Shifting to opensource..........

Support Other Software
1

I every one…

I have been using blender for a while but have not done any serious work in it. Now I am thinking of doing some personal projects. I am also interested in using the other opensource applications. so, I want to completely make my workflow in opensource.
I promise you that you will see some of my stuff here soon…

So, right now I need some help in these issues…

I am a noob in programmin and new to linux…
so, regarding the selction of os, I am not sure which os to take…there are plenty of linux versions and flavours. After googling and searching in the forum i found that ubuntu is the best and i think ubuntu studio is also cool.

my configuration is this…and i am not thinking of changing anything in the near future…Intel Pentium D Cpu 2.80 GHz with 2 gb of ram and a 512mb nvidia gforce 6300 graphic card.I am also using a wacom bamboo.

so, please suggest the best linux for me one that works with my graphic card and supporting wacom bamboo.

please guide me.

Thank you all.

2

Ubuntu would be fine for you. In fact, I believe it is what the Durian team made Sintel on.

You might want to consider adding more RAM if possible. 2 GB is enough, but more will be better for complex or large scenes.

The new Wacom Bamboo tablets are supported, but you might have to compile the driver module. If you have any questions on that, you should be able to get knowledgeable answers here. There is a straightforward step by step:-
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6546012&postcount=1

3

Ubuntu works fine when you get it (and it’s easy)
I’m on 10.04 and after install with medibuntu and so, it works fine with blender. You must remember install python-3.1.
my wacom intuos works fine and even configured to lefthanded

Are you working 3d modeling or also video editing and composition?

4

To put the dark note, Ubuntu is not very friend of open source. All it guarantees is that is and will always be free OF CHARGE, which has nothing to do with open source, not to say with free (as in freedom) software.

There are some others distributions that, not being completely free either, are, from my point of view, a bit more appropriate. I myself use Fedora.

If you want to go fully free (and this discards, sadly, nVidia proprietary drivers) give gNewSense a try.

Welcome abroad, by the way :-).

5

I went from being a Mac guy to Ubuntu, after much research. I would say its a good beginner’s Linux Distro- maybe even look into http://ubuntustudio.org/ should have all that you need to get to work!

6

What ???

are you saying ubuntu is not open source ???

what da fuck , is this true ?

7

I personally favour fedora. For one thing (which i barely thought about), blue > brown.

Can be a little tricky to install graphics drivers, but the community maintained help guide is top-notch, never seen anything better.

8

Not to hijack, but has anyone here tried any variants of freeBSD (besides macOS :wink: )? I’m curious about it’s ease of use.

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your wacom should work with pretty much every recent distro(if not try synaptics drivers)… distrowise I suggest linux Mintbecause it’s my favorite atm. If you are on Windows right now you can create bootable usb drives with wubi.exe pretty easily

for programming: linux has everything you need, the same goes for windows. It takes some time/skill to get the bindings for libarys etc right(when you do it teh first time)… my ide of choice is eclipse or texteditor ( notepad++ ). These two with Blender, Gimp and Inkjet make an unbeatable combo

€: on a sidenote: the unreal development kit in other words the unreal4 engine is avaible for non comercial use, but I guess windows only

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No, it’s not true.

It does offer “proprietary” drivers, so there are parts that are closed source though.

Canonical have made it easy for you to have a “clean” ubuntu by removing the “non free” repositories (which it only installs things from after asking you first… usually wireless drivers for broadcom, nvidia/ati drivers etc etc) most users prefer to have the option to use hardware manufacturer drivers, and for some manufacturers there simply is no alternative…

I usually install a standard ubuntu and then add the packages for ubuntu studio…

it gives you all the good stuff for graphics, audio, video and configures gimp to have all the best plugins already installed for you.

inkscape, gimp, mypaint, jack, ardour, blender…

Many people don’t like the video editing offerings on linux, but blender’s VSE and compositor are very very good despite making the two work together being a bit clunkier than it should be… easy enough when you know how…

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hey guys thank you everyone…after seeing your interest in helping me i want to share some personal thoughts with you.

I don’t know to how much extent it is possible but had a vague idea. pls be open to the idea and think about it.

You know…the beauty of opensource is that we can not only use it for free but modify it. Thats why there are somany flavours of linux out there for different feilds and purposes and different hardware configuration.

Then why don’t we 3d artists have one. What I mean is we will create a flavor of ubuntu/opensuse wich will contain only the softwares useful for a " Animation Studio " and we call it as

		                "opensource animation studio"

Starting with 3d software like blender. 2d softwares like gimp, alchemy, inkspace.
2d animation applications like pencil and syncfig. A audio editing application.
A compositing software and so on. We will include all the best opensource applications useful in the day to day activities of an animatiotion studio and bring them under one roof. We will include default support for wacom.

All the user have to do is to download this flavour of linux and right away he can access the above applications with out manually installing them and can directly get support for wacom.

I know that’s a crazy idea but I think having a os like that will make our life little bit easier and we can get the chance to bring all the opensource applications we use under one roof.
yes, there are applications like ubuntu studio which is amid at multimedia but not concerned about 3d animation. It has only blender and gimp. It also includes the unnecessary audio applicatins and a windows environment like gnome which will take more ram unlike fluxbox.

Note that i am new to Linux and was doing some serious research in that direction and reading some books and trying to gain some knowledge.

please give your comments and suggestions.

12

@sreenivas someone already did that. it’s called OpenArtist.
I used it for a while, but it wasn’t really that good.
And the download size is 4 GIGABYTES! :eek:

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The main thing that really holds me back from moving to Linux is the sad state of audio software. There is nothing comparable to Ableton, Sonar or SoundTrack Pro on Linux. Ardour is the closest but still falls way short. Blender’s VSE is the best video editor for Linux, but it also falls short of other professional video apps on Windows or OSX. Not to mention, no ProRes codec for Linux (or Windows). Mac is really the only way to go…(oops did I say that or just think it?)

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sreenivas, if you’re still undecided, a couple hints:

  1. If you have a local friend who’s a Linux geek and willing to help go with whatever version that person likes.
  2. Most distributions have a ‘live CD’ option. Burn the ISO on a CD or load it onto a USB stick, then reboot the target computer from that CD or USB. If you like what you get, install that distribution. Otherwise try something else. Nothing will be changed on your hard drive until you do the install.
  3. Have fun!
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@spacetug: Hey space tug thank you very much for the info. I will look into openartist.

@Atom: I am more into 3d. I don’t know about audio softwares. so can’t say anything.

@freemars: Thank you for you suggestions. I don’t have a friend who can help me out. so, right now I am looking into all the distros and studying their pros and cons.

What i am trying to do is get a general idea of linux and trying to get some knowledge in it.
I will post the updates once I got something which suits my requirements.

pls give me some suggestions and tips.
Thank you all.

16

Hmm, We are all individuals and I’m all for freedom and choice… but I feel it’s important to point out that you’re both right and wrong here…

True that there’s no single app on linux comparable to those that you list…

but the paradigm is a bit different… it’s about a bunch of small apps that connect together really well through “JACK”… in that way (and depending on your tastes of course) linux audio has many many advantages over windows or mac solutions…

SUre, that doesn’t satisfy everyone, but the combo of ardour, jack, patchage and whatever midi sequencer, plugin, drum machine, experimental whatever or soft synth you find gives you real ease and variety…

the lack of convenient project handling with so many apps and hooks can be a dealbreaker for some, but I think you’re overly harsh.

Blender’s VSE is the best video editor for Linux, but it also falls short of other professional video apps on Windows or OSX.

Yes, maybe… but it’s fast and does the core job really really well… in many ways I prefer it to final cut (especially with the progress in 2.5) It’s getting to be awesome though there are gotchas right now for sure!

Not to mention, no ProRes codec for Linux (or Windows). Mac is really the only way to go…(oops did I say that or just think it?)

Ha ha, yeah, just had a lot of aggro over this…

But there are many codec solutions argueably as good as or better than prores (prores is only visually lossless) that are cross platform…

If you MUST use pro res then of course you need a mac… but no one should need pro res… it’s just a made up artificial cabal thing… artficially crippled to make mac look better… try huffyuv or dnxhd…

Sorry to repy to this in some ways, but it does sound a bit FUD at worst, a bit personally biased at best…

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Personally I’d suggest that Blender’s VSE or even VSE + Nodes is not the ‘best’ OSS video editor when considered in terms of NLE, for Linux but defining ‘best’ varies from users requirements and it’s subjective. To me kdenlive is far superior, technically, feature set and performance, the thing that lets it down a little is stability. :slight_smile:

But choice is the main thing. Blender’s VSE is great but for native video editing not so. :frowning:

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Hey guys…Thanks for your input.

@space tug… I saw openartist. As you said it was not that good. First thing is it is some 4GB. It also includes all the softwares which i don’t want and also the different versions. I think i don’t need all of them laying around my pc.

But after some googling i found this…

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1155961

This is a guide by thesiv about minimal install. It seems like a pretty much advanced and has a lot of things ( like programming) to do on your own but it seems to be promising. With minimal install you just install the basic of linux which is necessary to run the pc and after that you will go around installing the softwares necessary for you on a daily basis and the you can take out a copy of that as a installation cd. Its something like creating your own thing from scratch.

The installation guide is here…
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/minimal

I think that pretty much suits my needs. I am right now working on it and will update with the results.

Did any one used it before? Pls give me some input.

19

I recently installed Ubuntu 10.10 from scratch from the ISO Cd, and honestly it is a pretty minimal install- took 5-10 minutes to install, plus another 15-20 to download and install the updates. I was surprised at how fast it was, and there isnt much cruft in terms of programs it ships with. Plus it has Pitivi for video editing, I haven’t used it yet though.

If you want all those media apps in one OS bundle there’s always http://ubuntustudio.org/

Edit: Actually I take it back, in my experience 10.10 is terrible, actually the whole 10x series has been nothing but headaches for me.- I just upgraded back to 9.04, which IMO is much nicer.