Linux - looking for tips

I'm fed up with Windows 10. Non-stop display driver problems with now two different cards, slowdowns, etc.

So for the umpteenth time in years, I loaded the latest Linux Mint version as a dual-boot. The last time I tried it, the PITA factor was still high but it was getting to the point of being really useful. This time, it seems more polished, plus some things I struggled with before (working sound, scanner recognition) went (almost) smoothly.

One of the biggest reasons for me to stick with Windows was photography, especially RAW processors and calibration. I don't particularly like Gimp but I can live with it.

In the past I've tried UFraw (too basic) and RawTherapee (too slow / complicated). Now I tried Darktable and I am pretty impressed. However some parts are still very confusing, especially the way masks (brushes) work. Can anyone suggest a good source (user manual, forum etc) ? Any other RAW editor I can look at ?

The next big question is calibration. To my pleasant surprise, my monitor's default profile under Mint is far better than Windows - at least comparing to iPad screen. But I still want to calibrate it. Was anyone able to successfully calibrate their monitor under Mint using Eye1Display2, and if so can you share your steps ?

Any other hints / tips ?

I run dualboot but for editing it's a dead en for me since Adobe doesn't have anything for Linux and I need Photoshop. Tried to run windows emulators but never liked them.

As far as Win 10 the only issue I've had is annoying updates, but everything else has been flawless.

I guess it's a hit or miss.

I had terrible slowdowns on W10 that I finally traced to NVidia drivers. I could not use my NVidia card at all because W10 would automatically replace the old (working) driver with the new version & no way to stop this.

So I decided "screw it" and pulled the card out & used the onboard graphics chip in the interim. About a week later, it started to give me display corruption problems after waking up from sleep (that would be fixed if I changed resolution then reverted back, so clearly a software issue). On top of this, the boot time is atrocious now.

So, I am very seriously considering moving to Linux full time. I do 80% of my computing on the iPad anyway, the main reason to even have a desktop is for photo processing. The computer is only a year old and with plenty of RAM, so if I can make it work in Linux it will last me a long time.

Hello there Amamba,

I'm in a similar boat to you, I'm tethered to windows for iTunes and Canon's DPP. For all my other computing (Like now for instance) I'm in the Ubuntu side of my laptop.
One thing I've recently done is to do a full update of windows 10 after putting it off for a while - If you've not done so, I suggest you do that, it's sped up the windows side no end - I still prefer Ubuntu though.

HTH,

Noel

The manual is here: http://www.darktable.o​rg/usermanual/index.ht​ml.php

Videos, styles, etc:
http://www.darktable.o​rg/resources/
https://opensource.com …arktable-digital-darkroom

other editors:
ImageMagick
RawStudio

If you haven't already installed the Synaptic Package manager, you'll want to because it finds more items with "camera," "photo", "raw", "exif",. (ubuntu user here with cinnamon)

If you remember the old Linux photography thread, Rapid Photo downloader, PhotoRec, entangle, tintii, hugin, Argyll, dispalgui, PhotoRec.
Geeqie.

Amamba wrote in post #18156892
I'm fed up with Windows 10. Non-stop display driver problems with now two different cards, slowdowns, etc.

So for the umpteenth time in years, I loaded the latest Linux Mint version as a dual-boot. The last time I tried it, the PITA factor was still high but it was getting to the point of being really useful. This time, it seems more polished, plus some things I struggled with before (working sound, scanner recognition) went (almost) smoothly.

One of the biggest reasons for me to stick with Windows was photography, especially RAW processors and calibration. I don't particularly like Gimp but I can live with it.

In the past I've tried UFraw (too basic) and RawTherapee (too slow / complicated). Now I tried Darktable and I am pretty impressed. However some parts are still very confusing, especially the way masks (brushes) work. Can anyone suggest a good source (user manual, forum etc) ? Any other RAW editor I can look at ?

The next big question is calibration. To my pleasant surprise, my monitor's default profile under Mint is far better than Windows - at least comparing to iPad screen. But I still want to calibrate it. Was anyone able to successfully calibrate their monitor under Mint using Eye1Display2, and if so can you share your steps ?

Any other hints / tips ?

I use Digikam for viewing, sorting and cataloging and Darktable for 99.9% of processing. I've not had a windows pc since 2002 so have fortunately never fallen into the Adobe abyss.
Lightzone is another you might like to try. There is also Corel Aftershot, not free, which used to be Bibble pro and was my software of choice until Corel bought and "improved" it.
Because my stuff is only for pleasure I've never bothered with hardware calibration and have been almost entirely happy with my Mark1 eyeball calibration.
Everything in my gallery here is done with Darktable.
https://photography-on-the.net …embergallery.ph​p?m=240258

I like Linux, but for a desktop computer Windows is easier for most, especially for photography. I've been using W10 since beta on my self built computer and it's work 100% fine. Do you have a branded computer or self built? Have you had someone look at it for you? Could just be a dodgy computer.

Thanks for the tips.

The Windows 10 issues have resolved - I did have to remove my video card and go with motherboard video.

I really liked Darktable but struggled with their brushes, and the way in which it tends to leave a "halo" around dark objects when applying strong highlight recovery.

For now, I am running Mint alongside Windows, and playing with it a bit. It's hard to give up C1P and PSP though.