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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

My Thought's "Ubuntu Studio ~or~ KX Studio"

By JayR

   These past few weeks I have been experimenting with Ubuntu Studio and KX Studio, both of which are excellent examples of how Linux can actually hold it's own as an Audio Video content creation suite, the former is based on the XFCE Desktop Environment and lightening fast on a wide range of hardware configurations, the later KX Studio uses KDE, a somewhat non-intuitive DE, however extremely flexible once you get a grip on things.

    I'll sum this up briefly until I have more time available for further testing. Ubuntu Studio is a total no-extra brain power required installation and operation, you should be up and running within an hour, as a mater of fact I would feel comfortable  installing this on a friends computer, wither or not they are interested in A/V content creation. KX Studio, will require some reading on your part. Myself being new to the current KDE Plasma DE, a lot of reading was required, but once I finally figured out the concept of Widgets and  and Capsules ( similar to the old Next Step OS, it is a truly Object Oriented DE ) the amount of flexibility is unsurpassed in the Linux world. You can do virtually anything your heart desires.

    KX Studio also ditches QJackCTL in favor of the in-house developed Cadence, and several other modules vastly superior to the aged and somewhat cantankerous  QJack. No you wont have to relearn any of the old QJack trick's you have acquired of the years, just put them to use in a much more intuitive and easy to set up environment.

    The KX Team has also done a major rework of the current KDE desktop, stripping it of most of the annoying and totally  unnecessary eye-candy, gimmicky stuff no one really needs in order to be productive. As a mater of fact during the installation one of the final steps is to chose the KX desktop tweaks or continue with a standard KDE install, by all means choose the former, you wont see much difference ( performance wise ) between Ubuntu Studio with XFCE and  KX Studio with the vastly improved ( KX Tweaked ) KDE environment. As a matter of fact I like it so much, I have decided to install it on all 3 of my workstations, and push my CinnaMateStudio project into the background as I wait for the Cinnamon DE to fully mature.

   I can not say enough good things about either of these Ubuntu 14.04 based distributions. If you want fast and now total ease of use, go with Ubuntu Studio. If you don't mind doing some research, quite a bit of reading, and unlimited flexibility, then defiantly go for the gold and take KXStudio for a spin.

http://ubuntustudio.org/

http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/

JayR :_)

Friday, May 16, 2014

Why 8-Bit Style Gaming Is Making A Comeback

By JayR

     I don't know about you, but I just loved my Atari 800 and the original NES console. Some of those early 8-bit games were incredibly fun. Don't get me wrong here, I love the graphics capabilities of newer hardware, and all the very kool  game-play of modern graphic game engines. But there is something to be said for the classic's.

    Personally I think the reason is developing an 8-bit style game as an Indie Developer, is much easier and you have the opportunity to reach a much larger audience. There are some really great game development tools available on the Linux platform. It's time to start exploring them.

JayR :_)

Thursday, May 15, 2014

UbuntuStudio 14.04 / Installing a Generic Kernel & Nvidia Graphic's / Does It Improve Graphic's Performance ?

By JayR

    I have been playing around with UbuntuStudio 14.04 for about a week now, it is a very nice "Distro" I would highly recommend it to people that are new to Linux and are interested in Audio / Video / Game Creation, as a very solid starting point.

    There are however some problems with the Nvidia drivers,  ( ATI Radeon, I have no experience there, however it seems to be the norm now to default these cards to the Open Source alternative ) Anyway's  I have been using Nvidia as long as I can remember.

    So here's the deal I found, as you more than likely know using a Real Time Kernel, and a Generic or Server, and perhaps a Cloud based one produce different throughput result's depending upon what your ultimate goal is.

     For Filming in a Virtual World such as SecondLife, Open Sim or Video Games more than likely you are going to prefer the Generic Kernel. However for final mixing you will require a Real Time kernel.

    So here's the problem, getting the Nvidia driver kernel to to work on both boot option's is a real exercise in patience. I did manage to get it working correctly, by re-installing the Nvidia drivers ( all of them related to my hardware / minus a few I just did not need, mostly notebook related stuff  ) on both kernels and multiple reboot's. And here is one thing that keeps rearing it's ugly head. The SUDO user command substituting for ROOT, don't get me wrong here, it's a double edged sword, for folk's unfamiliar with LINUX, it helps in preventing them from screwing things up too badly. I know there are some workaround's such as FAKEROOT and CALIFE, but I require actual ROOT and CHROOT privilege's, if I'm ever going to get anything accomplished.

    Is it worth the amount of time required to install a Standard Kernel ? I'm going to perhaps go out on a limb here, but NO !  I can not really see much of a difference in FPS ( and that's not First Person Shooter ) performance, at least on modern hardware.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

UbuntuStudio 14.04 : Thumbs UP ! KXStudio Looking Great Too !

JayR

     I just stared playing around with this Linux distribution.

http://ubuntustudio.org/

    It's about as solid as your going to get. They are using XFCE and OpenBox for the UI, and it is extremely responsive, almost lightening fast on older hardware.

    This is a really fascinating study in the ability of Linux and the gradual migration towards the open source platform in general.

    I will be getting back with ya on this one, and the new KXStudio Linux is out and about, supposedly they are migrating to a pure  ~or~ unsure  total Debian or a mixture of Ubuntu. Either way it sounds good to me, for one reason or another I enjoy using Linux, it definitely keeps me on my toe's, so to speak :_)

JayR :_)


Saturday, May 3, 2014

Excuse The Mess Please : Lot's of stuff happening

By JayR

    Anyone reading or following this blog may have noticed I removed several post's yesterday in order to refocus my energies on the new A / V studio here in Melvindale Michigan, and just get back to basics. I'm still a Linux nut-case, I use Window's and occasionally Mac's as well. Their all good :_)

   I like Linux, and it's free, so it's a no-brain-er for me.

    I intend to concentrate on the creative art aspect's of Audio and Video design, and have some fun while gaining knowledge too. This is not going to be a religious based blog, however since I will be working closely with the Faith Christian Community Church during the construction, and hopefully full time operation. Hey a little bit of Faith can't be all that bad :_)

    I hope you'll check back here from time to time, I have no idea what's going to happen next. I am excited to be involved with a project from the ground floor.

John R Kostelnik