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News / Software

Sounds Expo04: Linux DAW - A Reality

Coders unite! 11-Feb-04

Daniel spills the bytes
Streaming: RealPlayer \| Lo QuickTime \| Lo Windows Media \| Lo

Daniel James, Steve Harris and Damien Cirotteau come out of their shell (script)

As some of you may know, Linux is a fast-growing open source operating system that will run on the Intel platform. It's proved to be incredibly popular amongst web serving community due to it's robust security and flexible configuration options. Linux is closely related to Unix which has traditionally been used in mission-critical applications such as banking and medical. Apple's OS X is based on the Unix filesystem, but with extensively custom developed audio and video routines namely CoreAudio.

What does this mean? Well essentially, it means that if you don't want to run a Microsoft system and a Mac ain't for you, there is an alternative. Linux can be configured to suit the audio environment and the tools are now becoming available for serious audio use. AGNULA (a GNU/Linux/Audio Distribution) is a project supported by Red Hat France and legendary French audio research institute IRCAM, whose aims are to provide both Red Hat and Debian based installs. Already well under way, the project aims to support other platforms, inlcuding PowerPC chips and 64-bit architectures.

Linux users tend to be fiercely loyal and congregate in groups to work out solutions to problems that need solving. LinuAudio.org is just such a group. Started a mere couple of weeks ago by Daniel James, the not-for-profit consortium of Linux audio projects and companies, "exists to promote the development of professional audio tools and serivices using 'libre' (free) software licensed via the GPL (Gnu Public License) and similar licenses."
"If you have a commercial interest in Linux audio, why not discuss it with us?" says Daniel

Indeed, if you are interested in learning more:

www.linuxaudio.org

www.agnula.org

2 Comments... Post a comment original story

hooky Said...

it's ridiculous that the audio on this page that i might be interested in listening to is is all the formats that a linux user like me will find repulsive. would a streaming ogg be so tough for you to pull off? or mp3? but to make it available in apple, microsoft and realplayer form only really seems clueless to me.

18-Mar-07 02:41 PM

mellosonic Said...

Agnula is no longer available - you might want to check out this new linux audio production distro called "RocXshoP" http://www.rocxshop.com

29-Mar-08 01:17 AM