Using Linux for photography

[bakubo]

I just wanted to let you know that I am not ignoring your very informative post. I am still letting things ruminate a bit and doing more investigation. Later I will respond.

when new devices come out you tend to waite longger for Linux drivers and in some cases it never happens. i.e I have a Canon flatbed scanner and Canon do not release the infomation needed to write drivers for it, so no drivers have ever appeared for it on Linux and now there are not even drivers for Vista/windows 7. So my near new flatbed scanner is just a paper weight.

Have you tried Vuescan? It handles just about any scanner you can think of on Linux, Windows, and Mac.

http://www.hamrick.com/

I have used Vuescan since it was still just a beta command line MS-DOS program in early 1998.

[stevecim]

Your the man Henry, 20+ years in IT and I never came across this program, (in my defence the last 5 years Quickbooks has been my main reason for staying on Windows XP, since I no longer work for my self that's no longer an issue ) looking at the release note my canon FB scanner is one of the models supported that does not need a OS driver . I will try VueScan tonight.


edit:

I'm home, just tried Vuescan, works fine on Windows 7 . brought it Thanks Henry

[bakubo]

Your the man Henry, 20+ years in IT and I never came across this program, (in my defence the last 5 years Quickbooks has been my main reason for staying on Windows XP, since I no longer work for my self that's no longer an issue ) looking at the release note my canon FB scanner is one of the models supported that does not need a OS driver . I will try VueScan tonight.


edit:

I'm home, just tried Vuescan, works fine on Windows 7 . brought it Thanks Henry

Great! I am not sure, but I think that your Vuescan license will work for the Linux version too (and Mac). I seem to recall someone saying a long time ago that, unlike just about every other company, the Vuescan license is for all versions (Windows, Linux, Mac) so you don't have to buy it again if you change platforms. Unfortunately, I think Adobe, Bibble, Neat Image, PTLens, etc. make you buy a new copy of their products if you change platforms. I would never buy a Mac for that reason.

[David Kilpatrick]

Not only do Adobe allow license transfers, but much of their software is provided as two-platform installers so that one activation can be on a PC, another on a Mac. Also, the data files are completely compatible - no translation, just open (fonts need to be matched, and PC font technology is awful - at least with my Mac, every single font I have bought or created in over 25 years is still usable - I started with Postscript fonts in 1984).

There are some exceptions like Photoshop Elements, and CS4 was not issued as a dual platform package (I think CS2 was the last to go out with Windows and Mac, but the divergence between 64-bit Windows and the surviving 32-bit Mac which they have failed to develop further has ended that situation temporarily).

What I find funny is the amount of Apple software now installed by default on Windows - QuickTime, iTunes and a bunch of other stuff has miraculously added itself to my PC via Windows updates!

David

[bakubo]

Thanks for that info, David. I should have checked before posting. Maybe I will go back and check about all my Windows software and see how many have Mac versions included or the license is for both.

[bakubo]

Here is the list of photo related software I have for Windows:

Photoshop CS2 (Windows & Mac)
Photoshop Elements 6 (Windows & Mac)
Paint Shop Pro X (Windows only)
Picture Window Pro 3.5 (Windows only)
Portrait Professional 8 (Windows only)
Neat Image (Windows & Mac)
PTLens (Windows & Mac)
Vuescan (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Faststone (Windows only) freeware
Panorama Factory (Windows & Mac) old freeware version
Virtual Photographer plugin (Windows only) freeware

I rarely use Picture Window Pro, Portrait Professional, and Panorama Factory though. The only reason I have PSE 6 is because it supports later versions of ACR that can handle my A700. Unfortunately, PSE has pretty serious gui bugs which makes it a pain in the butt to use sometimes. Also, it only has basic shadows/highlights rather than both basic and advanced like in PS. It also has a simplified curves control, but that hasn't been a major issue. Also, no masks, but, again, that hasn't been a big issue most of the time. The straighten tool in PSE is better and easier to use than the arbitrary rotate in PS. The one in PSP is much better than both though. In many ways PSP has the better interface and I like it the best *except* for no ACR, only basic shadows/highlights, no smart sharpen, and many of the functions do not have the instant preview like in PS. If I could pick and choose I would take 65% of PSP + 35% of PS. I never use Bridge or the browser in PSE and PSP. I have found that Faststone is much better and faster than any of them. It works with *all* the raw files I have. I didn't see PSE 6 on the Adobe website since the current version is now 7 so I don't know how someone would get the Mac version in order to switch the license.

It looks like most of the software I use would need to be replaced with other programs for use on a Mac. Some aren't that important though since I don't really use them much.

I was shocked to discover this afternoon that I don't have any of my app CDs here in Hawaii. I keep them all together and somehow I ended up here without them. I always have them, but on the long road trip we went on in the spring I had more space in the SUV so I moved the CDs out of the normal place and somehow I forgot to put them back in the luggage I used to bring to Hawaii. Ouch. I sure hope I have no problems. Some of my programs are downloaded (PWP, PSP X, NI, etc.) so I have them on my external hd, but the main program I don't have is PS. The CD is somewhere back in Austin.

[David Kilpatrick]

Elements - no PC to Mac switching. No upgrades either. Want the latest version, buy it. They don't offer any upgrades or sidegrades to Elements and never have - it is treated as a disposable purchase, as the cost is half what Adobe think a program should be. But it also has unlimited installs and no network or web checking to prevent you buying a package and putting it on all the machines you have available.

David

[bakubo]

I did the quick survey of my photo related software since the issue came up, but I am not giving any thought to getting a Mac. It might help a bit with #1 and #3, but then adds another bad point:

8. With a pc (Windows or Linux) I can easily pick up a new computer pretty much anywhere for a good price. When I spend extended time in Tokyo and Vancouver I take my computer and in both places I thought about buying a new computer because of some problem or because I was there and I could do it easily. I have thought about spending some time in Thailand, not just traveling, so if we do that then we would take our notebook computers. It is just so easy to buy pc hardware anywhere. Macs, software, etc. are much more problematic since they can't be bought in any random store in any country and also the prices are not so good generally.

For people who stay put Windows, Mac, anything works pretty well. We are nomads so I have lots of things to consider that most people don't. The same for camera gear. I have never been a brand fan. For me cameras and computers are just tools. I just try to find stuff that works pretty well for me without regard to what the name on the front is.

[David Kilpatrick]

In the early days of colour management and digital photography, even with scanners, the Mac was almost an only choice. We started with Macs in 1984, but bought a truckload of Apple Lisa XL models the next year (they were the Mac OS before the Mac got it). No other computer allowed us to design magazines, or even do our stationery and graphic work, the same way. Before that I had the Apple IIE (Europlus) with Imagewriter II and Robographics software; it enabled a few presentation OHP slides to be produced, but was never much use.

The Mac was a computer which earned money, and that was the critical difference. We had an Adler Bitsy from 1981 (purchased when my order with a client for a CTM system fell through - CTM went broke). Though it was a powerful 16-bit TI chipped machine, it never did more than database, mailmerge, admin stuff. It ate money instead of making it. We had to pay a software support guy to do every small database change.

Then we got the Macs, and I wrote a new database using Omnis. We were then able to sell Omnis configuration to others. We got the first LaserWriter in the UK which was not owned by an Apple dealer, and even that earned money. We could charge for laser printing. It looked unlike anything ever seen before. We laser printed OHPs. Back then there was no Powerpoint and no data projectors. A single set of OHPs for a company conference could be £500, £1000 - whatever. I would say that our Mac investment was driven by direct profit-earning up until around 1998, whether running Leafscan and Lumina studio cameras, writing slides on a Polaroid imager, or outputting colour separations. PCs began to be properly colour capable around Windows 97 time even though the results were generally terrible, and since then, it has been a gradual change with Windows emulating Mac and Mac eventually being Unix on Intel etc.

I'm not sure what I would buy now from scratch. We did try Linux, we ran a BeBox with BeOS (it was superb for sound recording) and Richard kept adding stuff like NeXT, Sun and eventually monster PC systems (early twin processor Dell and other stuff). In the end, the Mac still won for professional imaging work. Our litho printers over the road went with NeXT initially, but after three years scrapped it all and bought Macs.

PCs remained until very recently the system you got to run SAGE (we had that) or for the office staff who had been taught by the local colleges or community centres and only knew how to use Office. Macs were what was used to earn a living. Now, you can swap over - I run payroll on the Mac, but do some production work on PC.

David