Tony Lawrence wrote:
I use Ubuntu and other Linux distros.   All of the Windows and Mac world has a open source equivalent.   Many work better then the Windows/OSX versions.   All are free.   I used to dual boot on one laptop I have Linux mint on but now its all Linux Mint and I would suggest Mint over Ubuntu.   If you have 1gb or more ram the Gome version.    If under 1gb ram the LDXE version.   The cool thing is you can experiment as many distros have a live CD and you can see which you like.

Ubuntu is the most popular but not the best for every user.   Arch Linux is excellent but is more advanced.   Mint and Pardus are based on Ubuntu (expect the Debian version of Mint) and have most of the codec and software you will need to view and play various file formats.   Other distros like Fedora are great too.   Some like Arch and Bodhi allow users to only download programs they plan to use.   Ubuntu , Mint PC/OS and Fedora all have lots of programs installed.   One thing you'll notice is how fast Linux is compared to Windows.   No malware programs are needed.   Faster start ups.   I'm not a big fan of the new look and feel of Ubuntu but its still a great distro.

Try several out.   Windows 7 has a ISO program to burn a CD or you can go here:   http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/   This will allow you to make a bootable USB flash drive which you can boot your second laptop from.   As you'll see there are lots of Linux distros around.   If you have any questions give me a hollar.

Thanks man, I will.

This lappy I'm using is pretty decent.. 64 bit dual core, 4 gigs of DDR3 6400, and a 640 gb drive. So, I have enough room and power to try a few distros.

Novus Photography wrote:
Well, I have a laptop and a desktop both that I use for editing and work stuff. This laptop is just a freebie that I ended up with, a dual core 64 bit AMD machine.. Since it's just collecting dust, so... Figger why not. Currently installing Ubuntu 64 bit.. So, It's JUST an experimentation machine. Maybe I'll make it my everyday personal use machine, and stop using my work machine for personal use.

Gotta say tho, the idea of CS5 and other Adobe software running on Ubunto is MIGHTY appealing.

Options there as well.   You can run Windows as a Virtual Machine and CS5 or use VM and run a earlier version of CS.   However GIMP does almost everything CS5 does.   There is a cool software called:  Darktable.  Again, look around before you settle on Ubuntu.   If you stay with Ubuntu I think you'll be happy.   One thing to do is to download the 'restricted codecs'   for Ubuntu;   https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

Novus Photography wrote:
I've got a spare laptop that's pretty decent, and was thinking of installing Ubuntu Linux on it and checking out the ease of use on it. (The last time I looked at Linux was quite a few years ago, with Red Hat 6 I believe).

Just wondering if anyone else uses Linux, and if so, what are basic tasks like, like RAW file handling, image transfers (from CF card to HDD), photoshop, and the like?

Cheers in advance!

Not Ubuntu but it's parent Debian. Works very well.

For RAW I use UFRAW (a GUI for DCRAW).

I use an old version of Adobe Photoshop (ver.7) under WINE and it works fine. GIMP is arguably a better bitmap editor and GIMPShop seems usable but I'm lazy and just use the Windoze program.

Hardware support for most of the memory cards, cameras and such has also been great.

Gryph B wrote:
None, Gimp doesn't support raw's and trying to emulate adobe photoshop runs like crap.

Might as well run a dual boot.

Not very factual information at all.

La Zona Imagery  wrote:
I did for a bit, but missed Photoshop...and dual booting is a pain.

If Photoshop is ever supported in Ubuntu, then I will run that OS exclusively

While I don't use Ubuntu I believe that it is a close derivative of the distro I've used for years: Debian.

If you do a bit of homework you will probably find that these superstitions evaporate pretty quickly (try something along the lines of: $sudo apt-cache search wine)

Edit

UnfilteredStudios wrote:
There are no commercial quality Photoshop alternatives that I am aware of, though Gimp tries hard.  Yep, you are pretty much locked into Windows or Mac if you use Photoshop.

However, I run Ubuntu 11.04 at work and home, and it is a very superior Linux desktop, compared to the other distros, and does just about everything you want, EXCEPT commercial photo processing.

If anyone has a suggestion for open source that can compete with Photoshop, I'd love to see it.

I can see that this will go on all night. There is a PS skin for GIMP. Look for GIMPShop or something like that.

Or simply continue to use Photoshop by installing wine or crossover office. But "commercial photo processing" ??? what do you need that GIMP (or photoshop under wine) can't do?

Tom deL wrote:

Gryph B wrote:
None, Gimp doesn't support raw's and trying to emulate adobe photoshop runs like crap.

Might as well run a dual boot.

Not very factual information at all.


While I don't use Ubuntu I believe that it is a close derivative of the distro I've used for years: Debian.

If you do a bit of homework you will probably find that these superstitions evaporate pretty quickly (try something along the lines of: $sudo apt-cache search wine)

Ubuntu is based on Debian, more or less directly, I think.  In fact I still think most of the .DEB packages for Debian work with Ubuntu just fine.

Gryph B wrote:
None, Gimp doesn't support raw's and trying to emulate adobe photoshop runs like crap.

Might as well run a dual boot.

Gimp does support RAWs. You need to download a plug-in (that may be the wrong terminology, I can't think of it at the moment).

Novus Photography wrote:
Well, it's obvious there's a bit of a learning curve - I've been trying for 3 hours to get my wireless mouse to work. lol. Guessing I need usb drivers or something.

It might be awhile till I know enough to install GIMP and get THAT figured out.

Sadly some devices just don't work with Linux.   It may be another Linux distro will.   I have had wireless cards work with Puppy linux but not with Ubuntu.   Try a few more out with their live CD.

M Blaze Miskulin wrote:
I've been a Kubuntu user for about 6 years now (Ubuntu with the KDE interface instead of Gnome).  I started the way you are, I installed it on a spare laptop and got used to using it.  It *will* take you a bit of time to get used to the differences, so don't get frustrated.  It's just a matter of learning new work-flow and new habits (I get frustrated with Windows quite often because things are in the "wrong" spot). 

As for photo manipulation:  What do you need to do?  A lot of people say "You can't install Photoshop!"  Which is true, but... that really doesn't address the question.  There's very little that only PS can do.  Don't get locked into "I need Photoshop to do my work", figure out the tools & effects that you actually use in Photoshop, and then look at the Linux applications to see which one(s) support them.

GIMP is a powerful photo & graphics editor.  It has a steep learning curve, but there are ways to mitigate that (GIMPShop being one of them).  There are also quite a few plugins that will extend the capabilities (note:  this is common for Linux; the base program will not have all the features you might want, but there will be a large library of plugins that will allow you to extend and customize the application to your needs).

Digikam is a great program for cataloging and viewing images, as well as doing simple editing and batch editing (batch convert is a great tool!).

LightZone from Lightroom ($100 last I looked) is a "digital darkroom".  It is not a PS alternative--it approaches photo processing from a completely different perspective.  It's simple, elegant, and fun.  You can get a free 30-day trial from their website.

Ubuntu 11.04 also came with some pre-installed applications that I haven't had the inclination to poke around at yet, but they could be interesting.   Most of all, there's a "universe" of thousands of applications sitting out there for free.  Just fire up Apt or Synaptic (or whatever they're calling the application manager these days) and download the ones you want.

What about color caliibration?

Jack North wrote:
What about color caliibration?

Can you be more specific?

Are you looking for a pre-packaged solution such as Pantone's Huey?  From what I remember when I looked into it a while ago, Huey runs under WINE.

Are you looking for a native Linux solution?  It's been forever since I've looked, so I can't say what's out there now.

Of course, you can always go in and manually tweak the RGB, Gamma, etc.

UnfilteredStudios wrote:
There are no commercial quality Photoshop alternatives that I am aware of, though Gimp tries hard.  Yep, you are pretty much locked into Windows or Mac if you use Photoshop.

However, I run Ubuntu 11.04 at work and home, and it is a very superior Linux desktop, compared to the other distros, and does just about everything you want, EXCEPT commercial photo processing.

If anyone has a suggestion for open source that can compete with Photoshop, I'd love to see it.

Now that PS is OSX native on the Macintosh side, It shouldn't be all that big a leap for them to produce a LINUX version. After all the version that used to run on Silicon Graphics was a UNIX version.

M Blaze Miskulin wrote:

Can you be more specific?

Are you looking for a pre-packaged solution such as Pantone's Huey?  From what I remember when I looked into it a while ago, Huey runs under WINE.

Are you looking for a native Linux solution?  It's been forever since I've looked, so I can't say what's out there now.

Of course, you can always go in and manually tweak the RGB, Gamma, etc.

Yes, something native like software/driver for pantone or spyder. I always assumed that running calibrating in wine would be pointless, but I don't actually know if that is true. Maybe calibrate in wine and transfer the settngs to ubuntu?

UnfilteredStudios wrote:
There are no commercial quality Photoshop alternatives that I am aware of, though Gimp tries hard.  Yep, you are pretty much locked into Windows or Mac if you use Photoshop.

However, I run Ubuntu 11.04 at work and home, and it is a very superior Linux desktop, compared to the other distros, and does just about everything you want, EXCEPT commercial photo processing.

If anyone has a suggestion for open source that can compete with Photoshop, I'd love to see it.

Le Beck Photography wrote:
Now that PS is OSX native on the Macintosh side, It shouldn't be all that big a leap for them to produce a LINUX version. After all the version that used to run on Silicon Graphics was a UNIX version.

That is true from a programming/mechanical POV. What I think you will run into is FOS (Fear Of Support). Although it is usually trivial to port an application from one *nix system to another (say BSD (Mac OS) to Linux), commercial software providers are usually reluctant to make the investment in learning a new environment well enough to provide support.

So: Trivial to make it go but intimidating to think about trying to provide answers and solutions to everyday problems for not one but a plethora of new OS's ...

If you care to read a real-world example, try Blurb's stated reasons for declining to support Linux even after a user provided them with the information required to make the actual application fly in Linux:
  http://forums.blurb.com/forums/1/topics … posts-9630

To quote:
'Hi all,

I’ve been asked to share what we ultimately communicated to Cedric this week.

Basically, we welcomed Cedric to post his Linux patch on an independent website, and to link that site to these forums if he so wished. We just need to be very careful here, because we are a tiny company that cannot suddenly support a new platform. It’s pretty cool that this patch is out there, but it’s best posted on an independent website in order to drive home the point that we cannot answer Linux installation/general questions, nor reprint any books that have problems caused by an untested Linux patch, nor support BookSmart on Linux in any other way.

I don’t think anyone here at HQ would argue that Linux support would absolutely rock when Blurb is large enough and ready to document/test its software on another platform. We simply need to be hands-off at the moment, and will neither stonewall Cedric, nor accept his source files. Blurb must simply steer clear of the issue until we’re ready and decide internally that we’re ready for another platform. Hopefully that time will come in the future, but I have no way of knowing at this time.

That’s Blurb’s final answer on the subject.

Best regards and thanks for all the interest & enthusiasm,

Jeremt"

This sums up the crux of the providers' (including Adobe I am sure) position on this.

Jack North wrote:
Yes, something native like software/driver for pantone or spyder. I always assumed that running calibrating in wine would be pointless, but I don't actually know if that is true. Maybe calibrate in wine and transfer the settngs to ubuntu?

There's a software-only solution called Monica that has gotten good reviews.  I recall seeing Linux drivers for either the Huey or Spyder.

A lot of high-end graphics work is done on Linux, so I know that there are solutions out there.

M Blaze Miskulin wrote:

There's a software-only solution called Monica that has gotten good reviews.  I recall seeing Linux drivers for either the Huey or Spyder.

A lot of high-end graphics work is done on Linux, so I know that there are solutions out there.

I didn't now about monica, I will check that out.

This page seems to layout the situation well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_color_management

alessandro2009 wrote:
CentOS is an enterprise distro linux, so it isn't well suited for desktop user.
The very long period of updates came with the high price of maintain older packages on the system.

Yes but also you get stability and Centos as a desktop is no different that any other gnome desktop.

joephotonyc wrote:
Yes but also you get stability and Centos as a desktop is no different that any other gnome desktop.

I've run CentOS, and it's quite a bit different from Ubuntu.  I would definitely not recommend it to someone who is just learning about Linux.   Ubuntu is stable, user-friendly, and designed for the average person.  It comes pre-packaged with most of the applications that a person will use, it has one of the more active (and friendly) communties, and it's very clean and pretty.

ETA:  Actually CentOS *is* different from the Ubuntu (Gnome) desktop.  First of all, it's a completely different distro tree (Red Hat vs. Debian), which means that most of the advice for Linux newbies isn't going to apply (simple things like yum vs. apt-get, for instance).   CentOS focuses on enterprise-type usage and web servers, not the average home user, so the available software is quite different.  There are quite a few programs that work on the Debian branch, but not (or not easily) on the Red Hat branch.

alessandro2009 wrote:
CentOS is an enterprise distro linux, so it isn't well suited for desktop user.
The very long period of updates came with the high price of maintain older packages on the system.

joephotonyc wrote:
Yes but also you get stability and Centos as a desktop is no different that any other gnome desktop.

If you want real stability simply install Debian and stick with the "stable" branch. Problem for a desktop is that the software tends to be a bit old so none of the bleeding edge toys without paying the price. With Debian you can choose one of three levels of stability:

1. Stable - which is very much so. This is what I use on my Internet exposed servers.
2. Testing - that which will become the "Stable" branch when testing is complete. I use this for desktops.
3. Unstable - "bleeding edge" stuff that hasn't even made it to the testing branch.

It is possible to mix and match the above: if your new printer or scanner isn't supporter you can grab the latest from the unstable repositories. But doing that takes it out of that beginner mode so probably isn't germane here.

FWIW from a stability POV Windoze is in a continual equivalent of Debian "Unstable". When it begins to become stable M$ seems to feel the need to rush the next "improvement" to market.

Debian is indeed very much like its consumer oriented child Ubuntu. I frankly don't see the reason for Ubuntu's existence but it has become very popular so what do I know?

Novus Photography wrote:
I've got a spare laptop that's pretty decent, and was thinking of installing Ubuntu Linux on it and checking out the ease of use on it. (The last time I looked at Linux was quite a few years ago, with Red Hat 6 I believe).

Just wondering if anyone else uses Linux, and if so, what are basic tasks like, like RAW file handling, image transfers (from CF card to HDD), photoshop, and the like?

Cheers in advance!

Up until a few weeks ago I was. Spilled water on my laptop, now I have a macbook pro, but Ubuntu is fantastic. I still actually prefer it over osx.

As for photoshop and lightroom and such, I ran that in a virtual machine running windows xp using virtualbox.

Lawrence Guy wrote:
I have Ubuntu and CentOS both running on Oracle VirtualBox on Windows 7.

I hate CentOS, but I need it for work.  I'm very happy with Ubuntu.  I'm very VERY happy with Oracle VirtualBox, which is free.

I especially like that I can run the virtual machines in seamless mode so that I can have Linux and Windows apps open on the same screen, AND I can share directories so my Linux desktops and my Windows desktop are the same.

This is what I was doing, except I was emulating windows.