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Progress on Plasma

ubuntustudio.org

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Re: Progress on Plasma

#131

Post by magicalhippo »

guug wrote: post #44
orf wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly - a desktop experience should track the current desktop hardware. If you have 512mb of ram and a pentium 4 then too bad. Let’s not hobble the future because of the past.

What about people who bought a low-to-mid range laptop last year? While 8G isn't .5G, it's still low enough that you'd quickly hit swap (a bloated modern browser + multimedia authoring tools) Tracking "current" desktop hardware is a quick way to get yourself another vista.

FWIW I've been running KDE Neon on an older Intel NUC, sporting an i5-4250U and 8GB RAM. For normal usage like surfing the web, writing documents, file management, email and watching YouTube it has behaved very well.

Obviously the CPU is a bit anemic which is noticeable when you do CPU heavy stuff like watching non-h264 videos on YouTube, but otherwise it's been very smooth and functional.

Re: Progress on Plasma

#132

Post by cycloptic »

blinkingled wrote: post #119
cycloptic wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original article you linked was not about Pango or Gnome and did not mention those things at all other than a vague reference to a different bug which may or may not even be related. As far as I can tell no developers have done a full (and time-consuming) investigation of this issue to actually get a full picture of what is going on. I would encourage you to actually read the articles you link and their primary s…

I’m not sure what point you’re trying to disagree / take issue with- I thought it was the point about Gnome developers and their heads for which I gave plenty of backing information - there was no technical reason not to continue to use Freetype hinting until Harfbuzz supported it or give distros option to choose. But instead in both cases they just said screw your users who need that. Nothing you have said so far re…

It is not helpful to try and conjecture whether or not upstream "cares about users". There is no reason for me to refute or agree with your point on this matter; if there is some other desktop environment that you prefer to use instead, then my agreeing or disagreeing with you wouldn't change your ability to go use that. I will not join in an angry mob for or against these developers either, that won't help anything get done. I politely request that you avoid trying to make these type of arguments about some other person's motivations in the future, because the only real outcome is to turn people against each other and create enemies, when what you really want seems to be just to get the bug fixed in a friendly way.

Just from looking at the bug report there was a technical reason given related to other bugs and deficiencies in freetype. Please read the bug report in full detail, no developers are deleting features for no reason. Distros always have the option to choose whatever solution they want in response to user complaints. They can stay on an old version of whatever package they want or they can patch Harfbuzz and contribute the patches back upstream. You should take it up with your distro if the problem persists and they've not bothered to do either of these. Either way you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences which are: missing out on other newer features because you stayed on an old version, or spending the time/money to get the work done to add back in the features to the new version. Or you can upgrade anyway and do the workaround which is to convert your fonts.

Re: Progress on Plasma

#133

Post by chrismorgan »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #60
orf wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly - a desktop experience should track the current desktop hardware. If you have 512mb of ram and a pentium 4 then too bad. Let’s not hobble the future because of the past.

There' no such thing as a "current desktop hardware" in 2020. Specs haven't been changing in like a decade.

That’s not really true, though desktop hardware hasn’t improved anywhere near as much as laptops, where the difference is very substantial. Computer hardware of equivalent cost or high-/low-endness has gotten quite a lot faster (and much more power-efficient); for many sorts of tasks similar CPUs will be four or more times as fast. But it’s really SSDs where the most obvious improvements have occurred, and for most practical computing terms, compare a fast and expensive HDD machine of ten years ago with a cheap SSD machine from now and the modern one will be waaaay faster.

Sample article doing some comparisons: https://www.techspot.com/article/1666-old-1000-cpu-vs-budget...

Re: Progress on Plasma

#134

Post by fit2rule »

mnm1 wrote: post #128
rvz wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a feeling it'll also sway MacOS DAW users to take a closer look at just what Linux has to offer pro audio users I'm sorry but I just don't see this happening anytime soon. Linux distros like this don't have the mindshare that Windows and macOS already have and these users still use the proprietary software like GarageBand, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Reason and Omnisphere. And no, wine doesn't count for them. 'Pro…

Totally agree. It doesn't matter how well Ubuntu studio runs, it doesn't have the right apps. And likely never will. Wine is a non starter. And the stability of such a system is generally unproven as many vsts have no official Linux support. I'd love to try it if fl studio or reason or similar had a Linux port. Or Linux had an audio app that could compare; it doesn't. Until then, there's nothing compelling.

You're pretty much off the mark, on every single point:

1) Most Windows VST .DLL's run just fine, unless copy protected - and even then, iLok can be made to work. You won't have a Catalina-level catastrophe on your hands, either.

2) Apps: This is the entire point of Ubuntu Studio - once done with an installation, you have an amazing suite of apps to try out, without requiring further installation/sourcing. Multiple DAW apps are available: Ardour, Rosegarden, Bitwig Studio, QTractor, LMMS, Audacity, Renoise, Tracktion Waveform, ZRythm, Radium - and even REAPER (one of the best DAW's in existence) is Linux-native now.

3) FL Studio runs great under Wine and there is no reason not to run it that way. It is quite stable and has not crashed on me, ever, after years of use. LMMS is also a viable alternative to FL Studio too, also very stable.

4) Ardour is excellent, and so is Harrison Mixbus and XDubber.

There are many amazing new-generation apps which are available in Linux native versions, too - see for example VCVRack, which performs better on Linux than it does on my Windows DAW ..

Re: Progress on Plasma

#135

Post by mnm1 »

fit2rule wrote: post #134
mnm1 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. It doesn't matter how well Ubuntu studio runs, it doesn't have the right apps. And likely never will. Wine is a non starter. And the stability of such a system is generally unproven as many vsts have no official Linux support. I'd love to try it if fl studio or reason or similar had a Linux port. Or Linux had an audio app that could compare; it doesn't. Until then, there's nothing compelling.

You're pretty much off the mark, on every single point: 1) Most Windows VST .DLL's run just fine, unless copy protected - and even then, iLok can be made to work. You won't have a Catalina-level catastrophe on your hands, either. 2) Apps: This is the entire point of Ubuntu Studio - once done with an installation, you have an amazing suite of apps to try out, without requiring further installation/sourcing. Multiple D…

You're completely missing the point. It's fine for amateur, non-live, non-critical work. But just because it works for you, it doesn't mean the software is stable. Hell, KDE itself (at least the kubuntu version) is not very stable so I doubt this version of ubuntu studio will be either. And suggesting to run VSTs on an unsupported OS or FL Studio under wine is likewise fine for amateur, non-live performance mode. For everything else, it's tempting fate especially when your desktop environment crashes when displaying the desktop number after switching desktops (one of many, many issues that cause kde to crash, lock up etc.).

Re: Progress on Plasma

#137

Post by the_angry_angel »

the_angry_angel wrote: post #130
mixedCase wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux apps pretty much universally do font rendering via FreeType. Have you tried switching to Cantarell? I for one fell in love with Inter UI back when I used Plasma.

I haven't, I'll give it a go :) Thank you!

FWIW if anyone else comes back to this I spent a little time last night and I've addressed my font rendering issues by;

* Removing an errant font-config lcdfilter configuration entry (this was a left over from when I was running "infinality" and should have been removed)

* Switching font from Noto Sans to Ubuntu

Its not perfect, but its a lot better. I'll probably play with oversampling (rendering X at a higher resolution and scaling down like OSX) at some point to see if I get the quality I want.

Re: Progress on Plasma

#138

Post by fit2rule »

mnm1 wrote: post #135
fit2rule wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're pretty much off the mark, on every single point: 1) Most Windows VST .DLL's run just fine, unless copy protected - and even then, iLok can be made to work. You won't have a Catalina-level catastrophe on your hands, either. 2) Apps: This is the entire point of Ubuntu Studio - once done with an installation, you have an amazing suite of apps to try out, without requiring further installation/sourcing. Multiple D…

You're completely missing the point. It's fine for amateur, non-live, non-critical work. But just because it works for you, it doesn't mean the software is stable. Hell, KDE itself (at least the kubuntu version) is not very stable so I doubt this version of ubuntu studio will be either. And suggesting to run VSTs on an unsupported OS or FL Studio under wine is likewise fine for amateur, non-live performance mode. For…

The software is stable and I've used it professionally to track bands in a real studio for years - right alongside full-blown ProTools, REAPER, and now Luna systems, which have just as much failings as you seem to think would preclude professional use.

In fact the Linux DAW has saved my ass a few times - most recently with the catastrophe of Catalina nuking entire suites of apps and plugins that were needed for production.

FL Studio under wine: pro's can use it. Just because you don't like the technology doesn't mean its not professional - you just haven't bothered to get competent at it. As is demonstrated time and again in the pro audio world: its not the instrument, its the artist.

Ubuntu Studio is great for artists and anyone wanting to learn pro techniques, whether they are fashionable or otherwise, would be wise to give it a go - in spite of the naysayers who have gained no production experience with the tool because of their own prejudices...

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