Some time back, I had written an article – Be The Ultimate Open Source Artist. This post is a follow up on it.
I had been upgrading my laptop’s OS, Ubuntu to the latest version (8.04 or Hardy Heron), and that is when I noticed Ubuntu Studio. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution – it is actually a family of distributios. Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Ubuntu Server Editions are the officially supported derivatives. Xubuntu, Gobuntu and Ubuntu Studio are recognized derivatives. It was released sometime at the end of 2007.
Ubuntu Studio is not different than Ubuntu plus some of the packages that are not installed by default. You can infact, go to the package list page of Ubuntu Studio, and install them on your Ubuntu and feel no difference in terms of functionality. Ubuntu Studio is just a distribution along with the set of software packages installed by default that would be required by a studio professional.
The package list basically is grouped into the Audio set, Graphics set and the Video set. So, any kind of artist you may be, Ubunut Studio is the OS of choice (or atleast is making an effort into getting to that point).
Ubuntu Studio is a multimedia editing/creation flavor of Ubuntu. It’s built for the GNU/Linux audio, video, and graphic enthusiast or professional.
Our aim is to make it more accessible for new users to get into the tools that GNU/Linux has to offer for multimedia creation and production. We also want to spotlight what’s out there, and show users tools they might not know to exist.
Here is a subset of the packages included for the ‘graphics professional’:
- GIMP
- Inkscape
- Scribus
- Blender
- FontForge
- Wacom Tools
If you are acquainted with installing the packages through Synaptic Package Manager of Ubuntu, then you just need to install these packages. On the other hand, if you do not want to meddle with the nuances, and would just want it all out of the box, Ubuntu Studio seems to be the choice of OS and Application suite of which is free – both in terms of freedom and funds.
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nice find, im going to have to check this out and see if it works for my box
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Do let us know how it goes, gusak.
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Funny! I was just going to ask you if you also used Linux because of your nice usage of Inkscape and GIMP (which I love).
I’ve been using Ubuntu Studio since it came out. I’ve actually been teaching Inkscape and vector graphics in a college two months. They originally wanted me to teach Illustrator, — but I said I only do Free Software. And good that they still wanted me to teach their students
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Hey Odin, thanks for dropping by.
And it is great that you teach Inksape at college. That should get the market to be more balanced in terms of the skills it demands from the artists, and also the format that they need to work with.
Getting Inkscape and GIMP into mainstream would go a long way in getting them places in the workflows of various industries related with arts.
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