Linux naysayers get mighty grumpy about all the Ubuntu hype. I can certainly imagine some Ubuntu fatigue, but Ubuntu is actually gaining some real traction in a way that previous attempts to be a “Linux for the rest of us” have not. For that reason, it’s significant that there’s an Ubuntu release for creatives — not just one niche group of people, like audio, but for multimedia creative work in general. We’ve seen Ubuntu Studio before, but the big news is that you can go and download it now, and give it a shot on your Intel Mac or PC:

Ubuntu Studio

Note that there’s no live CD version, so you will have to install it to try it (though if you’re curious about Ubuntu, you could use a live CD of that).

We’ll be testing Ubuntu Studio CDM over the summer, both for the music and motion side. I will say, though, the music and audio end of this release seems to pale in comparison to Ubuntu Studio’s video and graphics tools. There’s Ardour, yes, a terrific DAW, and built-in JACK support. Other than that, though, the choices are generally far weaker than what’s available in commercial and even free closed-source software — or, for that matter, even other Linux audio distros. Compare the 3D application Blender, or Cinepaint for video, which easily stand alongside commercial tools. On the other hand, there are lots of terrific music packages that just didn’t make it into Ubuntu Studio — and that’s okay, because it’s not necessarily that hard to install the other apps. And there is a full complement of JACK audio utilities and some neat toys (trackers and whatnot). The big remaining question will be how the distro itself does in terms of performance and ease of use, which we’ll definitely be testing here.