Testing out Linux

Man I just installed Linus Mint on my USB drive and booted to it.
Being a first time user of Linux I was a bit apprehensive but I tell you what, even running it from a USB drive it's very fast and stable.
I know I lose photoshop and LR but just for surfing and grabbing mail and creating documents, it's like having a new pc.
Also I really like the image viewer in it as it will still open cr.2 and I'm not sure why yet but the images seem allot clearer and cleaner on this OS.

I may just partition and keep this OS!

I've been using Mint for a few year's now for the very same reason's. I haven't had to re-boot my machine in over a year. It's a great OS, I use window's strictly for photowork.

I haven't used Mint but I am looking into it since I have been using Ubuntu and looking for an alternative.

I also find GIMP a very good alternative to Photoshop.

I only left Ubutnu a little while ago to try out Windows 8.1 and I can't wait to go back to a linux based system.

I do have two laptops so I can swap OS very easily.

RHChan84 wrote in post #16590004
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I only left Ubutnu a little while ago to try out Windows 8.1 and I can't wait to go back to a linux based system.
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Man, that must have been a horrible experience. I run windows 7 and had to mess around with my wifes windows 8 machine and even the jump from 7 to 8 was enough to make me want to throw her laptop into a lake.

Copy that. I was so impressed I went to Mac OS and gave my old PC to my brother.

You loose Photoshop, but you gain "ImageMagick" which is an awesome tool.
In case you were not aware of Just type $which convert see if you have already installed.
Excellent for batch conversion, however needs scripting.

http://www.imagemagick​.org/script/index.php

Another pretty great program that works with Linux is Corel AfterShot Pro. I would say its the closest to lightroom that i have tried. Some parts within the program are even better than lightroom. Gimp can come close to Photoshop as well. Linux (certain distributions) is the amoung the most secure OS you can get.

Scatterbrained wrote in post #16590011
Man, that must have been a horrible experience. I run windows 7 and had to mess around with my wifes windows 8 machine and even the jump from 7 to 8 was enough to make me want to throw her laptop into a lake.

I do run WIndows7 as my main but I usually like to mess around with other OS. Windows8 was a much better experience on a touch screen or a tablet. I think it's a great UI for tablet environments but as for a desktop/laptop, UI is horrible. Multitasking is just not there anymore. I don't want to be scrolling left and right to find my needs.

Well I repartitioned my HDD and added Linux Mint 16.

Right now for 2 days it is rock solid and much faster than XP by allot.
I have been getting used to GIMP again and other plugins or programs.
I actually like the office suite on Mint and had no problems printing documents.
I am going to give this a real go before buying a Mac and I do think I'm done with Windows for good after using Linux.

I have been using Linux from the days of Red Hat Linux 5.2 back in late 1998.

When I decided that, since I was always post-processing my photos to some degree (I hate slanting horizons!), I might as well start taking my photos in RAW format, I started to look for a RAW file processor that worked under Linux. I found a package called "Bibble Pro", bought a license and used it for many years. Bibble then sold out to Corel and "Bibble Pro" became "Corel AfterShot Pro".

I was using Olympus cameras at the time and discovered, quite by accident, that Olympus' own RAW converter was quite a bit better than AfterShot Pro's. Unfortunately, Olympus software does not run under Linux and there was no @##$ way that I was going to revert to Windoze. I therefore bought a 27" iMac and a 15" MacBook Pro with the Retina display, which I use when I am away from home. - I suppose it goes without saying that the Olympus software does run on a Mac. I also installed AfterShot Pro on my Macs as a backup.

When I decided that the time had come to "jump ship" from Olympus to Canon, I bought a copy of Lightroom 5 for my two Macs and have started using it.

This thread, however, has reminded me that I haven't yet compared AfterShot Pro's RAW file engine for Canon cameras with that of Lightroom 5. I'll play around with both of them during the course of the next couple of weeks and see what happens. - If AfterShot Pro proves to be comparable, then I may well resurrect my old Linux workstation from server duties and start using it for photo processing again. Not that I am thinking of ditching the Macs..... But it is nice to have a viable backup.

As for Linux, I am currently running "kubuntu" Linux as I like the "kde" desktop, which I have heard described as "the Windoze desktop as it should have been". I use Thunderbird as an email client and a mixture of Firefox and Google Chrome as browsers. Skype works on Linux. For office type applications, I use "LibreOffice", which also runs on my two Macs. Even though Linux is not particularly susceptible to virus attacks, I have installed "Clam Anti-Virus" to protect any Windoze machines with which I may come into contact.

The various distributions of Linux which I have used over the years have proven to be ultra-reliable and rock-solid. The only reason I relegated Linux to a support role was the lack of support for photo editing applications.

If Corel AfterShot Pro suits your needs, then go with Linux. You won't regret it.

oh boy, tried to boot into XP and it won't boot all I get is a blinking cursor but the partition is there for xp. Boot.ini possibly fubar?
Linux however is running awesome.

That's your trigger then. -> Remove the XP partition. I presume that you did back up your data before fiddling around with Linux?

hotled wrote in post #16588442
Man I just installed Linus Mint on my USB drive and booted to it.
Being a first time user of Linux I was a bit apprehensive but I tell you what, even running it from a USB drive it's very fast and stable.
I know I lose photoshop and LR but just for surfing and grabbing mail and creating documents, it's like having a new pc.
Also I really like the image viewer in it as it will still open cr.2 and I'm not sure why yet but the images seem allot clearer and cleaner on this OS.

I may just partition and keep this OS!

I've been running Debian GNU/Linux and so far I'm pleased. For post processing I'm using darktable. Granted I'm new to pp but darktable looks very promissing.

Rainman768 wrote in post #16655142
I've been running Debian GNU/Linux and so far I'm pleased. For post processing I'm using darktable. Granted I'm new to pp but darktable looks very promissing.

I love Darktable. I've tried a good few other RAW processors, and it never "clicked", they all felt ... clunky in a way. Over time Darktable has become more and more powerful, and unless you need very specific features of whatever program you were using before, it is definitively worth a try. There are many tutorials on the net, especially youtube videos, outlining specific features, changes/additions with each new version and so on.

However, certain cameras are (not yet) supported by it, for example the ones employing the Fuji XTrans sensors (although someone is working on that already) and others.