A photoshop replacement - again
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Sander_Marechal Mar 27, 2008 3:29 AM EDT |
A coworker of mine is yet again contemplating a switch to Linux, but his reliance on Photoshop still continues to be a problem. I've had him look at the most popular FOSS replacements (Gimp, Krita, Xara) but they don't meet his needs. He's an advanced Photoshop user who actually uses quite a lot of what Photoshop offers. Which made me think, are there any closed source, paid for graphics applications that run on Linux? He's happy to fork over money for a decent application. |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 27, 2008 4:23 AM EDT |
So far I've found only Pixel: http://www.kanzelsberger.com/ |
| bigg Mar 27, 2008 4:28 AM EDT |
I think Photoshop runs on Linux with Wine. There was recently a lot of noise about Google paying Codeweavers to get it working: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/02/google-sponsor... |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 27, 2008 5:23 AM EDT |
Yes, but it's still not doing that well. Lots of complaints about bugs, even with Photoshop 7.0. Photoshop CS3 doesn't work under Wine at all. Some people have got some of it working through some magic incantations of specific Wine versions, but the succes rate is pretty low. They're working on it., but they're not there yet! In the mean time I have convinced my coworker to try out Pixel under Windows. If it's sufficient for his needs then we'll go set up his system as dual-boot and buy Pixel for Linux. |
| dinotrac Mar 27, 2008 6:08 AM EDT |
Sander - Sounds like you're very persuasive and/or your co-worker is very reasonable. Good going for both of you. If Pixel doesn't cut it, c'est la vie and there's always tomorrow. Applications are what makes the desktop difficult, not any specific technical shortcomings. Heck -- lost of people were actually able to be productive using DOS PCs and text-based apps!! What we forget is that it's not always whether one app is as good as another so much as how well one app fits a particular need, or a user's style of working. Here's hoping that Pixel hits a home run for you. Failing that -- don't count Photoshop under Wine out. Google has both money and smarts. If they want to make it happen, it will. |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 27, 2008 7:11 AM EDT |
Quoting:Sounds like you're very persuasive and/or your co-worker is very reasonable. I just did what I always do: Expose him to Linux on a daily basis :-) He's sitting right next to me all the time so he can see my Debian laptop doing all these neat things that his expensive machine can't do. He's a bit of a gadget freak so when the Eee PC launched it didn't take long before he was sitting at my laptop to give Linux a spin. He wanted to find out if Linux was workable before he bought one. He ordered an Eee shortly after and now he likes Linux a lot. It's just that he is a webdesigner and needs the bells and whistles in Photoshop to create his designs. Quoting:Don't count Photoshop under Wine out. Google has both money and smarts. If they want to make it happen, it will. I'm sure they will. But it's not here yet, so we need something else for the time being. At $38 Pixel is downright cheap. Even better, a single Pixel license allows you to run Pixel on any platform you want. If you have a quadruple-boot OSX/Windows/Linux/BSD machine then it's still just $38 instead of $152. Good stuff! |
| dinotrac Mar 27, 2008 7:40 AM EDT |
>If you have a quadruple-boot OSX/Windows/Linux/BSD machine then it's still just $38 instead of $152. Good stuff! indeed |
| dumper4311 Mar 27, 2008 8:44 AM EDT |
@Sander:
Please keep us up to date on your co-worker's results with Pixel (or anything else for that matter), specifically what works and what doesn't for him. As dino mentioned, it's the apps (and how people work) that make desktop migration difficult. Finding a convenient and effective way around such problems benefits us all. And it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all to see Adobe loose a bit of market share to a more agile competitor. Open or closed source, such a move in the market - however small - would again benefit us all. |
| dinotrac Mar 27, 2008 8:51 AM EDT |
My humble view on desktop victory: Free software that runs well natively on both Linux and Windows (and Mac, ideally) is best. That lets Windows users dabble and satisfy themselves that they can operate before leaving the W-word behind. Free software that runs only on Linux, but is easily picked up and offers great value is next. Closed software that runs well natively on both Linux and Windows. Again, the security blanket factor. Closed software thar runs well under Wine is better than nothing. |
| bob Mar 27, 2008 9:04 AM EDT |
Have you tried Krita? http://www.koffice.org/krita/ |
| jdixon Mar 27, 2008 10:02 AM EDT |
Sander: If all else fails, run Windows in a virtual machine just for Photoshop. Use VirtualBox in the mode which lets it run the Windows app on your Linux desktop (there was a link on how to do so in the newswire some weeks back). |
| vainrveenr Mar 27, 2008 10:28 AM EDT |
Quoting:Have you tried Krita?]http://www.koffice.org][/quote] Also a good evaluation of Krita at LXer post of last month 'Report: Fie on Photoshop: Krita, the Real Photoshop Killer', found at http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/99293/index.html |
| bigg Mar 27, 2008 1:30 PM EDT |
It's not likely to be sufficient for Sander's friend, but for non-advanced users I just saw the announcement of Photoshop Express, that is claimed to work on Linux: http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/25416 |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 27, 2008 1:57 PM EDT |
@bigg: I tried that using the latest Flash for Linux. No game. It just told me my flash isn't supported. |
| jdixon Mar 27, 2008 5:06 PM EDT |
> It just told me my flash isn't supported. Strange. It seems to work fine for me. Firefox 2.0.0.12, Flash 9.0.r115. I only took the test drive. Could others please test it out and report? |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 27, 2008 5:22 PM EDT |
Hmmm, weird... Synaptic said I had 9.0.115 but about:config in Iceweasel said I had 9.0.31. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the package and now it does work. |
| tracyanne Mar 27, 2008 7:33 PM EDT |
Dell Australia won't even sell a bulk order of 100 laptops with no operating system. I've just had a call back from Dell where I asked for a price on 100 laptops, the only stipulation was that they come with no operating system. I was quietly informed that they come with the operating system and they can't take it off. I thought Dell built the machines to order. So what's this bullsh*t about "they come with the OS installed", what's to stop them building to the customers order? |
| rijelkentaurus Mar 27, 2008 7:42 PM EDT |
Tell them you want FreeDOS...?? |
| tracyanne Mar 27, 2008 11:29 PM EDT |
Quoting:Tell them you want FreeDOS...?? I've already told them "thank you but no". |
| jdixon Mar 28, 2008 6:34 AM EDT |
> ...was quietly informed that they come with the operating system and they can't take it off. I believe you were informed incorrectly. The last I heard (at least in the US), when you order the system with FreeDOS they include the OS on CD but don't pre-install it. |
| vainrveenr Mar 28, 2008 1:48 PM EDT |
Quoting:I think Photoshop runs on Linux with Wine. There was recently a lot of noise about Google paying Codeweavers to get it workingAdditionally worthwhile to note that '60% of Photoshop Users are PIRATES!' according to Brian Auer's poll and his supporting piechart statistics at http://blog.epicedits.com/2008/03/28/60-of-photoshop-users-a... But at the same time, absolutely _NO_ F/OSS users are Photoshop pirates: Quoting: FREE & OPEN SOURCE USERS And out of the four groups in the poll, this was the only one with absolutely no piracy. Go figure. I’m actually impressed at how many people use free and open source software for photo editing — 64%! And only 19% of those are using the software that came with their cameras. The rest is all open source and freeware/shareware. Good for you guys! Although, there’s probably some percentage of free software users who have pirated copies of commercial software.(and no, Brian here avoids any estimate of FOSS users who may have pirated copies of non-Photoshop commercial software) |
| techiem2 Mar 28, 2008 2:09 PM EDT |
I've always found that quite interesting. It seems that generally FOSS users respect licenses and copyrights more than non-FOSS users. Sure, most of the stuff I use is foss, but when I DO want a commercial app (linux or windows), I go buy it. Whereas it seems your "typical" non-foss user doesn't think twice about copying/torrenting or otherwise pirating applications (both ways, getting or giving the application). "I bought the disk, of course I can install it on 5 computers and give a copy to a friend." Maybe it's because in general FOSS users are more aware of how licensing actually works? Or maybe they're more aware of the work that goes into creating software? I dunno...I just find the whole thing quite fascinating. |
| jdixon Mar 28, 2008 3:29 PM EDT |
> Maybe it's because in general FOSS users are more aware of how licensing actually works? Or, perhaps, because we've saved thousands of dollars in software costs by using free software, we can actually afford to buy the occasional commercial app we need? |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 28, 2008 4:21 PM EDT |
Quoting:It seems that generally FOSS users respect licenses and copyrights more than non-FOSS users. In my experience that's a half truth. Quite a few FOSS users I know do indeed respect the licenses and copyright on software, but when it comes to e.g. music then their standards are lower. |
| tracyanne Mar 28, 2008 4:26 PM EDT |
Quoting:I believe you were informed incorrectly. The Dell sales person began by stating that "the computer comes with the Operating system already in stalled, and they can't remove it but what they can do is............ I politely told them I wasn't interested in it if I had to pay for a Microsoft OS license. The point is not that they would give me an extra discount, but that I not have to pay Microsoft for something I won't be using. |
| jdixon Mar 28, 2008 4:52 PM EDT |
> The Dell sales person began by stating that "the computer comes with the Operating system already installed... Well, I've looked on the Aussie site, and as far as I can tell he's correct. They don't seem to offer the FreeDOS option at all. Of course, they don't offer an Ubuntu option either, so maybe that's not surprising. On the bright side, if the US dollar keeps falling, it may soon be worthwhile to order from the US and pay for shipping. Here's the relevant line from the US site: FreeDOS™ included in the box, ready to install So if you order a FreeDOS machine in the US, there is no OS installed, just a FreeDOS CD included with the machine. Whether that saves money I can't say. |
| tracyanne Mar 28, 2008 5:29 PM EDT |
It's already cheaper to purchase from ZaReason and ship to Australia, at least for individual sales. Importing might be a different matter. |
| Steven_Rosenber Mar 29, 2008 9:04 PM EDT |
Getting back to FOSS Photoshop killers (and wouldn't that make a good movie title?), I still haven't taken tuxchick's advice to try digiKam again. I'm holding out for Krita to do what I need. I've heard rumblings that Krita is close to allowing the preservation and editing of embedded text in jpegs (aka the IPTC info), and I have a feeling that such support isn't even on the GIMP's radar. I will do a lot not to have to use Photoshop. |
| Scott_Ruecker Mar 30, 2008 4:14 AM EDT |
vainrveenr: I am going to post the link to the poll on the newswire, what a great poll. And the numbers are amazing! |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 31, 2008 5:33 AM EDT |
An update: My coworker hasnt had time to test Pixel out this weeked, but he will test it over the coming week. He's even agreed to write a story about it for LXer after I told him that you were all curious to his experience. |
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