Unfortunately, given the state of colour management and image editing
software on Linux, it's simply not viable for anything beyond basic editing.
Sadly true, but it is getting better. Cinepaint works pretty well
for maintaining color-managed workflow. The lprof folks have been working
on getting profiling stuff working too. While it *is* possible to go
color-managed, end-end editing, it's not easy and very bug-prone at the
moment.
Gimp is immediately removed from contention due to only 8-bit and
no color managed. The latter is being worked on, but is rather silly
without the former IMO.
I run Linux (Debian and Ubuntu), OS X, XP and NeXTSTEP 3.3 on my home
network, all but Debian on desktops as Debian is my standard server OS
(installed from Bluewall tarballs and updated to current STABLE). I like
Linux as a desktop OS, almost as much as I like OS X. But I do my heavy
lifting on Windows XP because it is the best combination of cost and
capability for what I do (I wish I could have acquired a Mac as fast and
expandable as my PC for even 50% more than I payed for the PC). XP has its
issues, but when it comes to value, it wins. And it's a thoroughly competent
OS (The only other MS Desktop OS that can claim that is 2000).
Heavy lifting for image-processing maybe. Most of the
"heavy-lifting" that I need to do is research engineering numerical
simulation. The stability and performance of the Windows kernel, GUI, and
everything else is woefully inadequate for reliable simulations like that.
To each their own though... I only extol benefits for ME, but
don't try to convert anyone.
-Cory
--
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* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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