Saturday, September 22, 2007

Tools Needed

In particular, audio and video tools needed for Linux.

Sure, there's Audacity for audio. It's an excellent program. But, it's no GarageBand. And while I hope Jokosher comes up with something, eventually, it's not GarageBand either. Audacity is what many people use for Podcasts, but a majority of podcasters use GarageBand. It has Podcasting built in. Audacity will work just fine for most podcasters, but GarageBand is easier.

And then there's video. The guys over at The Linux Action Show podcast were frustrated about their attempts to make a video podcast using Linux. While these guys do a great job of supporting Open Source formats (.ogg, theora), there just isn't a program that will work well for video editing in Linux. There are a few, but there just too complex for the average user.

"But Danny, Shrek 3 was done on Linux!"

Yes, I know. But that's 3D modeling. I'm not trying to model a 3D. I'm I'm not about to make a cluster supercomputer just for video editing. Then again, Alameda County Computer Resource Center made one out of used parts. Use parts donated in just the previous week. All powered by a veggie diesel generator.
Maybe someday I will make a cluster supercomputer. But I don't think I'll need it for video editing.

At the moment, I could use Audacity for Podcasting, if I wanted. But for video, I'd have to use Nancy's iBook. I don't want to learn a how new career just to do a few videos.

The future of education is going to be in this type of content, both in creation and delivery. If Linux is going to be a part of that future, the guys writing software in their spare time for audio and video editing need to work a bit more. That, or I can only hope Apple will make iLife availabe for Linux.

Don't forget to check out the updates on My Website. You'll get to see my html education over the next few months.

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