Most of the complaints related to Linux are more or less about Multimedia. People say that they don't use Linux because it doesn't have good video editors, music players or other multimedia applications. But things have sure changed in the last few years. Linux has become more stable and better both in looks and performance. Karmic is sure a big step in the right direction when it comes to this. Its capabilities for Multimedia application support are vast. So, here's Ubuntu 9.10 + Mutimedia for you!!

I will be broadly categorizing the applications on the basis of their functionalities e.g. Editors, Video players, Music players etc.

Music Players

Ubuntu comes with Rhythmbox as the default music player. But if you are not satisfied with Rhythmbox there are always a lot of options in case of Music Players. Here are some of my favourites.

Banshee

Banshee is actually a media player and therefore its ability to play videos can be taken as a positive point over Rhythmbox. Its an open source media player available both for linux and MacOS. It can play and import audio CDs, has last.fm integration, podcast support and a lot more.

In order to install banshee either click this link or run this command.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install banshee

Amarok

Amarok is considered as one of the best music players. It is a free software and is now available for windows too. It is the default music player in KDE. So, if you have installed Kubuntu this is what you will get (Amarok 2.2). Amarok 1.4 and Amarok 2 are both available for Ubuntu. But for installing Amarok 1.4 in Karmic you will have to do some extra work, it is not available in the repos(default is amarok2, the latest stable release).

If you want to install amarok2 either click this link or run this command in the terminal

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install amarok

Exaile

Exaile is an open source music player which aims to be similar to amarok in functionality and looks but uses GTK+ widget toolkit rather than Qt used by Amarok. So, if you are looking for a simple and light player which provides some of the amarok functionalities exaile should be your choice. Exaile can play videos also.

To install exaile either click this link or run this command in the terminal.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install exaile

Video Editors

Pitivi

Pitivi is a really good video editor for linux. It is based on Gstreamer framework. It has a user friendly interface with tons of features and can be used to export or import video in any format supported by Gstreamer.

For a whole list of features you may check this wiki link.

To install Pitivi click this link or type the following command in the terminal.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install pitivi

Avidemux

Avidemux is an open source tool for video editing and processing. It is designed for simple editing, encoding and filtering. It is a platform independent universal video processing program.

In order to download it either click this link or run this command.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install avidemux

Kdenlive

Kdenlive is a free non-linear video editing tool. It supports almost all formats supported by ffmpeg and also supports 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ration for various HD standards. It aims to be flexible and easy to use. It is also available for FreeBSD and MacOS.

In order to install Kdenlive either click this link or run this command in the terminal.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install kdenlive

Video Screen Capturing Tools

RecordMyDesktop

RecordMyDesktop is an open source screen capturing tool available for Linux. It is easy to use and is available as both command line and graphical tool. Two graphical front-ends are available

One is written in pyGtk known as gtk-recordmydesktop
Other is written in pyQt4 known as qt-recordmydesktop

It also provides functionality to record audio.

In order to install recordmydesktop (gtk front-end) either click this link or run this command.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install gtk-recordmydesktop

Istanbul

Istanbul is another screencasting tool available for Linux. But unlike gtk-recordmydesktop it uses Gstreamer. Live audio recording in sync with the Video is also supported. The name Istanbul is actually a tribute to Liverpool's 5th European Cup triumph in Istanbul on May 25th 2005.

It is really simple to use. In order to start the recording, you click the icon in the notification area and to stop the recording click it again. It works on almost all the Desktop environments. A great tool indeed.

In order to install Istanbul either click this link or run this command in the terminal

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install istanbul

Audio Recorders and Editors

Audacity

Audacity is a cross-platform digital recording and editing application. It provides a lot of features. Audacity won the 2007 sourceforge.net community choice award for best multimedia project.

In order to install Audacity either click this link or run this command in the terminal.

[shredder12]$ sudo apt-get install audacity

Jokosher

Jokosher is a free non-linear, multi-track audio editor. It is easy to use, provides a lot of multi track editing features and can input audio from OGG, MP3, FLAC and any format supported by Gstreamer.

In order to install Jokosher either click this link or run this command in the terminal.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install jokosher

Rosegarden

If you are looking for a free alternative to music production/recording softwares such as Cubase then Rosegarden could be a good alternative for you. It acts as an audio and MIDI sequencer, score writer, music composition and editing tool.

It can be considered as an free and opensource solution to digital audio workstation proprietary applications.

In order to install Rosegarden either click this link or run this command in the terminal

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install rosegarden

Media Players

Totem Movie Player is available as the default media player in Ubuntu. It is a very good media player. But if you are looking for something else which has more features or otherwise then here are a few I use.

VLC media player

VLC is a free and opensource media player. It is a very powerful supports almost all the audio and video formats and VCDs and DVDs and various streaming protocols. It is indeed a great player. It is available for almost all the operating systems making it one of the most-platform-independent players available.

In order to install it either click on this link or run this command in the terminal.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install vlc

Mplayer

Mplayer is also a free and opensource media player available for almost all the operating systems. It can play a variety of media formats and can save all the streamed content in a file.

In order to install mplayer either click on this link or run this command in the terminal.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install mplayer

As I have already mentioned earlier Banshee can also be used as a media player.

Media Center

Moovida

Moovida (formely known as elisa), is an open source project to develop a media center solution for Home Theatres and living room TVs. Their current platform for development and deployment is Linux but they also currently support Microsoft Windows and MAC support is in development.

For more screenshots check out this link.

In order to install Moovida either click this link or run this command in the terminal.

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install moovida

MythTV

MythTV is another free media center application available for linux. Just like Moovida it also provides a 10 foot interface for Home Theatres and Living room TVs. Once installed it turns your computer into digital video recorder, digital home entertainment system, Home Theater Personal Computer. Network streaming is also supported.

In order to install MythTV either click this link or run this command to install it

[shredder12]$sudo apt-get install mythtv

More Multimedia Applications

There are a lot of different Multimedia applications available in Karmic. To check them out, open Applications->Ubuntu Software Center and select Sound & Video. You can search for all different types of multimedia applications available.

P.S.- If you are having trouble downloading files by clicking on the apt url then you may need to download the apturl software. Run this command to install it.