not to have a distro without networking capability, but when it comes to security it is better to know and not trust. Knowing is keeping phyiscal separation, trusting is firewalls and virus protection. Even if you've only dabled in networking and hacking, you know firewalls and virus protection is not full proof, but physical removing all the software that allows the networking devices to run is. This will provide the ultimate satisfaction in creative and proprietary security for users, knowing no one can snoop or steal what you are not ready to share yet.

Proprietary Drivers
This list should be packages that will contain drivers, files for scanners, Wacom Pads, etc.

Anyone who would like to help me in the endeaver, please contact me pm.

Please include a text editor in this distribution for authors/poets ect. I myself enjoy writing poems and do NOT want mine stolen. Therefore I would like a distribution like your planned one to include a text editor.

ALSO THIS IS IMPORTANT. Secure-delete has programs to clear swap partitions and ram and stuff. They take a million years but they work.

[denissonofyvon]

Steeling poems?!?

Sorry, I don't mean to be offensive but, what do you mean by "you don't want your poem to be stolen"? Don't you want to share your art, put it out there for all to see? Securing it and all doesn't that prevent you from being recognized for your creative work? Isn't it what the the programmers form Mint do? They share their work. How would you like it if they decided to secure all this beautiful work and not share it with anyone?
What if Linus had decided, I am going to keep Linux for myself? The world would not have been a better place for him or for us. Think of Wikipedia and all great things resulting from communities sharing their talents, sharing their ideas? Please share your talent with everyone and make the world a better place to live in. Do it for yourself do it for the rest of us. If you communicate your ideas to a wide audience any attempts at steeling them will be futile, everyone will know they came from you.
What if you generated desktop background images with your poems on them and share them with the Mint community? The Mint community produces great images for the desktop. It's made up of truly inspiring individuals.

Cheers

[dante19992]

Steeling poems?!?

Sorry, I don't mean to be offensive but, what do you mean by "you don't want your poem to be stolen"? Don't you want to share your art, put it out there for all to see? Securing it and all doesn't that prevent you from being recognized for your creative work? Isn't it what the the programmers form Mint do? They share their work. How would you like it if they decided to secure all this beautiful work and not share it with anyone?
What if Linus had decided, I am going to keep Linux for myself? The world would not have been a better place for him or for us. Think of Wikipedia and all great things resulting from communities sharing their talents, sharing their ideas? Please share your talent with everyone and make the world a better place to live in. Do it for yourself do it for the rest of us. If you communicate your ideas to a wide audience any attempts at steeling them will be futile, everyone will know they came from you.
What if you generated desktop background images with your poems on them and share them with the Mint community? The Mint community produces great images for the desktop. It's made up of truly inspiring individuals.

Cheers

Yeah but I don't want someone to steal CREDIT for my work. My poems are a piece of my self. All art is an expression of how you feel what you are what you like. Do you want someone to steal a piece of who you are? If I write I am going to be published before I share so I have no need to fear. That is what I meant when I said I do not want my works stolen. EVERYONE knows that that is what that means supposing they even speak english. If it is MY work I want it to be recognized as MY work. I would imagine that is what this distribution is all about since they are trying to not leave any traces behind on the computer they load the OS on. And yes you did offend

[denissonofyvon]

Sorry, Dante

I'll take care not to offend again.

I found the following publication it's beautifully done and they list the libre software they use towards the end. I hope you like it.

http://libregraphicsmag.com/

[JDebianV]

What a great and desirable project idea. I am all for this type of effort to have a Mfulint Distro geared towards art usage. Of course, some more music and audio packages would be very good addition. Like 64Studio - with Jack, Rose Garden, Hydrogen, ZynAddSubFX, Ardour, and other virtual synths and samplers, tools ect. Part of what makes 64Studio successful is the base kernel which operates in real time for powerful execution of simultaneous multimedia events.

Here is an example of basic experimental electronic sound scape created entirely with Linux 64Studio:
http://soundcloud.com/vansgo/point-of-neo-return

I support the frame work of Mint for the artist creativity and functionality.

Thanks for the input on this topic.

[animaguy]

I was just going to create a post regarding this subject but luckily I ran across this post while browsing the forum.

I downloaded Ubuntu Studio 12.04 and I liked it. I can easily reinstall it but I have to say the enthusiasm for it on the Ubuntu forums didn't seem to be particularly ... great.

I use CentOS as a web server OS and I am pretty setup with my best Desktop for web development. And CentOS keeps my yum skills fresh.

But I like to play with multi-media stuff, especially Blender.

But Blender can standalone with any distro and to keep myself fresh on apt-get I like Linux Mint as a Debian choice for my laptops.

I tried Ubuntu, and I don't want to speak bad about Ubuntu, but I don't like it. Sorry. I don't like the forums.

I am back using Linux Mint mainly because of this forum. This forum has a lot of enthusiasm and passion. And the vast majority of members follow the rules of ettiquette. So for me it is best to just stay here.

But I liked the idea of Ubuntu Studio too.

Here are some of my suggestions to developers:

I am no hardware engineer but it would seem to me that if Linux Mint did decide to produce a distro everything between the kernal and the desktop should be catered to OpenCL graphics cards like Nvidia Quadros and sound cards like M Audio Audiophile or Delta's.

But because Remastersys supports Linux Mint, I suppose if those hardware issues are not noticeably critical as to how the kernal to desktop is designed than, I suppose it would be up to the motivated users to decide which multi-media programs are best to install.

But it would be nice for the Linux Mint developers to put together an out of the box distro with a default set of programs that creative people would find worth the investment in learning to download, burn and install a Linux Mint distro into dedicated multi-media computer.

My understanding is that Ubuntu Studio can be installed on 564 MB or ram, although the programs need more hardware fire power.

Regardless, because this is a personal priority for me to build a multi-media workstation with a Debian based Linux OS (Linux Mint being my flavor of choice) I will probably keep this thread alive with periodic updates towards my progress.

Most of the programs listed above I am already aware of although some programs listed are new to me. But I have bookmarked this thread and plan to research the past suggested programs as well as any in the future.

And another thing, creative people like to think of themselves as out-of-the-box thinkers and open minded to new things. So I believe creative thinkers in general would be naturally turned on the whole open-source, GNU and forum based community that is best characterized by Linux.

[AlbertP]

My understanding is that Ubuntu Studio can be installed on 564 MB or ram, although the programs need more hardware fire power.

Mint can also be installed on hardware like that (on 440MB it fails, on 480MB it's hit-or-miss, on 512MB it just works) though indeed more RAM is recommended.

[nekoCAT]

Yeah but I don't want someone to steal CREDIT for my work. My poems are a piece of my self. All art is an expression of how you feel what you are what you like. Do you want someone to steal a piece of who you are? If I write I am going to be published before I share so I have no need to fear. That is what I meant when I said I do not want my works stolen. EVERYONE knows that that is what that means supposing they even speak english. If it is MY work I want it to be recognized as MY work. I would imagine that is what this distribution is all about since they are trying to not leave any traces behind on the computer they load the OS on. And yes you did offend

Quite frankly, the only one being offensive here is you. The term is far more ambiguous than you seem to give it credit for and the poster raised a legitimate question.

[xenopeek]

Let's not get agitated about what somebody wrote 1.5 years ago. I think it is time to close this topic.