I shoot 4x5 transparencies and negatives and have them developed commercially. My "digital darkroom" setup for printing consists of an Epson 4990 and a G4 PowerMac running Photoshop, with output to an HP DesignJet 130 printer. Right now I'm not happy with any of it, especially the Mac-- it just will not handle large (100's of megabytes) image files. I'm fed up and I want to try something else. I am considering building a machine using the 64-bit Opteron processor and loading Windows on it, then using the Windows version of Photoshop. Trouble is, I come from a Unix/Linux background and know little about Windows. I'd much rather stick with Linux but its digital photo tools (GIMP, etc.) are not as sophisticated as PS, and $#!!%! Adobe will not port PS to Linux. I'm loathe to buy a G5 Mac given my experience with this one. So I need advice.
Is modern MS Windows stable, usable? I'm not worried about viruses as this machine will not be connected to the Internet. Is there a version of Windows for 64-bit processors such as Opteron and EM64T Xeon? Will PS on this architecture address 64-bit memory? Are the more desirable third-party PS plug-ins available for Windows? What about a RIP for the DesignJet printer (I realize this is another topic)? Am I swapping one set of problems (slow, noisy Mac) for another (Windows)?
I realize this inquiry is only partially germaine to large format photography, but people who are dealing with very large image files are in this group and will know what to do. Thanks.
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