Michael Harper’s Tech & Art Blog

Lately I’ve been interested in seeing what some of the other flavors of Ubuntu might be available and I stumbled across this “official” variant of Ubuntu known as Ubuntu Studio. Very interesting - seems that it has a real-time kernel that cuts latency down tremendously in a lot of applications, espcially audio apps. I found this interesting due to the fact that I had attempted to use my M-Audio Keystation 49e keyboard with Vista and I was let down to see a full second or two delay in MIDI processing. I haven’t had a chance to test latency yet but I do know that Ubuntu readily recognizes my keyboard in many applications. Though this probably isn’t completely accurate, I equate this real-time kernel to the high-priority settings found in Windows Task Manager. I believe that in Windows, it is a per-application basis whereas Ubuntu Studio has real-time access for all apps.

I can’t believe I’m in the situation I’m in. It’s 2:13 am and I’m copying all of my important files from my Toshiba A215 to an external hard drive so that I can format what is left of my latest 9.04 install. I’ve been waiting patiently since its release a few days ago to try and install Jaunty Jackalope, the latest release of Ubuntu. I hadn’t read any reviews about it yet and I wanted to give it a go as soon as possible to experience the greatest Ubuntu to date. During install, a warning popped up and basically said, “WARNING: The FGLRX driver you’re using for your ATI/Radeon graphics card is no longer compatible with the latest version of X Server. The only way graphics will operate is to use the free and open-source driver available with Ubuntu.” I said sure, no problem. I’m using several other restricted drivers anyways, let’s see how it works. I install it using the “alternate” ISO file available from ubuntu.com and give it a half-hour or so. It reboots and finally finishes the install.