Running Linux, 5th Edition

Multimedia Applications

Once you have your hardware configured under Linux, you'll want to run some multimedia applications. So many are available for Linux that they can't possibly be listed here, so we instead describe some of the general categories of programs that are available and list some popular representative applications. You can look for applications using the references listed at the end of the chapter. Toward the end of the chapter, you will also find more in-depth descriptions of some popular or particularly useful applications.

These are the major categories of multimedia applications that are covered:

• Mixer programs for setting record and playback gain levels

• Multimedia players for audio and video files and discs

• CD and DVD burning tools for authoring audio and video discs

• Speech tools, supporting speech recognition and synthesis

• Image, sound, and video editing tools for creating and manipulating multimedia files

• Recording tools for generating and manipulating sound files

• Music composition tools for creating traditional music scores or music in MIDI or MP3 format

• Internet telephone and conferencing tools for audio communication over computer networks

• Browser plug-ins for displaying multimedia data within a web browser

Sound Mixers

Sound mixers allow one to modify the hardware gain levels and input devices for your sound card. Most sound mixers are similar. If you are running KDE or GNOME you'll generally get the best results using the mixer provided with your desktop, which ...