Marco Trevisani talks about ... The Debian Multimedia Distribution has been an effort to provide a Linux distro that arrives with all the apps you need for music production, and is relatively easy for new users. Right now, in May 02, there is a big new development which will be announced properly any day now. It is called AGNULA but we can't say more than that before the official announcement. Marco Trevisani is one of the team and we talk to him here... Mstation: I was in to witness the inception of DeMuDi on the linux audio dev mailing list so maybe I'll lead off with what DeMuDi is - Debian Music Distribution. Marco: A little correction: Debian Multimedia Distribution. ... even if it is true that in this alpha release we focused on the audio field, because that is mostly the field of the core developers. Could you say a little about the driving force to create such a thing? Well it all started some years ago. I suggested to create such a distribution, named, at that time, LAOS (Linux Audio Operating System). It was too early but that started the linux audio mailing list. Why? A system like Linux is marvelous, but at the same time it is so huge that distributions like Debian (which is a wonderful effort) become really complicated for new users: too many things to care about, too many choices and decisions to take. If you work in the Multimedia field, you know what you want and by consequence many decisions can be taken for you. Many things you need (audio and video card detection and set up) could be done automatically during the installation process. If you think a Multimedia distribution could be installed even without asking a single question, well let's say: at least the name of your workstation....and if you want to install from CD or from the net. Everything in the distribution could be optimized for audio and graphics, low latency patches and other amenities... :-) So finally last year, when Nicola Bernardini became Director of Tempo Reale in Florence as Berio successor, and with the coincidence of the ICMC (International Computer Music Conference) of which I was one of the organizers, we decided to put in some effort and try to release an alpha version of this *dream*, and present it during the conference, and it worked out well - also considering that it was done in a couple of months....in particular, thanks to Guenter Geiger, who spent a lot of time in packaging the whole thing (I was very busy with the ICMC organization). Since then, even if the mailing lists and the site have been quite silent, we have worked in the background especially organizing this big project funded by the European Commission. (More to come on this one ... ed) All the project now goes under the acronym AGNULA (A Gnu Linux Audio). The Debian distribution has quite a hardcore following of developers partly because of it's non-commerciality. What other reasons are there? Mainly because of the free software direction we took, Free software Foundation Europe is one of the partners. Then because is quite complete, then because it is easy to integrate our project with the official distribution. Last...because Guenter and I use Debian....:-)) Finally because it is the best distribution. The installation is a bit hard, this is true, but as i explained at the beginning, it is not the case of DeMuDi because of the specific field. In putting together the bits to make a music distro, how did you organise the people and tasks? Well before Agnula it was quite random, Guenter and I we were taking care of almost of all the tasks...we had some problems with the network repository. Our ISP did allow us to update the site and they were too slow in doing that...we didn't know the future of the whole project because we were waiting for the EC. Now it is different. Centro Tempo Reale, the leader of the project, has the core group, in terms of organization. I'm the senior engineer, Nicola Bernardini is the leader of the project -and keeps the contacts with the EC-, then we have people for different task, PR, webmaster, CVS administrator...Plus the other partners, that coordinated by Tempo Reale, they play this role: --Pompeu Farba, Barcellona --> with Guenter Geiger and a new audio project they have. -- IRCAM France --> they will mostly work on Jmax packaging and other new software -- Red Hat France --> they will take care of the RehMuDi distribution and packaging -- KTH Sweden --> QA part for offering a 10Mbit connection....:-)) for the project and they will contribute with software and they have very appealing projects. --fsf europe --> our big brother.... they check that everything we do is absolutely free software ... even the web pages, pictures, everything...I'm so obsessed that in the morning i'm tempted to check if the milk i'm drinking comes with GNU GPL license...:-)). I'm joking but I totally agree with them, also because i learned that is quite easy to talk about free software, but the issue is way more complicated and deep and we have to work hard on this because it is really a key point for the future of computer science and software development in Europe at least. Do people just 'sign up' for various jobs or is there a fair amount of co-ordination involved? .. First, we will ask for contributions from people in the Debian style. We need maintainers...a lot of maintainers...we can take care of many things regarding the core of the distribution, kernel, scripting etc...but we really need maintainers for most of the packages. Coordination for the next two years will come from Tempo Reale. After the project grows, we'll see. It could go ahead with more EC funded projects, or maybe like Debian, it will live with its own forces and contributors. ..Documentation and easy access is another important issue also related to the maintainers. It is important that maintainers will take care seriously of documentation if it doesn't come with the software. The good thing in this sense is that Dave Phillips will work with us, and with his experience and his book, where almost all Linux audio software is documented, we are quite covered on this side. Were there any special kernel tweaks done, especially relating to latency? Yes., but we will have to review all this now ... depends on the kernel we decide to start with etc. We haven't taken any decision yet. I would suppose we will work on 2.4.18, and maybe....experiment with 2.5.x. So it really depends on the number of the kernel. Debian has a reputation for being one of the 'harder' distro's. Do you think that's fair? Would you say that's true of DeMuDi? Well as i mentioned before. Debian is hard because it is huge. If you want to make everybody happy and also are keeping a really full *democratic* style, it becomes necessary to ask many questions, to have many options ...Sure Debian never developed a cool GUI for installation...but the real problem is that 6 CDs and so many questions are scaring people away.... Of course as I mentioned before, it is not the case for us. DeMuDi/AGNULA is very specific, so we dont need to ask many questions and the binary distribution will be all on one CD. So the Distribution will detect cards, will install *our* software, and the one or two window managers we decide to use...then once you are on line you can link to Debian and download the window manager you like if you dont like our choice... Ok don't ask me which window manager we chose, because we haven't chosen anything yet.... The first release came with Window Maker ... I use icewm-experimental We certainly need something lite, especially for the real time software... so it is not an easy decision. What are your thoughts about the future of music production with Linux? great with AGNULA!!!!!!!!!!! I really want to work in a good integration between audio and graphic and video production....this is a hard task. Audio Quality in Linux is now already at a very professional level....and even better as soon Ardour will be available and a good competitor, in the free software realm, for Pro Tools, but it is not easy for a a new user to get into this world. This is where AGNULA will play its key role...:-) Thanks Marco... (And more soon on the AGNULA topic)
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