Best Linux distributions for multimedia

[jmascreen]

Hi,

Please let me know which is the best Linux distributions for audio & video. I have shortlisted the following.

1) Ubuntu Studio
2) Arch Linux

Please let me know if I had missed any so that I can test it out.

 

[Hassan Khani]

Consider the following

For music only -- voyage mpd
For Audio / Video -- openelec

I have installed both of them and works really well.

 

[baijuxavior]

Add XBMCbuntu also to the list.

 

[doors666]

There are serious privacy issues with ubuntu....it sends your desktop searches and keystrokes etc to third parties... it returns amazon ads when you are searching for something on your computer... I believe its mainly with dash and unity....please read up and take measures if you do plan to use ubuntu... or probably any of its variants too....

 

[naveenroy]

There are serious privacy issues with ubuntu....it sends your desktop searches and keystrokes etc to third parties... it returns amazon ads when you are searching for something on your computer... I believe its mainly with dash and unity....please read up and take measures if you do plan to use ubuntu... or probably any of its variants too....

Seriously? With the NSA monitoring every keystroke, phone call, apps you've installed, websites you visit, phone numbers of your friends, you are worried about Ubuntu?

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Well, yes, I am worried about Ubuntu, and this commercialised search business is only part of it.

The search is easy to avoid, however, and, for me, avoiding the Unity desktop means I don't even have to think about it.

For multi-media with a bias towards audio, I'd add KXStudio to the list. I consider it to be far better optimised for sound than Ubuntu Studio. It is Ubuntu-based, although the author is moving to Debian in the future. It is also KDE-based, and I'm not keen on that environment either, but one always has a choice and I use MATE.

 

[doors666]

Seriously? With the NSA monitoring every keystroke, phone call, apps you've installed, websites you visit, phone numbers of your friends, you are worried about Ubuntu?

NSA isnt really looking for me, I am not their target.. for ubuntu, I am their target...

And I cant do shit about NSA doing that, but I can skip installing ubuntu by going for a different distro....

NSA is anyway an unethical and immoral organization... a linux maker is not supposed to be that.... i can expect this behaviour from a microsoft, a google, a amazon etc... but not from an open source company... i personally would ditch it just on a matter of principle.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

In principle, I agree 100% with your reasoning and conclusion.

In practice, I'm still using it although I expect I will follow KXStudio to Debian.

 

[jmascreen]

I use Ubuntu 13.04 as my main desktop for internet downloads and browsing. So what's a good alternative how is sabayon

 

[mowgli80]

For audio, I have been wanting to try audiophile linux but am not getting much time. Perhaps you can give us a review . For a+v, I will recommend ubuntu+xbmc.

@doors666 - Ubuntu did provide a switch to stop sending your searches to amazon, which was a nice gesture. My only gripe is they did not ask for user confirmation for it on first boot . I have no problems with open source software trying to generate some additional revenue through other such means as long as it is optional. Remember, ubuntu development requires monetary investment and they are giving us a decent product free of charge . Moreover, I have tried most of the popular distros out there (even did a gentoo stage one install once) but keep coming back to ubuntu for some reason, so am willing to overlook minor flaws . For me, greater privacy worry comes from google, facebook etc. Been married for about 4 years now but google still gives me matrimonial ads cause I used some matrimonial site once upon a time . Moreover, I don't have not much to hide .

 

[jmascreen]

Thanks. I will try to install in virtual box first if sounds good then will convert my desktop with it. Keep you posted.

 

[doors666]

For audio, I have been wanting to try audiophile linux but am not getting much time. Perhaps you can give us a review . For a+v, I will recommend ubuntu+xbmc.

@doors666 - Ubuntu did provide a switch to stop sending your searches to amazon, which was a nice gesture. My only gripe is they did not ask for user confirmation for it on first boot . I have no problems with open source software trying to generate some additional revenue through other such means as long as it is optional. Remember, ubuntu development requires monetary investment and they are giving us a decent product free of charge . Moreover, I have tried most of the popular distros out there (even did a gentoo stage one install once) but keep coming back to ubuntu for some reason, so am willing to overlook minor flaws . For me, greater privacy worry comes from google, facebook etc. Been married for about 4 years now but google still gives me matrimonial ads cause I used some matrimonial site once upon a time . Moreover, I don't have not much to hide .

I am also ok with they making some money.. its the way they did it that it was highly objectionable... in the beginning, they didnt inform anyone, it was done silently.. not in privacy policy or licensing or anywhere, no disable switch... when later people found out themselves, they they started providing a way to turn it off and added it to their policies...... even now, its turned on by default.. u need to go and switch it off.. if u dont know, well, they make cash...

Imagine of ms or fb had done this, what will be people's reactions..

And this OS is used in a corporate environments also, imagine someone's searching for some patentable ultra sensitive technology, that he is working on, on his pc and it ends up in the hands of third parties... what if its used by military.... what if someone is searching for porn... U can think of a gazzillion scenarios where its just plain wrong...

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Again, I completely agree. However, before the search thing even became noticed, I was unwilling to have a decade or two of desktop evolution thrown out of the window because someone got obsessed with a cross between a touch phone and a kiddie toy. Equally, if I was still a MS user, I'd be sticking with 7, (or even XP!) for the same reasons. Getting user interfaces completely wrong has been a feature of recent times.

For audio, I have been wanting to try audiophile linux but am not getting much time

Am I right in thinking they use Jack (the Jack Audio Connections Kit)? I'm not sure that it is really appropriate to a pure listening environment, nor is it the easiest thing to get started with. I do think that KXStudio's Cadence, Carla, etc, tools are the easiest and most stable way to set up and control Jack.

Another one, also studio-aimed, is AVLinux. I think AV Linux is also Ubuntu based, and includes KX's Cadence tools, however it is built according to a different philosophy, which is to provide a solid, stable distro, in which nothing is going to get broken by an update, because they don't happen.

There is some deeeep tweaking of stuff like IRQs, but, interestingly, these studio distros don't so much get into the audiophile-turning-stuff-off-in-Windows tweaks. It probably isn't necessary --- although it isn't a perfect world even on this side of the fence: If I want to be sure of no dropouts I'd better quite Thunderbird and set the CPU scaling to maximum if I want music and browsing.

Of course, if it is a dedicated media box, then bottom line is there is no point in it running a fully-fledged linux system. Far neater all round to having it only doing the necessary.

Even I turn off the utterly unnecessary, where it is simple to do so, like eg bluetooth for a box that doesn't have a bluetooth adapter.

 

[mowgli80]

I am also ok with they making some money ... if u dont know, well, they make cash...

As I said, a message or option on first boot would have been better. But I don't buy that they did it silently and with a hidden agenda. By nature of the implementation, the search result would display results from amazon. So logically, user would know in the first go itself that amazon is being queried. Anybody who is not comfortable can then go ahead and disable it. Thats how it was caught in prerelease cycle itself and the option to switch it off was added before the release . I am more worried about people actually silently tracking me .

Imagine of ms or fb had done this, what will be people's reactions..

It happens more often than you think .

And this OS is used ...

True, but a company which allows and supports linux to be used on desktop would have competent IT team to identify this problem before rolling it out to users.

All in all, I would say it was not the idea but the implementation that was bad. I would like to give them benefit of doubt as I am pretty sure Canonical knows that most of the ubuntu users are computer savvy and trying to fool them would be difficult. Or probably am biased as, imho, they did a lot more for linux and they get credit for .

 

[naveenroy]

Well, yes, I am worried about Ubuntu, and this commercialised search business is only part of it.

The search is easy to avoid, however, and, for me, avoiding the Unity desktop means I don't even have to think about it.

NSA isnt really looking for me, I am not their target.. for ubuntu, I am their target...

And I cant do shit about NSA doing that, but I can skip installing ubuntu by going for a different distro....

NSA is anyway an unethical and immoral organization... a linux maker is not supposed to be that.... i can expect this behaviour from a microsoft, a google, a amazon etc... but not from an open source company... i personally would ditch it just on a matter of principle.

Yup, gotta agree when you put it like that. And yes, it is unethical for a Linux organisation to be doing this. I was a big fan of Ubuntu until their Unity desktop thingie - that just put me off big time.

My latest Linux distro - Mint. No, haven't really tried playing music over it. I'm too addicted to Winamp.

But this thread is interesting and perhaps I need to try out OpenELEC Mediacenter - Home or AudioPhile Linux | Quality audio on Linux

 

[jmascreen]

This distro is 1.5 GB and was trying to download from past couple of days and at around 70 odd % it get canceled so the entire download is wasted. Is there any torrent available through which I can have resume support ?

 

[doors666]

This distro is 1.5 GB and was trying to download from past couple of days and at around 70 odd % it get canceled so the entire download is wasted. Is there any torrent available through which I can have resume support ?

use a downlad manager... queue the same file... stop the download.. copy the half downloaded file to the location... start the download... is should resume from the sme point.

 

[chandrakiranraju]

Try old versions of Mandriva. They are simply awesome. If you are trying Mint or Ubuntu disable Pulse audio to get bit-perfect audio.

 

[Kannan_madhu]

Most of the distros i tried recently have very low sound quality out of box compared to windows . But recently tried deepin and it was sounding awesome out of box . Only catch is that it's origin is from China and and don't know if something is fishy . But as a desktop it's beautiful looking and sounding

 

[jmascreen]

Most of the distros i tried recently have very low sound quality out of box compared to windows . But recently tried deepin and it was sounding awesome out of box . Only catch is that it's origin is from China and and don't know if something is fishy . But as a desktop it's beautiful looking and sounding View attachment 37601

I wont try it, happy with WIN10