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64 Studio - creative and native
Like many Linux users, I've been through the full range of operating systems and architectures over the years. A decade ago I was learning to use System 7 on the Mac and various creative applications from companies like Quark, Aldus and Adobe. Users took it for granted then that both the hardware and software were proprietary, with all that implied. But since these systems represented the gateway to the world of desktop media creation, we put up with it. The emerging field of Web design introduced people like me to Linux on the server, and with the release of applications like the Gimp, we began to use Linux on the desktop too.Today, we have free software applications covering many of the creative disciplines, including 2D and 3D graphics, audio, video and publishing for the web or print. Unfortunately - despite the well-established concept of a printing press or recording studio on every desktop - media creation, when compared with media 'consumption', remains a niche activity. It seems that even Apple, supposedly the friend of artists and creative types everywhere, has decided to target the mass market with consumer electronics products instead.
This niche status is reflected in the fact that none of the mainstream Linux distributions work particularly well 'out of the box' for media creation - but to be fair, Windows XP or OS X also require many additional packages to be installed before their users can realize the full creative potential of their chosen platform.
Specialist Linux audio distributions do exist, including AGNULA/DeMuDi and Studio to Go!, with a decent level of integration for music-making. But as far as I'm aware, all of these audio distributions are x86-only so far, and there are few specialist distributions in the other creative fields. Ratatouille, a Knoppix-based distribution designed for animation is one exception.
Why 64-bit?
Typical desktop users, writing letters, following progress on eBay or checking their email are more than adequately served by existing 32-bit processors, and for these users CPU power consumption is probably the most important issue, due to its impact on notebook battery life and system noise. But when you're working with video, 3D, multiple tracks of audio, real time processing or rendering, you need to squeeze the most possible out of your hardware. It's my view that creative users will be in the vanguard of 64-bit desktop adoption, since it's a logical next step when a couple of gigabytes of RAM are just not enough.Free software users have access to source code, so they can (in theory) build systems on any new architecture that comes along. Of course in practice, there have been few viable candidates for a successor to x86, and it has only been since the launch of the AMD Opteron, Athlon 64 and now Turion that we have been able to talk realistically about 64-bit on the desktop. The fact that Intel has embraced the 64-bit extensions to x86, together with Apple dropping Power, means that for the foreseeable future there is only one desktop architecture.
Ironically, it is the probably the fact that 32-bit Windows can run on these chips, making them commodity processors, which means that they are widely available for building the creative Linux desktop. Crucially, they are also affordable, which is a significant factor in this niche. Most creative people are either students or freelancers for at least some of the time, and so 64-bit on the desktop, Linux or otherwise, will probably only succeed if it doesn't cost significantly more than 32-bit computing.
Linux clearly has a head start on x86_64, and as LWN.net has related recently, you can choose from a number of natively compiled desktop distributions for the platform. Unfortunately for the creative user, all of these distributions are aimed at the general-purpose audience. It's impossible to be all things to all people, and what's good for the so-called consumer is rarely right for the content creator.
For example, typical distributions use Arts or ESD to share the sound card between applications, while many Linux musicians would want to use JACK - admittedly more complex, but far more powerful. Default selections of applications would be very different, and even gigantic distributions like Debian don't package all of the specialist tools needed for media creation.
A 64-bit Debian remix
64 Studio is a new native x86_64 distribution with a selected set of creative tools and as much integration between them as possible. Most of the packages come from the Pure 64 port of Debian testing, with some from Ubuntu, some from DeMuDi and some custom built. Because we're sticking very closely to Debian with the 64 Studio design, it's our intention that users will be able to install any application that we don't include directly from a Pure 64 port mirror. This includes most of the well-known applications with the exception of OpenOffice.org, which just won't build natively on x86_64 yet.Switching to native 64-bit software doesn't necessarily realize an instant and obvious improvement in performance on the same hardware, but I believe that if we create a native platform, then application developers can begin to realize the benefits of 64-bit processor optimisation and an improved memory architecture. Even in the short term, it makes more sense than building i386 binaries to run on the latest hardware.
64 Studio version 0.2.0 alpha is available for download now as an .iso image. Changes from stock Debian include X.org instead of XFree86, the Gnome desktop installed by default, and a base selection of packages including the Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus, Blender, Audacity, Ardour, Jamin and Kino. Version 0.3.0 will be out at the end of June with more packages and enhancements, and the distribution is seamlessly upgradeable with apt-get of course. We have a fully open development mailing list and a ticket system for tracking bugs on http://64studio.com/.
We'd be more than pleased to hear your test reports and suggestions for the distribution. You can help us make free software the creative desktop of choice.
The 64 Studio company
Since specialist distributions have relatively few users, they usually end up being maintained by a single person. External funding - whether from a government agency or venture capitalists - is often unreliable in the long term, and can sometimes steer the agenda of the distribution away from that of the users. I believe maintaining a niche distribution is too much work for a volunteer, so I have set up a company which is paying the lead developer, Free Ekanayaka, to create and maintain the system using the Custom Debian Distribution framework.Perhaps it's because I come from a publishing background, but I envisage the ideal Linux distribution to work in a similar way to a magazine. The maintainers are fundamentally in an editorial role, selecting the most appropriate free software from the many thousands of packages available, and putting it into a convenient monthly snapshot. Since the software is free software, it would be churlish of us to demand that people pay us to do this, but if we provide something of value then it should be worth a reasonable annual subscription. It's my view that the Mandrake Club was a step in the right direction, but that company didn't originally intend to integrate club membership with support, so you paid to be a member and then had to shell out for per-incident support on top.
Community support often meets or exceeds the quality that proprietary software vendors provide, but people tell me that it's reassuring to have some paid-for support available as an option. Sometimes our questions are just too ordinary to interest people on a mailing list or forum, or at the other end of the scale they can require patience and time-consuming research to answer. It can sometimes be difficult to get the help you need when you're up against a project deadline.
I believe that by covering one kind of desktop user really well, the 64 Studio company can provide detailed support for the people that need it at a modest cost. For the people that don't need support, or are planning large deployments where per-seat licences would be prohibitive, it's still free software - and we're not going to lock people into support contracts in order for them to access updates either. There will also be commercial support available for OEMs who want to build products using 64 Studio as a base, or to bundle the distribution with hardware as an alternative to Windows XP x64 edition. One day, we might even be able to buy a 64-bit laptop with the software we want on it!
Biographical note: Daniel James is one of the founders of LinuxUser & Developer magazine, and served as the first director of the linuxaudio.org consortium.
New Releases
OpenPKG 2.4 released
OpenPKG 2.4 is out. "Much valued by IT decision makers and beloved by Unix system administrators, OpenPKG is the world leading instrument for deployment and maintenance of Open Source Unix software when administration crosses platform boundaries." This meta-distribution has grown to 562 packages for this release; click below for the details.
New Mandriva Linux Multi Network Firewall
Mandriva has announced the second version of its comprehensive infrastructure and security system Multi Network Firewall. MNF2 provides advanced firewalling, IDS (Intrusion Detection System) and VPN (Virtual Private Network) capabilities in a single product with a simple web interface. New features include new types of VPN such as PPTP and OpenVPN, network interface bonding and bridging, traffic shaping, network mapping and peer-to-peer filtering. MNF2 ships with one year online security update service and support options.Live Linux System Knoppix 4.0 is ready (Heise)
Heise Online looks forward to the imminent Knoppix 4.0 release. "Moreover, in Version 4.0 a number of expansions have been integrated that have flowed back to Knoppix from the Knoppix-based distributions Kanotix, Quantian, Paipix and Freeduc. With, for example, the Kanotix hardware support for ISDN and DSL adapters from AVM, an improved hard disk installer, scientific software from Quantian and Paipix and learning software for children from Freeduc among them."
Astaro Introduces Version 6 of Astaro Security Linux
Astaro Corporation has announced the release of version 6 of its Astaro Security Linux Unified Threat Management software. "The new version adds improved protection for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications, increased protection from "zero-day attacks," enhanced configuration options, and support for the Linux 2.6 Kernel."
Distribution News
Debian release team meeting minutes
The Debian release team held a meeting on June 18; some rough minutes from that meeting have been posted. After looking at the hard goals for the etch release (including X.org, gcc toolchain upgrade, amd64 integration, non-free firmware purging, etc.) and additional "would be nice" items, the group decided that an 18-month release cycle "seems sane." There's even a timeline calling for etch to come out in early December 2006.Debian GNU/Linux news
Martin Michlmayr reports on a number of orphaned packages that are likely to be dropped. "There are currently over 200 orphaned packages, many of which have been on WNPP for quite a long time and some with RC bugs. I intend to request the removal of a number of packages in three weeks unless a package has been adopted by someone by then."
James Troup reports that Debian's hosting of machines at Above.Net has come to an end. Some services will be relocated temporarily while a new provider can be found.
Release notes for FC4 erratum
Fedora Core 4 features release notes written using a new procedure and featuring many new details. Click below for links to FC4 errata and how to get involved in writing release notes for FC5.An update from Terra Soft: Apple, PowerPC, Linux
Terra Soft, provider of Yellow Dog Linux, reports on its new sources for PowerPC. "IBM, Freescale, Mercury/Momentum, Genesi, Terra Soft and others are rallying to fill the void created by Apple's departure and expand the Power Architecture marketplace. Initiatives such as Power.org will help ensure the Power family will reach its full potential."
New Distributions
Klinux
Klinux is an Italian GNU/Linux embedded distribution for industrial applications from Koan Software. It includes an integrated development environment (IDE) and debugging instruments for embedded and real time systems. Klinux is based on kernel 2.4.26 and 2.6.10. It supports all the processor families x86, ARM (StrongArm, XScale, AT91), and PPC.
Distribution Newsletters
Debian Weekly News
The Debian Weekly News for June 21, 2005 is out. This edition looks at GNOME 2.10.1 in unstable, Debian at LinuxTag, Woody to Sarge upgrades, SELinux and BSD Ports, the menu system update, Debian in embedded systems, an etch wishlist, PostgreSQL transition, and much more.Debian Weekly News
The Debian Weekly News for June 14, 2005 covers a discussion on release goals and the release team for etch, proposed changes to the release policy, C++ ABI changes, voting for DebConf 5 talks, Sarge for AMD 64, Debian and SELinux, and several other topics.Debian Weekly News
The Debian Weekly News for June 8, 2005 is out with a look at 3.1 release parties, Debian at Code Fest Japan 2005, QA goals for Etch, and other topics.Fedora Weekly News Issue 1
The first Fedora Weekly News is out. Topics include the release of Fedora Core 4, an installation guide for Fedora Core 4, Tour de Fedora Core IV, upgrading Fedora Core 3 to Fedora Core 4, Red Hat Magazine - June 2005 - Issue 8, and more.Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of June 20, 2005 is out. New management for the Gentoo store, Gentoo at the German LinuxTag 2005 in Karlsruhe, Gentoo Forum admin and moderators to become official staff members, Gentoo Forums receive hardware donation, are among this week's topics.DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 105
The DistroWatch Weekly for June 20, 2005 is out. "This issue focuses on some of the interesting events of the past week, including the war of words between the Linux and BSD communities, the failure of Lycoris as a business model, and the surprising revelation that the founder of Gentoo and one of the leading Linux personalities has accepted a job offer from Microsoft. We also wonder why SUSE does not participate in this year's LinuxTag, introduce a Debian sarge variant "with a human face", and tell you how to get the latest release of Linspire for free. The featured distribution of the week is INSERT, a tiny security and rescue live CD."
Package updates
Fedora Core updates
Fedora Core 4 updates: parted-1.6.22-3.FC4, system-config-securitylevel-1.5.8.1-1, elinks-0.10.3-3.1, ruby-1.8.2-7.fc4.1, arts-1.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdelibs-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdebase-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdemultimedia-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdesdk-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdeaccessibility-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdeaddons-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdeartwork-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdebindings-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdeedu-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdegames-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdegraphics-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdenetwork-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdepim-3.4.1-0.fc4.2, kdeutils-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdevelop-3.2.1-0.fc4.1, kdewebdev-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kdeadmin-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, kde-i18n-3.4.1-0.fc4.1, util-linux-2.12p-9.5, sudo-1.6.8p8-2.1, gawk-3.1.4-5.2, mc-4.6.1a-0.10.FC4, pilot-link-0.12.0-0.pre3.0.fc4.1, selinux-policy-targeted-1.23.18-12, alsa-lib-1.0.9rf-2.FC4, alsa-utils-1.0.9rf-2.FC4, system-config-soundcard-1.2.12-2, jpilot-0.99.8-0.pre9.fc4.1, ImageMagick-6.2.2.0-3.fc4.0, hwdata-0.158.1-1.Fedora Core 3 updates: checkpolicy-1.17.5-1.2 (policy compiler only), selinux-policy-targeted-1.17.30-3.9 (allow unconfined_t full execmod access), ruby-1.8.2-1.fc3.2 (backported changes from devel), util-linux-2.12a-24.3 (bug fixes).
Slackware updates
This week's Slackware updates include some java packages, an upgrade to sudo-1.6.8p9, and an upgrade to gtk+-2.6.8. See the slackware-current changelog for complete details.
Distribution reviews
My Workstation OS: Kurumin Linux (NewsForge)
Here's an article on NewsForge from a Kurumin Linux fan. "In fact, one of the highlights of this distribution is its extensive use of scripts. Kurumin comes out of the box with more than 400 small scripts -- most of them embedded in Clica-Aki, Kurumin's Control Panel -- aimed at making easier some of the usual configuration tasks such as setting up a server, installing softmodems and wireless adapters, and installing new software. These scripts are generically named Magic Icons, and they are designed to do what they have to do with just a few clicks."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol
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