Thinking about these requirements, the JackLab Audio Distribution (JAD), or JackLab for short, is based on openSUSE due to its stability and long development history. All major administrative tasks can be done graphically and easily without having to learn any complicated terminal commands.
JAD is fully compatible with the recently released openSUSE 10.2. It contains a full production environment for media production, primarily music. For this, the JackLab team added a Realtime Kernel version 2.6.19 to have fast audio processing with a latency up to 1.5ms. The default audio system is based on the the Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK) which is designed for the needs of musicians and producers and gives a professional audio/midi controlling interface.
The installer is based on the acclaimed YaST2, which also serves as an easy-to-use administrative tool. To keep as many essential computer resources for music as possible, JAD uses Enlightenment D17 desktop shell as the default window manager. The KDE desktop environment is also included, so the user-friendly file manager Konqueror is available along with Kmail, Konversation, K3b, and other KDE tools. For music creation and editing, there are around 70 audio applications with sequencers, synthesizers and tools all installed and ready to go. User-friendly support for setting up and running VST instruments and effects is given.
Additionally, there are applications for video production and a graphic suite that are included on the DVD. For browsing the internet, Firefox 2.0 was chosen for its stability, security, and extendability. JAD is a community based effort and is the culmination of the work of many contributors. Recently, JackLab and PackMan have joined forces to offer JAD access to the PackMan repositories so that up-to-date audio software, non-audio software and multimedia codecs are available to JAD users.
