Open Source

[PBrooks]

Thanks Guys for all your help you make some really good points. But see here is my problem. After being a CIS major for 2.5 years of face in computer writing code, I unplugged. Now I find myself in a situation with an MFA in Photography and Related Media, it seams my Related Media is getting used more in my teaching assignment. This past semester was no problem, in class Digital Photo I, I could use open source on my own and it didn't matter whether or not everything was upgraded and the latest. But at the same time I was instructed to come up with a online digital photo 1 class, which I did. It does use GIMP as the photo editing and manipulation, it's on a platform called Blackboard. That will be changed also the next semester as the powers to be will use a open source version built along the same lines but be more open to more OS platforms. The class registration went crazy and now there are multiple sections of this class, that's the good part. It still doesn't pay enough to justify staying up to date on proprietary expensive software, that's why I was asking about open source operating systems on MAC. I currently use Tiger but on an older PowerBook G4, a little bent but it still works. Maybe the lastest version of GIMP 2.4.2 will be out for Tiger by next semester. Maybe I should just stop moving at the speed of light and slow down. I'm thinking now of a trip out west with the 14x17, but wait that means a laptop with wireless connect card!! See I'm going insane
Thanks any help would be much appreciated.
PBrooks

[Ed Richards]

If you are in the education market, you get a huge break on the cost of CS3. I hate to say it, but Photoshop is the standard in the art world and you if are playing that game - as evidenced by the MFA and teaching - you need to be using it.

I originally though you were just another cranky geek looking for something to do instead of work on photography.:-)

[PBrooks]

Ed they will have plenty of exposure to Photoshop for the rest of their years in school. But for a Photo 1 class that is opened to all not just art students, my decision was based on the economy for the student that is not an art major and also to let the art students know they don't only have one option. I would like for them to think for themselves. On the economics of the class I looked at three things: 1. Computer and Internet ( obvious it's an online class they have it). 2. Image editing software 3. Camera. I would prefer them to spend the money on the camera. As for software, even though the cost of the latest photoshop is lower than retail, there is a real problem with, even though nobody wants to talk about it, piracy. I would just prefer the alternative. Do you think that logic is flawed or no. I agree with you about photoshop being the standard and they will have plenty of that.
PBrooks

[Ken Lee]

There are some efforts underway to deliver rich-interface photo editing software through nothing more than an ordinary web browser. Soon, you may not be installing Photoshop or other software, on your machine at all (whatever the OS). It will run inside your browser, and as long as your OS supports a browser, that should be enough.

Have a look at Photoshop Express. They tell you this won't be a replacement for the real thing, but that's today. Who can say ? Meanwhile, it may be just the thing for your students - whatever OS they use. Adobe also has a video editing tool that deploys the same way. This may pave the way for everyone to use Open Source operating systems... who knows ?

In this deployment model, you pay for the software you use, as you use it. It is constantly maintained and updated by the vendor, so you always get the latest version and automatic bug fixes. The software lives on a server farm somewhere cold and cheap like Siberia (where Microsoft has just made a big investment). It is called SAAS, or software as a service.

Google already provides this sort of deployment model, with their Office Suite: Google Docs. My company does the same, and saves the customers lots of time and money, which would otherwise be spent in regular upgrades, installs, and rollouts. It also frees the customer to use whatever OS they like.

[Ed Richards]

Doesn't the university provide the software through the labs? If the students have to provide their own software, then go for what most of them already have with the cameras - Elements. It can do a lot more than than they will be able to do in Photo I, it is cheap if they have to buy it, and there are a lot of third party materials. It also includes Camera Raw, so you can deal with conversions, which is a critical skill. I think Photo I students are the last folks who should be messing around with Unix based geekware.

[gbogatko]

I do UNIX and LINUX for work, and love it in that environment.

I do Photoshop and scan with a 4990. Open Source sucks for that. Maybe, one day, Adobe will do a Photoshop port for LINUX. Maybe, Epson will supply drivers for LINUX. So far, neither do this, so I am stuck on WinDoze for photo scanning and post processing. As long as I do nothing else on the machine or load anything else, it works OK.

Us LINUX worshipers hope and pray daily that Adobe especially, and Epson as well will come to their senses and do ports of their software to a superior OS. We also hope and pray daily for affordable housing in urban areas.

gb

[Paul H]

I've used OpenSuSE 10.x for some time, and recently tried PCLinuxOS and Mepis. The scanner (V700) and HP Printer work fine on all of them.

Overall favourite, probably because I use it at work as well, and have a longer history with it is OpenSuSE 10.3, but PCLinuxOS is also impressive. I did a bit of work in LightZone 2.4 which was available (alas no longer) for the Linux platform for free.

If you really need to run Photoshop, some versions will run throught CrossOver Office. You could also run it in a VMWare/Xen/VirtualBox windows session.

[kmack]

I do UNIX and LINUX for work, and love it in that environment.

I do Photoshop and scan with a 4990. Open Source sucks for that. Maybe, one day, Adobe will do a Photoshop port for LINUX. Maybe, Epson will supply drivers for LINUX. So far, neither do this, so I am stuck on WinDoze for photo scanning and post processing. As long as I do nothing else on the machine or load anything else, it works OK.

Us LINUX worshipers hope and pray daily that Adobe especially, and Epson as well will come to their senses and do ports of their software to a superior OS. We also hope and pray daily for affordable housing in urban areas.

gb

The real killer app for Linux would be Intuit's Quickbooks Pro.
I personally have not attempted to run any Linux distro on my ibook but the on-line support looks pretty good for most basic operations, no matter what distro you choose,

Distro's are basically the same, most are aimed at the home or business users. At this point I would just pick one, install it and start kicking the tires.

I would still urge you to try Ubuntu because of the Debian package system it uses or YDL because it is a distro designed for Mac hardware. Go Gentoo if you really want to geek around and build a kernel specifically for your hardware and have a fast net connection to download all the source code.

Drivers are available to get the Apple airport working on a powerbook with linux.

You may want to look at GimpShop, a version of The Gimp that has a photoshop like UI grafted on to it. The Gimp can do most of the manipulations that Photoshop can as long as you can live with the 8bit limit.

I have yet to find scanning software on Linux that works as well as Vuescan. Vuescan at $80 for an unlimited upgrade license is worth the price IMHO.

Look at the SANE documentation and see if your scanner is supported. Years ago I was able to get an HP scanner with a SCSI interface working with SANE and Gimp. I have not tried SANE in a while.

[Matus Kalisky]

Maybe a stupid question but it is possible to make color profiling of the monitor under Linux? I mean with some hardware tool like Eye one 2, Spyder or so ..

I use linux for 10 hours sa day for my work, but the graphics is done at home on windows and PS.

[Christopher Perez]

I suspect that someone (perhaps even I, Your Humble Servant) will come out with an "Eye Match" method for "calibrating" Linux driven monitors to printers. I remember when Minor White's book on the Zone System came out. It was a quick read, easy to understand, and just as easy to deploy. I have worked something out in my current setup that shows I'm as accurate as several people who's work I've compared my stuff to, and they run a completely "color managed" system. I rather like the cost savings, actually.

There are many engineers on these photo-forums. I'm sure any one of us could figure this stuff out. It's not exactly rocket-science.

I use Open Source tools on Linux and Windoze. I love the GIMP, though I wish it had more than 8 bits of color to work with. I love the other image manipulation apps that are out there too. There's a boatload of wonderful well-integrated materials.

Several colleagues have purchased the Asus Eee PC. It's a $400 Linux-based laptop. The screen is a little small, but it really illustrates what's possible and just how far Linux on the desktop has come in recent years.

I run Ubuntu v7+ at home and am beginning to share with my wife various image processing techniques that come with that distro. She a quick study and finds the tools as intuitive as anything she saw on Windoze. Shortly, I'll be building another Linux box for my "darkroom". I might dual boot Win-something-or-other to get a couple of the device drivers (like those needed to run a Nikon 8000ED film scanner). However, even in my current photo processing environment I spend most of my time on the Linux side. It's faster and MUCH more stable than XP/Vista/Win-anything.

For education purposes, Open Source simply rocks. There is so much to learn and so much to enjoy.