On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 3:03 AM, Mark C <pdml-m...@charter.net> wrote:
> This weekend I installed Ubuntu on my scanning PC - tonight I finally fired
> up the scanner running the linux version of VueScan and it is churning away,
> batch scanning 12 35mm exposures. Great!
Huray! Welcome to the Linux world!
However I would love to hear your feedback on your experience with
Linux for photography, thus keep us (or at least me :) ) posted on
this topic.
> After installing Unbuntu I learned that there are several other linux builds
> out there. Is there one better suited for photo processing?
To directly answer your question of which "Linux distribution is
better suited for photo processing", I don't think there is such a
distribution out there, although I guess Ubuntu fits the bill.
A distribution mainly boils down to the following:
* the selection of packages --- how many are available, and how
old are the versions; (in essence they all run the same software;)
* the choice of desktop environment --- KDE vs. Gnome mainly; (in
essence you can choose one or another on any distribution;)
* the choice of management tools (saving you the trouble of
getting your hands dirty in the configuration files) --- my guess is
that Ubuntu / OpenSUSE win here;
* the size of the community, which is proportional to the amount
of available documentation and support;
* the "bling", i.e., default colors, fonts, logos, backgrounds, etc.;
Out of all the Linux distributions, the most popular and stress
free for the end-user would be the following (or at least to my
opinion):
* Ubuntu; (use the LTS edition 14.04 when it appears, if you
don't intend to upgrade / reinstall it every two years or so;) out of
all I think it offers the most stream-line experience for
non-technical people, it features quite a lot of software, although
not at the latest version; (however there is the thing called PPA
repositories which tends to solve this issue;)
* Debian (which Ubuntu is based on); however although it has in
its repositories almost all the software you can get running on Linux,
the versions tend to be quite old especially in the stable version;
(I would recommend this for more experienced people with Linux;)
* OpenSUSE (use the latest 13.x variant), which could be as
streamline in experience as Ubuntu for the end-user, although I have
the feeling they have less software ready available than Ubuntu;
* ArchLinux (the one I use), which has the advantage of having
always the bleeding-edge software versions, although probably in
lesser numbers than Ubuntu; (and I guess you'll have more hassle in
installing and managing it than the others, thus I'll recommend it to
more experienced users;)
* of course there is http://distrowatch.com/ which provides a lot
of information (statistics, overviews, etc.) of various Linux and BSD
distributions;
(Please note that when I say "software available" I actually mean
precompiled ready to be installed software from their repositories,
because you can certainly compile software yourself even if it's not
in their repositories, but this can be a daunting task sometimes.)
> Are there any good LInux Photo Editors out there? I am scanning B&W and
> need something that support 16 bit gray scale, which I think excludes Gimp.
To my knowledge there is no "stable" (and open-source) 16 bit
image editor for Linux. There is however CinePaint which is a GIMP
fork (?) to support 16 bit image manipulation:
http://www.cinepaint.org/ , however I haven't used it thus I can't say
much about it.
For RAW processing --- which you could try to use with your 16 bit
TIFF --- I can recommend RawTherapee (the one I use, although there
are others like Darktable), and there was discussion about this in
July 2013 with the subject: `Linux RAW editor/manager? (was Re: OT -
Lightzone Open Source Photo Editor (Windows, Linux))`. The following
is my reply regarding Darktable and RawTherapee:
http://pdml.net/pipermail/pdml_pdml.net/2013-July/351722.html
Related to this topic, I've made a list of software related to
photography (which run on Linux, that I have used, and that I can
recommend):
http://wiki.volution.ro/CiprianDorinCraciun/Notes/Public/Photography/Software
Looking at ArchLinux's wiki it seems they have an even more
comprehensive list:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications/Multimedia#Image
> Can anyone recommend a primer on Linux?
I think the best place to start is the distribution's tutorial /
documentation / wiki, and any of the previously mentioned
distributions have good documentation (or wiki). Unfortunately in the
Linux world things move very fast, especially when it comes to desktop
environments and tools, thus books tend to stay behind.
Good luck,
Ciprian.
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