Linux as a good substitute for macs (photography...)

[waba]

hello all, my friend studies photography and design and all that stuff, so wanted to get a mac because his school uses them and they are meant to be really good for graphics design, photography etc. however, they cost a **** of a lot!! so i was wondering, if i built him a pc with a lower budget than a mac (maybe around £400-700 assuming he was going for the £1000 mac) and installed ubuntu on it, how camparable would it be to the mac? and really good open sourced graphics and photography programs out there?

thanks all!!

[system7]

I would think you are talking about GIMP here, my friend. That is the Open Source Image Manipulation Program that evidently gives photoshop a run for its money. All distros include it.

As ever, avoid Canon printers and use mainstream mature chipsets and a mature graphics card for a good Out of the box experience with Ubuntu which was last updated in April. Hardware issues arise where makers make little effort with Linux drivers, but compatibility is easy enough to google.

[Andrew Moore]

If you wish to find a good OS to compete with OSX then you want ubuntu studio. Its ubuntu but with added apps to do with photo, video and music editing/creating.

http://ubuntustudio.org/
"Ubuntu Studio. A multimedia creation flavor of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional.

We provide a suite of the best open-source applications available for multimedia creation. Completely free to use, modify and redistribute. Your only limitation is your imagination."


Andy

[waba]

ahh thank you! iv recommended my friend look at this ubuntu studio, looks professional, might give it a go myself, thanks andy. i had a look at GIMP, its meant to be really good, so il let him try that. if he does decide to go the linux route, if you dont mind steve il run all the hardware il be planning to buy past you first!

[waba]

oh and andy, i saw in another thread you said you inst5alled OSX on your pc....how?!

[ettlz]

And if you use a Canon DSLR, Digital Photo Professional is quite usable under Wine.

[Bracken]

With a couple of tweaks, you can get away with the second or third most recent version of Photoshop too.