Linux Mint Forums

I wanted to canvas people's opinion about the possibility of a studio version of Linux Mint.



It would be a separate Linux Mint edition, based around a collection of the 'best-of-breed' open source applications for creating music, digital artwork, photographs and movies. It would be a similar concept to [Ubuntu Studio], but with the added benefits of Linux Mint.

It would be great to hear your opinion:

1. Do you think a studio edition is necessary?
2. Which desktop environment do you think is better suited for a studio edition and why?
3. Which applications would you like to see included?

1. No, I don't think it's really necessary, but it would be lots of fun

2. First distro that came to mind is Crunchbang,
it's loaded with great apps(most of them in the concept of a "studio" distro) and uses openbox, overall an amazing experience,check it out!

So,personally I think Openbox with Thunar is suited for the Mint studio edition, cause it's really lightweight, and doesn't get in your way when trying to be creative. The system leaves enough room in the Ram for "studio work".Also openbox is very good looking .

3. I'd suggest Audacity(as long as there are no problems with pulse audio) and Avidemux, but better take a look at what's included in Crunchbang, good stuff!

A VERY nice idea, the only thing I would want to do is to change it's name to "Linux Mint Artist" - or something similar, to avoid confusion with ubuntu studio.

twin wrote:2. First distro that came to mind is Crunchbang,
it's loaded with great apps(most of them in the concept of a "studio" distro) and uses openbox, overall an amazing experience,check it out!

CrunchBang Linux looks cool - thanks for pointing it out. The 'Darkness Returns' Clearlooks theme it uses is nice, I may need to try it out in Linux Mint!

I don't have any experience with Openbox, but I like lightweight window managers (I'd been using Linux Mint XFCE CE before the Elyssa beta came out) so I might have to check that out too!

twin wrote:3. I'd suggest Audacity(as long as there are no problems with pulse audio) and Avidemux, but better take a look at what's included in Crunchbang, good stuff!

It doesn't look like CrunchBang is specifically a 'studio' or 'creative' distribution, although it does have a few more tools in that area than vanilla Ubuntu. I think the list of applications in Ubuntu Studio is more the kind of content we'd be shooting for.

Zwopper wrote:A VERY nice idea, the only thing I would want to do is to change it's name to "Linux Mint Artist" - or something similar, to avoid confusion with ubuntu studio.

I see what you mean, although personally I think the Linux Mint part is enough to distinguish the project... but it would be great to get some feedback from people about the name too - consider it question 4!

You could just make a .mint file that installs all the "mint studio" packages on top of a standard mint system?

kayakaholic wrote:You could just make a .mint file that installs all the "mint studio" packages on top of a standard mint system?

That was Zwopper's initial suggestion too, and the more I think about it the more I think that it's a great idea. It removes the huge effort involved in developing, maintaining and testing a separate distribution. I definitely think this should be the way forward for any Linux Mint Studio project.

Unfortunately, this thread seems to show that people aren't exactly 'champing at the bit' for a studio version... but I can try to start the ball rolling with some software suggestions (mostly taken from Ubuntu Studio) and we'll see what happens from there.

Audio:

• Ardour - a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application
• Audacity - a digital audio editor application
• Hydrogen - an advanced drum machine
• Mixxx - a digital DJ-style mixing program
• Rosegarden - a digital audio workstation program

Video:

• Kino - a simple non-linear video editor
• PiTiVi - an 'advanced' non-linear video editor
• SMPlayer - a GUI front-end for MPlayer
• Stopmotion - a stop-motion animation movie creator
• VLC media player - a media player with built-in codecs

Graphics:

• Agave - a color scheme generator
• Blender - a 3D animation program
• FontForge - a typeface editor program
• GIMP - a raster graphics editor
• Inkscape - a vector graphics editor
• Pencil - a 2D animation creator
• Scribus - a desktop publishing application
• Synfig - a 2D vector graphics and timeline-based animation program

I'm not an Audio guy, so I didn't include the large selection of MIDI software that Ubuntu Studio has as I have no idea if they are best-of-breed or not. @Zwopper: I know you do sequencing - which MIDI software would you suggest?

Non-Linear Video editing is an area where Linux is still weak. I did a little research and it looks like Ubuntu Studio has it right with Kino and PiTiVi being the current front-runners (some people recommend Cinelerra over PiTiVi, but the interface makes my eyes bleed ).

Do you agree with the selection? What other software would you suggest?

Count me in

Yeah but I also think that something like this can be done with not only a studio edition but many other "packs" of software like an eye candy pack with docks and widgets and things or developer packs etc.

Could one of the guitar Pro alternatives be a part of the audio section seeing as you've listed the drum machine?

I would certainly use Linux Mint Studio.

Im thinking we can snazz up gimp with a load of new brushes, patterns and plugins etc?

kayakaholic wrote:Im thinking we can snazz up gimp with a load of new brushes, patterns and plugins etc?

Zwopper is the guy who can answer that.

kayakaholic wrote:Im thinking we can snazz up gimp with a load of new brushes, patterns and plugins etc?

I have some stuff to share there.

ok guys.
I can't do it myself, but I would really love to have mint studio... would take the hassle away of testing and installing sound tools and of having to have still a win partition for sound.

Zwopper wrote:

kayakaholic wrote:Im thinking we can snazz up gimp with a load of new brushes, patterns and plugins etc?

I have some stuff to share there.

It would be excellent if Linux Mint could offer some quality brushes, patterns, etc. by default! That's one of the areas where the GIMP is really lacking.

I like the idea of a .mint file that would have those packages. I'd definitely use it.

Would Clem allow us to stick a customized gimp in the mint repos?

I think I saw something similar to software packs in red hat installation. Was it called spin's or something?

MyPaint looks quite good

EDIT: naa spins seem to be to do with the ISO you download

ed@Mint wrote:I will also include all the softwares in Jernau's list.

ed@Mint wrote:If anybody has any other suggestions for the portal, please report them here

Come on folks - get suggesting!

ed@Mint wrote:edit:
Happy anniversary to me for my 500th post

Congratulations ed! You're one of my favourite posters and a real asset to the community - I'm already looking forward to your next 500 posts!

If you ever decide to visit Stockholm then let me know, I'd like to buy you a beer.

kayakaholic wrote:MyPaint looks quite good

MyPaint looks like it has potential. It has some way to go before it has the features and polish of ArtRage, but hopefully the developers continue to head in that direction.

Thanks for pointing it out.

Art Rage came with my graphics tablet Found the mypaint in this list here http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/top-100-of-t ... lications/ theres a few other good bits and bobs

kayakaholic wrote:Art Rage came with my graphics tablet Found the mypaint in this list here http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/top-100-of-t ... lications/ theres a few other good bits and bobs

Great list!

ed@Mint wrote:I'll sure let you know if i come to Stockholm then... Make sure to do the same if you come to Belgium, we got nice beers as well.

Deal.

I was in Brussels earlier this year and I had this beer for the first time:


It's a quality beer and the glass it comes in is pretty special too.