Jus a quick one...
Anyone using Linux Operating System ?
Was at a computer demonstration recently, and was very impressed by Linux but was wondering ....
We have it on Netbooks - works fine for web, Skype etc.
My son has a Q6600 PC based project - he's supposed to be installing this on it.....
http://www.chainsawlinux.com/about.html
Looks good too.
I Have tinkered with Ubuntu Studio, a media oriented distribution. It works fine for stills and SD but HD codecs aren't provided with the apps. They need to be downloaded separately and I haven't spent enough time on it to master them.
Cinelerra is a capable editor but the interface is not very friendly. The default editors, Kino and PiTiVi are good all-rounder basic editors.
I also have some familiar packages installed, e.g. AVIdemux and of course VLC.
GIMP and Inkscape are bitmap and vector graphics editors which I also have installed on Windows platforms. Both excellent, certainly better than the cut-down windows apps like Photoshop Elements and some of the low cost drawing packages where they have been dumbed down to keep them attractive for beginners and unappealing to more serious users.
I run it on a previous editing platform, P4C running at 3.0 GHz and it loads and runs a lot quicker than any versions of windows, so is quite good for general office purposes.
Gavin's link to chainsaw Linux looks interesting, might give it a go sometime.
Steve
I have it running Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) on my oldest original edit machine (long retired) a dual 733mhz (!) Compaq workstation from approx 1999 and it's been pretty useful as a machine to websurf with. It also saved my life when .docx Word files arrived as my version of Word refused to open them but Open Office on Ubuntu did.
I had a quick look at the editing software but didn't go into great depth as I'm surrounded by Avid/Premiere/Liquid already. To be honest if I were looking for a free editing package I'd probably master Lightworks under Windows.
I'll second Steve's comments regarding Gimp & I like the fact it's repurposed a PC that would otherwise have been for the skip.