Using the user interface

Creative flow is paramount.

The requirements of a GUI that’s used for multimedia aren’t massively different from that of a normal desktop. The interface should be quick and easy to use, as you often need to be on the ball when using Linux as the hub of your studio. In the case of distributions that offer a large number of tools, the launcher should be convenient and make use of categories. Clarity in areas such as launch icons is welcomed.

We expect customisation features that are easy to use, because when you’re working on creative endeavours, you often need to customise the layout to enable your workflow. To us, that means that you can easily make top-level selections such as changing the overall theme and the font size, as well as adjusting small details or adding features such as extra panels to the desktop. Oh, and we prefer configuration features that are easy to locate and preferably centralised and searchable. Options that can’t be found aren’t much use.

AV Linux 7/10

The default AV Linux theme is dark, and it makes some use of transparency and other effects, giving flashy looks at the expense of some extra resource usage. Along the top is a large dock with some major media-creation apps, while on the bottom is a smaller taskbar and launcher. On the backdrop, there’s a useful status display area showing real-time updates on essential info such as kernel version, memory usage and CPU temperature.

As you might expect from an Xfce desktop, there’s great scope for customisation, but the relevant features are spread out across different tools. This is largely down to how Xfce works, and the MX Tweak tools further duplicate the appearance options. We hit another snag when switching to the light theme that resulted in a nearly unreadable terminal.

It’s a good-looking tweakable desktop that will appeal to the technically minded.

Fedora Design Suite 6/10

The desktop here is a rather minimalist implementation of the standard Gnome one. When you first log in, you’re greeted with a pretty airbrushed backdrop and the standard Gnome status bar. Pressing the super key or clicking in the status bar invokes Gnome’s combined launcher and app switcher. This means an extra click or two, as you can’t switch tasks without using the full-screen switcher.

From the launcher screen, you can find apps via searching by typing, or you can click on the Show Apps icon. From here, you can browse the installed apps by icon. A snag is that there are few categories and they are thrown in with the app icons.

The minimalist approach might have been designed to offer a distraction-free environment for artists, but having no dock leads to extra steps when launching commonly used applications or switching between them. It’s an odd choice.

Fedora Jam 8/10

Although it comes from a similar origin, Fedora Jam has a different front-end from Fedora Design Suite as it uses KDE Plasma as the desktop environment. The default layout is fairly conventional, with a combined launcher/task switcher/status bar at the bottom of the screen.

The theme is dark and makes some use of transparency, but as is usual with Plasma, it’s a clear layout. Sure enough, it’s quick and easy to change to a light version of the basic theme and this theme also looks good. Generally, the customisation options are excellent and easy to access.

The application launcher is searchable. The layout may be age-old, but it is at least easy to browse by categories. Most of the music tools that come with this music-centric distro are in the Multimedia category, and it would have been nice to have seen some custom categories. It’s a good, if conventional, Plasma desktop.

Ubuntu Studio 9/10

The Ubuntu Studio desktop is darkthemed and uses KDE Plasma. The main panel is icon based and sits at the top of the screen. Some media applications and tools have been added to the quick launch panel. This was a bit on the small size, and bumping it up was one of the first changes we made. This aided clarity and put the launch icons within easier reach.

Being KDE Plasma, configuration tools are centralised and searchable. It’s dead easy to change to a light theme that is just as clear and attractive as the dark one.

There are separate custom categories for audio, graphics and video, rather than just having everything lumped into the multimedia category. Beyond that, it’s a fairly standard KDE desktop, but that’s no bad thing. There may be slightly lighter desktops when it comes to resource usage, but as it stands, it’s quick and clear, with a searchable launcher.

Modicia OS 7/10

Modicia OS defaults to a dark theme but it gravitates more towards midtones than the grey on black that we’re used to. It’s actually Cinnamon (a desktop that leverages Gnome 3 tech) providing the desktop, but you’d struggle to recognise it at first because it’s highly customised.

Along the bottom of the screen, there is a dock and we liked the fact that it’s a decent size by default. As soon as you hover over this dock, you’ll be struck by the fact that it stretches and bends. In fact, Modicia OS makes use of extensive compositor effects throughout. If this isn’t to your taste or you can’t spare the resources, you can disable those effects.

Here, we found that Modicia OS sits in the middle when it comes to ease of configurability because the options are reasonably centralised (and searchable), but they are manipulated from within a variety of configuration applets.