64 Studio 1.0 'Olympic' released

Press Release - The Internet, 29th November 2006

64 Studio 1.0 'Olympic' released!
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Creative and native free software on AMD64 multi-core
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The 64 Studio project produces a distribution of native free software 
for digital content creation on x86_64 hardware (AMD's 64-bit CPUs and 
Intel's EM64T chips). After eighteen months of development, the project 
has made its first stable release available for free download. It is 
named in recognition of the work of Glyn Johns and Eddie Kramer at 
Olympic Studios in London.

The distribution is based on the pure 64 port of Debian GNU/Linux, 
testing branch, but with a specialised package selection and lots of 
other customisations. The 64 Studio project also produces a 32-bit 
edition for legacy PC hardware.

Download sites
--------------

Install CD images for version 1.0 (both 64-bit and 32-bit builds) are 
available for download from the following sites...

Primary site:

ftp://download.64studio.com/

UK mirrors:

http://www.mirror.ac.uk/mirror/images.64studio.com/

ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/mirror/images.64studio.com/

US mirror:

http://download.linuxaudio.org/64studio/

Please use the mirror which is closest to you. The .iso image can be 
burned to a 700MB CD-R using any popular CD burning software. There is 
also a readme file featuring basic installation instructions, with 
several translations available (Dutch, Finnish, French, Italian, 
Norwegian, and Spanish).

Installation
------------

The CD image will install Debian with X.org, the Gnome 2.14 desktop, 
Linux kernel 2.6.17 with realtime preemption patches (a realtime SMP 
kernel for AMD64 dual core and multi-processor machines is available on 
the 64-bit CD) and a selection of creative applications. These 
applications cover audio and music, video, 2D and 3D graphics, 
publishing for the web or print, and the internet and office tools a 
creative user is likely to need for their daily work. Adding favourite 
packages from Debian testing is as easy as apt-get, or a few clicks in 
Synaptic.

Please note that these releases are free software, and come with no 
warranty. However, the software does actually install and run on the 
project's dual processor Opteron, dual core Athlon 64 and single core 
Turion test hardware, and is already in daily use by many of the 
project's testers. The 32-bit version has been tested on a variety of 
older PC hardware, including a Via C3 and a dual Pentium Pro, but the 
project suggests a faster processor and at least 512MB RAM to take full 
advantage of the distribution's features.

If you would like to send feedback or make a suggestion for improvement, 
please subscribe to the 64studio-devel mailing list: 
http://lists.64studio.com/mailman/listinfo/64studio-devel

For other communication, please have a look at 
http://64studio.com/wiki/ContactsPage or see the 
http://64studio.com/wiki/FrequentlyAskedQuestions page.

Community and business model
----------------------------

Developers and users who are interested in getting involved with the 64 
Studio project would be most welcome. The aim of the project is to 
create a distribution with full (but completely optional) commercial 
support, which will generate revenue to pay free software developers. 
The 64 Studio Ltd. company, which supports the free software project, is 
also producing custom distributions for commercial partners with 
Linux-based audio products.

Press contacts
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64 Studio project director Daniel James and lead developer Free 
Ekanayaka are available for interview by email or phone. Please contact 
daniel at 64studio dot com for any enquiries. A screenshot of the 
distribution is available at http://64studio.com/

**ends