Changes With This Release

A new release of Ubuntu Studio is out. This release marks a turning point as it will only be supported for 9 months. Check out our download section to get the ISOs.

Support for non LTS releases down to 9 months

There was a discussion within the Ubuntu community about moving towards a rolling release a couple of months before the release of 13.04, but that idea was scrapped. Instead, in order to reduce the maintenance burden, it was decided that non LTS releases would only be supported for 9 months.
As it stands right now, things might change again for the 13.10 release, or after the next LTS release, which is released April 2014 (14.04).

Ubuntu Studio LTS vs non LTS

The obvious difference between a LTS release and a non LTS release is that the former is supported for many years, while non LTS releases beginning from 13.04 are only supported for 9 months. So, if you don’t like to reinstall often, you might want to stick to LTS releases.
As a whole, the LTS release might actually not prove to have much benefit for the Ubuntu Studio user, as this is highly individual. Proprietary graphic drivers are probably better supported on 12.04 at the moment. The LTS is in fact mostly valuable to server admins, and only to a lesser extent to desktop users.
The reason to choose one over the other is going to be different on an individual basis, so we don’t recommend the LTS over a non LTS by default. It all depends on your personal preferences and needs.

Pulseaudio and Jack

For the past two releases, we’ve been experiencing some bugs with both jack, and pulseaudio.
Since 13.04 includes newer releases of jack and pulseaudio version, both bugs are not present. And while jack has been fixed in all releases recently, pulseaudio is still causing problems in 12.04 and 12.10, but the fix is under way to those releases as well.

Meta Packages reorganized and a polished menu

For this release, we’ve integrated the meta packages ubuntustudio-generation and ubuntustudio-recording into ubuntustudio-audio, while ubuntustudio-audio-plugins is kept separate.
The menu has seen some polishing. New icons, and a slightly improved disposition. The organization of the menu is something that goes beyond the XFCE menu, and something that will benefit any distro in the long run. So, that is something we’re working on to improve for the future.

Future Plans

Looking for volunteers and participants

So, now that 13.04 has been released, it is time to start working on 13.10 and 14.04. We have big plans for the future, but as we are a volunteer project, we depend on volunteers to help us develop Ubuntu Studio. You don’t need to know anything about software development in order to help us. To find out more, see our Contribute page.

ubuntustudio-controls, linux-rt and more

For 14.04, we’ll be looking into the possibility of adding linux-rt to the repo once again. Not to substitute linux-lowlatency, but to keep it as an additional kernel. Also, we have big plans for the audio infrastructure, which will require a few substantial changes in how audio is administered and controlled on Debian/Ubuntu. Our goal for 14.04 will be to simplify audio control for users, so that our users can focus on music production rather than audio settings.

Hope you enjoy this release! It has been the results of the work from the Ubuntu Studio team: myself, len, smartboyhw, ttoine, holstein, our new art lead madeinkobaia, and our newest contributor DarkEra. Hope to see more contributors soon!

// Kaj Ailomaa (zequence) – Project Leader of Ubuntu Studio