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Ubuntu Studio remains the quickest one-shot way to get at Linux and free software for music, sound, video, media, and 3D. And they deserve some extra love now, especially since Apple Silicon has slightly deflated desktop Linux attention. Heres a look at the long-term support version that just hit beta, due later this month.

Ubuntu Studio has its own release cadence, so yes, 24.04 the April 2024 release is an LTS (long-term support) release. 24.04.1 will then come in August 2024, with full stable support.

We can dive into various Linux distros for media work another day, but the simplest way to say this is that Ubuntu Studio is the easiest answer to the following use cases:

That last one, especially.

Theres some great stuff in this release and the most recent. Here are a few highlights:

To me, just having PipeWire (the audio engine for general use) play nicely with JACK (the multi-point audio engine we rely on in performance-dependent music applications) is a godsend. See specifically their Ubuntu Studio audio configuration. Look, the truth is, you can basically get any distro with decent package management to run anything you want. Ubuntu Studio always set itself apart by figuring out how to navigate the one area that could cause issues all the audio cruft. And theyve really made headway now, to the point that they also can recommend PipeWire for professional use. (But JACK is still there for when you need to integrate music and audio tools in creative ways.)

Now, Im sure someone will have some alternative ideas for distros to run and some are better at focusing on true free software, privacy, and avoiding proprietary tools so please, Id love to hear some discussion. Ubuntu Studio just provides a good starting place, and is often a great choice when you have a box you want to get up and running as a desktop quickly. (I also like the server Ubuntu, but thats another discussion.)

These efforts are all truly community-driven you can bet that creative video and music tools are something that get really zero private support. So they deserve some love and feedback if you find bugs or can contribute.

Also, this may not be obvious, but while downloading the full Ubuntu Studio distro and running off a USB stick is the easiest way to start an installation on an Intel-based machine from scratch, you can also get the same advantages on any Ubuntu flavor or install. That means you might:

Thats covered in the installer.

See the official site: https://ubuntustudio.org/

And check the latest news, which covers a bit more on how theyre handling communications and community support changes recently. (Im sad to see them leave Matrix; thats another topic!)

Oh yeah, and speaking of things you can now run on Linux:

See some reviews:

And the release this is based on:

Read more from the original source:
Ubuntu Studio in new LTS beta; still the easiest creative Linux distro - CDM Create Digital Music - Create Digital Music