Ubuntu Studio For Linux

3.5/5 2

Last updated: Sep 15, 2021 GPL

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Ubuntu Studio 21.04 introduces once again Plasma (5.21.4), the full-feature desktop environment made by KDE, and brings a series of other improvements and changes. #Ubuntu Multimedia #Digital Creation #Hirsute Hippo #Ubuntu #Multimedia #Creation

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Review by: Vladimir Ciobica

4.5/5

Ubuntu Studio 21.04 (code-named Hirsute Hippo) is the 29th release of Ubuntu Studio and it's only supported for nine months, meaning until January 2022.

Users should be aware that direct upgrades from prior releases (up to 20.10) are not supported. This is due to the desktop environment changes (from Xfce Desktop Environment to KDE Plasma). Direct upgrades from Ubuntu Studio 20.10 and forward will be, of course, supported.

When the Ubuntu Studio team announced that 20.04 LTS would be the last major version to feature Xfce, the community was instantly split. Some members of the community even wondered if Ubuntu Studio will inevitably become the new Kubuntu (which uses KDE Plasma for quite some time).

Tests have found that RAM usage will be pretty much the same between Xfce and Plasma (with a slight increase in usage for Plasma). However, the main reason for this switch is a pragmatic one: Plasma has better tools and better development potential for content creators.

Even though 21.04 is not an LTS release, it brings forth enough changes to tempt users to make the switch. The new release improves various video, publishing, and graphic apps, but most of the changes are in the audio department.

Besides various bug fixes, 21.04 comes with a new version of Studio Controls (2.1.4), and an improved front-end to New Session Manager (dubbed Agordejo) is included by default. Other improvements include upgrades to Ardour (6.6 and 6.7 later on), RaySession (0.10.1), Hydrogen (1.0.1), Carla (2.3), jack-mixer (15-1), and lsp-plugins (1.1.29).

Other apps that received upgrades are Krita (4.4.3), Darktable (3.4.1), Inkscape (1.0.2), Calibre (5.11.0), Scribus (1.5.6.1), and OBS Studio (26.1.2) and KDEnlive (20.12.3).

The most important change that 21.04 brings to the table is definitely the introduction of Plasma. This is bound to bring with it a few issues and possible bugs, as well as some "duplicate" apps, but it will also pave the way for future releases which will inevitably become better and better.