Subject: [linux-audio-dev] thoughts on a Linux-audio distribution
From: Dave Phillips (dlphilp_AT_bright.net)
Date: Sat Sep 16 2000 - 16:27:10 EEST
Greetings:
I have some experience with this topic already, not that it matters.
During the planning stages of my book the publisher expressed interest in
including an entire audio-optimized distribution, and that wish neatly
coincided with the plans of a group of programmers who had already begun a
Linux multimedia distro. The group and the plans seemed well-organized,
but the problems faced were formidable, and eventually the plan was
dropped.
In the end, my publisher and I decided to simply include a CD with the
book's profiled apps along with a large selection of other applications I
chose from the Linux soundapps Web pages.
The issue of dependencies is significant. If you're planning
anything ambitious, consider the fact that you are likely to need at least
the following software:
Java, both the 1.1.x series with Swing, and the JDK 1.2/1.3
Motif or LessTif
up-to-date Qt and GTK stuff
out-of-date Qt and GTK stuff
LISP
possibly two C/C++ environments
FLTK
Xforms
Tcl/Tk
Python, Perl, et al, along with their GUI bindings
et cetera...
Of course, the selection is dependent on what apps are included. If you
leave out Silence, HPKComposer, hYdraJ, and other Java apps then you can
dispense with Java. If you skip the NoTAM software you can leave out the
Motif/LessTif requirement, and so on and so forth...Fortunately, most of
that software is standard with modern distros.
I haven't checked out John's m-station project, but I will do so today.
I'm curious to see how the content selection differs from mine... :)
Incidentally, my book's CD image and its contents will be updated and
made available from the MusTec site at ftp://mustec.bgsu.edu/pub/linux.
I'd like to provide a single place for users to pick up the latest
versions of the included stuff, and Adam Zygmunt has kindly donated space
at MusTec for such a purpose.
Btw, another nice consideration for an audio distro would be to include
a separate directory of console-based apps. I'm starting another article
on Linux console audio apps, there's some great stuff out there that
doesn't need a GUI.
And don't forget the LinuxPPC folks ! They'll be mad at you if you leave
'em out... ;)
I'm leaning towards the point of view that asks "Why do we need another
distro ?". I'm not sure that's going to be an attraction for a musician
who has already installed Linux, only to find that he has to re-install
some other version of Linux to obtain the best audio performance. And
unless it offers all the other amenities of Red Hat or SuSe or Mandrake
then I'm not sure I'd be interested in it either.
And anyway, we need more and better apps, IMO. All the low-latency in
the world isn't going to draw Gigasampler (substitute your favorite hobby
horse for Gigasampler) users from Windows unless we've got something as
good as Gigasampler to offer them. I just took a look through the
Thinkware music software catalog: it was a sobering sight, and every piece
listed is *not* available for Linux. We do have a lot of cool music and
sound software, but we need more and we need better. I have faith that
we'll get there, I just hope I live to see the revolution... :)
Best regards,
== Dave Phillips
http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/index.html
http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/linuxsound/
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