While we have you on this thread Erich...
Firstly, I would like to say thank you for being so incredibly active on both the Ubuntu
Studio and Fedora Jam projects. Secondly, your vision for Pipeline integration sounds
awesome. Lastly, I consider myself a fairly average Linux user, and one of the
disadvantages that I see at this point is that a lot of commercial programs that are
developed for Linux are only packaged as .deb files (Bitwig Studio, Waveform, etc.). It
would be useful with some tools to install such programs on Fedora. There are a couple of
scrIpts on GitHub for Bitwig and the Waveform team provides instructions for an install on
an .rpm based system (that don’t always work)... Perhaps an alternative would be to do as
the Solus project, that provides a separate server with useful third party programs...
That way, a functioning install would be guaranteed.
My 2¢.
Brian
On 3 Nov 2020, at 02.01, Erich Eickmeyer
<eeickmeyer(a)fedoraproject.org> wrote:
Hi Steve,
> On 11/2/20 3:01 PM, Steve Batte wrote:
> Hi Erich,
>
> I know this chain is getting long, but I have a big decision to make and need advice.
In terms of best functionality, most users, best support, would you recommend:
> Ubuntu Studio 20.4 LTS
> Ubuntu Studio 20.10
> Fedora Jam (32 or 33)
>
> I'm partial to Fedora, maybe because I've been using it with Stanford's
CCRMA repo for 20 years or so. But I get the impression everyone else is settling on
Ubuntu as the standard. I also prefer KDE and stability, so last week I installed Kubuntu
20.4 and U-studio on one hard drive, and Fedora 32 Jam on another. I didn't find much
difference, so settled on Fedora and spent a few days correcting Carla plug-in paths,
compiling WhySynth 2017 and OxeFMSynth etc. But it's not too late to change.
>
> My day job is stressful but pays well. Music is keeping me sane. I would love to
contribute to one or both of these projects.
>
> Thanks
> Steve
>
When it comes to changing the subject, you really need to start a new thread. So, I hate
to say it, but this is a little off-topic.
That said, this is one of the oldest questions ("Which is best?") as it's
very subjective. As for me, I dual-boot both, but that's mostly because I'm in
charge of both projects (Ubuntu Studio and Fedora Jam). However, if you had to choose just
one, I can't answer that question. What works best for one person won't
necessarily work best for everyone. But, I do have a few things for you to consider.
Planet CCRMA At Home was discontinued after Fedora 30, which is EOL. One thing I've
been considering doing was emailing the person in charge of that to see if he wanted to
get it going again. That said, many of the tools that were in Planet CCRMA At Home are now
in Fedora (except the RT kernel, more on that later).
My visions for Ubuntu Studio and Fedora Jam are quite different, yet intertwined.
Ubuntu Studio is an all-in-one content creation studio. It targets streamers, musicians,
audio engineers (like myself), video producers (like myself), graphic designers,
photographers (like myself), and publishers.
Fedora Jam targets musicians and audio engineers who are okay with experimenting with the
latest audio technologies in Linux, such as pipewire. With Fedora 34, we're hoping to
get Pipewire mainstream, and I'm one of the people doing the testing and, quite
possible, will be authoring a system-wide change proposal for all of Fedora to switch to
Pipewire as the default audio server, if I can get a few ducks in a row in those regards.
My rationale is that Pipewire will be a drop-in replacement for both PulseAudio and JACK
and will make applications that target both completely interoperable without bridges.
This, quite literally, is the dream for audio on Linux that we've been waiting for
since ALSA.
Another thing to consider: Ubuntu Studio was neglected for 2 years (2016-2018) before I
came along. Fedora Jam was neglected for much longer: 7 years (2013-2020). The longer a
distro, or in these cases spins, is neglected, the harder it is to pick-up the pieces and
get it moving again. Ubuntu Studio is *finally* where it needs to be, but Jam, partially
because the KDE spin went a couple years with a lack of leadership, and partially because
Jam itself went 7 years until this past January, is still suffering. I've slowly been
introducing new packages with plugins and other software to Fedora. For instance, JACK
Mixer had been a thing in Ubuntu (and Debian) for a very long time, but was never a part
of Fedora until just recently.
While I have been introducing items formerly in Planet CCRMA and rolling-in other items,
we cannot bring-in an RT kernel, nor would I want to. I made a huge write-up on the Ubuntu
wiki (
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio/RealTimeKernel) as to why RT kernels
this day and age are a BAD idea. TL;DR: They're full of security holes, and most
modern hardware, with a current Linux kernel, doesn't need them anyhow. The Ubuntu
Lowlatency Kernel and the Fedora kernel are already lowlatency-enabled. In Jam and Ubuntu
Studio, we add an additional kernel boot parameter, "threadirqs", which
activates the already-configured "CONFIG_IRQ_FORCED_THREADING=y" kernel flag
(the code for that flag doesn't work without the "threadirqs" boot
parameter). This allows for more IRQ threading and lower latency, albiet at the expense of
power usage, all while keeping your system secure.
So, I hope that helps you in your decision. Either way, I'd welcome contributions to
either or both of these projects. :)
--
Erich Eickmeyer
Maintainer Fedora Jam
Project Leader Ubuntu Studio
Council Member Ubuntu Community Council
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