Kubuntu Linux

[colyn]

Over the weekend I installed Kubuntu on my Windows desktop computer...Yes I did dump Windows....... The monitor is a wide panel with 1440x900 native resolution and works great.. This was a problem in past releases..

While using it (the monitor) with windows I tried without success for months to get it to display all 26 shades of gray in a gif gray sample image I have.. I was just looking at it in Gwenview image viewer and all 26 shades are easily seen. I also noticed that colors seen much brighter. My b&w images also look better.

As much as I hate to say color and b&w images look better than even my images on my Mac..

Any other Kubuntu users notice this???

 

[wiedo]

I'm curious what you're using for digital darkroom.. Bibble? Does it perform on Linux? I really want to switch to Linux for my scanning, viewing, managing and editing of photos.

 

[Mablo]

I use Ubuntu and I've been really happy with it. I tried Apple too but hated it so much I had to give up after a month or so. I still get goose bumps for anger when I think about my OS X-experiences.

It seems that your computer's graphic chip likes the Ubuntu driver better than the Windows driver. Ubuntu is great for multitude of reasons but one of them is that you don't have the hardware driver upgrade nightmare so typical for Windows computers.

 

[johannielscom]

I tried Ubuntu since hating XP and not even wanting to touch Vista (this was before Win7), but could not get my Minolta Scan Dual IV to go, or find any usable digital darkroom software.

In the end I simply switched over to the best computers in the world, Mac! (just rattling your chain Mablo 😛)

 

[wiedo]

I still get goose bumps for anger when I think about my OS X-experiences.

That's wierd.. i think OSX is the best OS user experience around. The problem is: it's a littlebit hard to get used to some things if you're used to Windows. I'm using OSX for about 7 years now.

Ubuntu is great for multitude of reasons but one of them is that you don't have the hardware driver upgrade nightmare so typical for Windows computers.

Al this is gone with Windows 7, every driver is updated by windows update and this works like a charm. Didn't know windows ever would be that good.

I wan't to use Linux again because i really like open source... it's the only right thing to do when developing computer programs.. i'm also switching from the iPhone to Android because of that.

I'm still waiting for the first good open source darkroom application.. in the meanwhile i want to try Bibble.

 

[payasam]

I'm on Debian, wiedo, and use the GIMP for photo work. Raw conversion is with UFRaw. There's no IPTC meta-data handling in the GIMP, but Digikam does it. There are a few Windows things which I cannot replicate, so I simply run them in WINE.

 

[naruto]

I use Ubuntu Lucid (have been a user + evangelist since release one) for my day-to-day work. I also use it for photo-editing with LR3. My usage is VirtualBox OSE + WinXP + LR3. It's very lean install.

For desktop, I run Xmonad, a tiling window manger which makes use of the entire screen space efficiently. It's also very light. With XP+LR3 + chrome + VNC + host of other things, my RAM usage is 40% (of 4GB) and CPU never goes beyond 60%. Extremely fast in booting 🙂

 

[flip]

I switched to linux after a year of windows 95. I never think of graphics - hell, drivers - as its strong point, but things change.... To support my sister, I eventually got a mac this past year. It's a great dual boot with Ubuntu and the VM ubuntu under parallax even has its moments (tough limited vs the completely separate OS).

I await the day that Mac users can enjoy mouse-focus for REAL productivity. However, my hoping hand isn't filling-up very quickly and I'm told it never will.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

XP is my OS for photography and music recording, but my day-to-day work (writing, email) happens on an HP laptop with Ubuntu Lucid. I like Ubuntu a lot, though I always have problems with wireless drivers.

My wife uses Win7 and I am surprised at how good it is. Definitely the best Microsoft has managed so far.

 

[tyrone.s]

Running Ubuntu Lynx (10.04). Sensational. Running LR3 and my Plustek OpticFilm 7200 in Virtualbox. Otherwise do my editing in Gimp and my storage in F-spot. Fantastic screen resolution and display clarity on a Dell Studio 15 laptop. My wife originally bought the laptop with Windows and was just hugely disappointed with the performance and crashing and hassles that wireless networking and suspend would cause. I Gave her my 15" Macbook Pro. Now she loves the Mac and I love the high res display on the Dell. And I'm thrilled with how well Ubuntu works. A truly great OSS photo program and native drivers for my scanner would make my day.

 

[colyn]

I'm curious what you're using for digital darkroom.. Bibble? Does it perform on Linux? I really want to switch to Linux for my scanning, viewing, managing and editing of photos.

For image editing I am using Gimp and DigiKam. DigiKam is Linux version of Lightroom and Aperture more or less..

 

[konicaman]

I use Ubuntu and I've been really happy with it. I tried Apple too but hated it so much I had to give up after a month or so. I still get goose bumps for anger when I think about my OS X-experiences.

I know exactly what you are talking about; been there, done that - never a Mac again :bang:

I use PCLinuxOS, I would say that the screen images are on par with Windows, maybe a tad better in B/W. I use TurboPrint for printing as the standard printer drivers are no good for printing photos. DigiKam and GIMP handle the editing jobs well and Gwenview is a breeze for viewing and running simple batch jobs like converting and resizing.

 

[flip]

I know exactly what you are talking about; been there, done that - never a Mac again :bang:

Interesting. I mean, I understand. I find anything that gets in the way cumbersome. Like the not being able to use reiserfs, etc.... But once I bricked the box a few times and understood how to make it do things my way, I came to appreciate the convenience of a computer where all the hardware is known to linux; I can run the best of open software alongside mac's media-oriented stuff. Is there a cheaper alternative? Certainly. But having bought one, I made it fit my needs. In my case, I needed something small, quiet, and cool-running and the imac did the trick. It is a bonus that I can use lightroom and vuescan now.

 

[LeicaFoReVer]

I use ubuntu for 3 years now and it works like a charm...only for my scanner I go to windows. I am sure there is a way to run in ubuntu but I am to lazy to try so I just switch to windows for scanning.

I use GIMP and I am very happy with it.

With the new ubuntu lynx, my laptop restarts in 45 sec.

 

[payasam]

Two pieces of software deserve to be mentioned here, XZGV and Cinepaint.

 

[NathanJD]

Used Ubuntu and kubuntu for years. couldn't stop playing with it; fiddling and changing things trying to get it to work to it's full potential. i never had 100% compatibility across my whole system, found things got messed up by updates, and i would change little things that had huge consequences across my whole system. older computers i ran it on got superseded and left behind as they inevitably do and most recently my laptop went the way of all HPs and over heated and died - over £700's worth of computer gathering dust in my tv cabinet on top of the overheated and dead compaq that went the same way both within months of the end of the 1 year warranty.

i now have an imac with aperture 3 and Photoshop (and extended 3 year warranty). bliss.

 

[aniMal]

Since 2001, or was it 2002, I have been on OS X 95% of my time. Never had a serious crash from the OS, but a couple of disks have died of course. It was not perfect the first years, but still more stable than any windows version that I have tried.

I have been installing and testing out loads of linux distributions over the years, always missing a driver or other functions - and having lot of weird crashes. I even had problems installing Ubuntu recently, and felt it is bloated and slow. Took ages to boot, and somehow corrupted the drive.

Xubuntu was the solution - up and going in less than 15 minutes I think, and a normal boot is 90 seconds!

Then I discovered a really fantastic script - synergy2 - which makes one share screens across platforms. So now I have one screen with Xubuntu, two with OS X, and one XP laptop for streaming music and odd ends.

It is just great moving the cursor across all this real estate of screens, and it is even possible to copy & paste text across the platforms!

Feel that I have finally found a real good platform for work, it surely is a boon to have all three major platforms available for a web developer - and photographer too...

Recommend trying it out for everyone that works on more than one screen - perfect for working on a laptop alongside a desktop as an example.

 

[wgerrard]

I switched to Macs about 5 years ago after using Linux for about 10 years. That puts me in the early days of the OS. I switched because I'd bought 3 wireless cards in close succession that did not work on Linux, although each was listed as working and each had drivers available.

Macs have worked like charm. If I want to get Unix-y, I can do that in OS X as easily as in Linux.

i think Linux is a superb OS, and when the time comes to buy new hardware, I'll consider switching back. But, as with any OS, if hardware drivers are not available, your hardware won't work. That can be an issue for Linux developers trying to support proprietary hardware made by companies who will not provide sufficient.

Not that the current can't run the other way. Some time ago I had an iMac I was looking to run Ubuntu on. However, the sound card wouldn't work with Linux. Turned out that, effectively, only one developer was coding drivers for the iMac. He couldn't afford to buy the model I owned, and so couldn't write the needed driver. The Ubuntu mothership, at about the same time, washed their hands of Mac support and turned it over to the "community".

 

[colyn]

I even had problems installing Ubuntu recently, and felt it is bloated and slow. Took ages to boot, and somehow corrupted the drive.

I first tried Ubuntu on my desktop. It would work fine for maybe 30 seconds to a minute or two then freeze up. I then installed Kubuntu and have had no problems whatsoever. I suspect that maybe Gnome was the problem since the only real difference between the two is the desktop. Ubuntu installs Gnome while Kubuntu installs KDE. I much prefer KDE over Gnome..

Xubuntu was the solution - up and going in less than 15 minutes I think, and a normal boot is 90 seconds!

Xubuntu installs a stripped down version of the Gnome desktop known as XFCE..

My laptop boots in 35 seconds with Kubuntu and my desktop in 30 seconds with Kubuntu..

 

[naruto]

Xubuntu installs a stripped down version of the Gnome desktop known as XFCE..

XFCE is a desktop environment on it's own, not a stripped down version. It uses parts of the GTK libraries. But, no Gnome applications are used. However, it supports both KDE and Gnome applications.