[ale] Minimal but easily customizable linux distribution.

runman at speedfactory.net runman at speedfactory.net
Fri Sep 17 09:57:59 EDT 2004


For a minimal easy to do distro I would suggest Debian due to it's easy
to upgrade/update methodology and it has both old/stable and
new/unstable programs.  I run the new/unstable software with no
problems, but YMMV.  For more advanced users I would suggest Slackware
as you can update it easily also and you might see some performance
gains from compiling everything, but the learning curve is a bit more
steeper then Debian's apt.  For video editing I would suggest Suse 9.0
Pro since it comes with a large bundle of multimedia software (some
proprietary, some not but all are on the DVD/CD's).  Suse has already
included the dependant libs/etc that are needed and everything works out
of the box.  Upgrading is a snap also.  They have a *huge* selection of
multimedia programs.  That is what I use along with some Windows
programs on Windows 2000 Pro workstation.  I know you (and others) might
not want to hear it, but some cards have some nice Windows software for
video editing that come with the hardware.  They work with no problems
and are ok for those of use who don't have problems with MS but just
want to get something done.  I have used both Suse and Windows for this
and they are about equal.  But for shear easiness you can't beat a Mac.
The software is included with the box.   The software is finer than
frog's hair and they have been doing this for longer than anyone else. 
The demos at CompUSA by the Apple rep left me weak in the knees.  A 3 yr
old can edit just like Spielberg - but much more cheaper.  I think Aaron
(on the ALE list)  uses/prefers a Mac for his work.  FreeBSD would be
the BSD distro of choice but I have seen some stuff that says it is
faster then linux and there is stuff that says it is slower than linux -
just depends on who you listen to at any minute.

Greg

On 9/17/2004, "Emil P. Man" <mailinglists at synban.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 2004-09-17 at 00:25, Benjamin Scherrey wrote:
>> 	I'm trying to setup a linux box that I can use as a video editing station. It needs to grab
>> firewire video and run the various other programs that provide video/audio editing and DVD
>> production. Lots of these programs have dependencies on apps that simply don't come with most
>> distributions and some even seem to require kernel mods (for firewire support). Getting all this going
>> under major distributions like RedHat or Mandrake is getting to be a huge PITA. Frankly - I don't
>> need or want 80% of the packages that most distributions come with and am very comfortable with
>> downloading .tar.gz source files and building from scratch. Indeed - this is often the only way to get
>> things to work at all when I want a feature that isn't compiled into a binary package. Its even more
>> frustrating when the distributions change locations and paths for files from what their defaults are in
>> source distributions so when I finally build/install from source - the result can be a lot of collisions
>> from the previous installation which didn't get cleaned completely when uninstalling the package.
>> Maybe I'm too bleeding edge but I don't really think so.
>>
>> 	Soooo... I'd like a nice, up to date distribution that installs easily, doesn't do a lot of funky
>> custom stuff, and lets me build/install new apps as I need them without worrying about colliding with
>> a bunch of old dependencies. Gentoo might fit the bill except its install is still something far more
>> complex than it need be even at the easiest level. I'd appreciate any recommendations or
>> experiences people can pass along. Maybe I'm just missing some otherwise obvious solution?
>>
>> 	thanx & later,
>>
>> 		Ben Scherrey
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org
>> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>
>Ben,
>I have heard good things about Gentoo when it comes with what you are
>describing above.
>
>emil
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Ale mailing list
>Ale at ale.org
>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
>



More information about the Ale mailing list