KXStudio

KXStudio is a full features, complete and up-to-date operating system geared towards helping artists to become famous by allowing them to compose beautiful audio tracks or video clips using only open source software.

An universal operating system that supports mainstream platforms

While the distribution is available for download as a Live DVD ISO image of approximately 1.7GB in size each, it has been designed from the ground up to support both only the 64-bit hardware platform. It runs well on low-end and high-end computers.

You can only start the live system or boot an existing OS

Being designed with usability in mind, the OS allows users to start the live system directly (you will be prompted by another screen to choose between live or install modes) or boot an existing operating system that is installed on the first disk drive detected by the BIOS.

Uses a full featured KDE Plasma desktop environment

It uses KDE Plasma as its default graphical desktop environment, on top of the latest upstream Ubuntu base. The KDE interface is very beautiful, comprised of a single taskbar located on the bottom edge of the screen.

Includes a wide range of open source applications for multimedia production

KXStudio is known for the vast selection of open source applications, which have been designed to help users produce better audio and video content. These include Ardour, Audacity, Blender, digiKam, GIMP, Inkscape, Kdenlive, Mixxx, VLC Media Player, and many others.

Bottom line

In conclusion, KXStudio is a very nice and well designed operating system that will help you to create some of the best multimedia content with minimum effort and without paying for expensive products.

It is suitable for low-end, mid-range and high-end computers (see above for supported architectures). To install it, do not hesitate to use the live installer script provided on the desktop.

What is new in this release:

• Apps:
• Add AriaMaestosa, Giada and Petri-Foo to the DVD and default install
• Upgrade Cadence to the beta1 release (lots of fixes!)
• Fully up-to-date apps and plugins (as of 30/12/2012)
• Use KDE 4.9.4 on the Live-DVD (repositories now have 4.9.5)
• Use Firefox-KDE PPA on the Live-DVD
• Desktop/Theme:
• Add kxstudio-text plymouth (used when no gpu drivers are available)
• Fix plymouth Live-DVD "eject disk now" text not visible (and any other labels/info)
• Change KDE desktop theme to slim-glow (backported latest release from KDE 4.10)
• Change cursor theme to oxy-zion
• Disable KDE bouncing cursor by default
• Use Claudia-Launcher instead of Klaudia in KDE kickoff (start menu)
• Settings:
• Auto-disable PulseAudio respawn
• Set default asoundrc file to snd-aloop
• Set default jack prio to 85
• Use ALSA-Audio bridge instead of PulseAudio (no longer installed by default)
• Welcome Wizard:
• Add theme screenshot button
• Add theme font size option
• Auto-register 64bit WineAsio too (done in 'wine stuff' step)
• Don't update user theme to KXStudio by default
• Disable theme updates if not running KDE4 or XFCE

What is new in version 14.04.2:

• Apps:
• Add AriaMaestosa, Giada and Petri-Foo to the DVD and default install
• Upgrade Cadence to the beta1 release (lots of fixes!)
• Fully up-to-date apps and plugins (as of 30/12/2012)
• Use KDE 4.9.4 on the Live-DVD (repositories now have 4.9.5)
• Use Firefox-KDE PPA on the Live-DVD
• Desktop/Theme:
• Add kxstudio-text plymouth (used when no gpu drivers are available)
• Fix plymouth Live-DVD "eject disk now" text not visible (and any other labels/info)
• Change KDE desktop theme to slim-glow (backported latest release from KDE 4.10)
• Change cursor theme to oxy-zion
• Disable KDE bouncing cursor by default
• Use Claudia-Launcher instead of Klaudia in KDE kickoff (start menu)
• Settings:
• Auto-disable PulseAudio respawn
• Set default asoundrc file to snd-aloop
• Set default jack prio to 85
• Use ALSA-Audio bridge instead of PulseAudio (no longer installed by default)
• Welcome Wizard:
• Add theme screenshot button
• Add theme font size option
• Auto-register 64bit WineAsio too (done in 'wine stuff' step)
• Don't update user theme to KXStudio by default
• Disable theme updates if not running KDE4 or XFCE

What is new in version 14.04.1b:

• Apps:
• Add AriaMaestosa, Giada and Petri-Foo to the DVD and default install
• Upgrade Cadence to the beta1 release (lots of fixes!)
• Fully up-to-date apps and plugins (as of 30/12/2012)
• Use KDE 4.9.4 on the Live-DVD (repositories now have 4.9.5)
• Use Firefox-KDE PPA on the Live-DVD
• Desktop/Theme:
• Add kxstudio-text plymouth (used when no gpu drivers are available)
• Fix plymouth Live-DVD "eject disk now" text not visible (and any other labels/info)
• Change KDE desktop theme to slim-glow (backported latest release from KDE 4.10)
• Change cursor theme to oxy-zion
• Disable KDE bouncing cursor by default
• Use Claudia-Launcher instead of Klaudia in KDE kickoff (start menu)
• Settings:
• Auto-disable PulseAudio respawn
• Set default asoundrc file to snd-aloop
• Set default jack prio to 85
• Use ALSA-Audio bridge instead of PulseAudio (no longer installed by default)
• Welcome Wizard:
• Add theme screenshot button
• Add theme font size option
• Auto-register 64bit WineAsio too (done in 'wine stuff' step)
• Don't update user theme to KXStudio by default
• Disable theme updates if not running KDE4 or XFCE