Changing the OS

So here are some thoughts about changing OS:

I have been using different versions of Windows for ages (twenty years or more), the worst have been Windows Millennium and Vista, the best Windows XP and Windows 7 (my last version). But there have always been moments when updates broke some functions or programs I rely on. Very bad and not good for the peace of mind!

So when it happened again after installing a new hard disk, it was the straw that broke the donkey’s back. I have been looking at Ubuntu for a while, found the look of it pleasing (don’t laugh, that is something important for me!) and heard nothing but good things from serious sources. I was just too lazy to search for replacements for my Windows apps and to dive into a new OS and so I jumped on the occasion when I had to re-install 7 to change completely.

I downloaded Ubuntu 14.04, created a bootable USB stick and off I went. Windows installation have often been a long and boring procedure, taking more than an hour, so I was positively surprised when it only took less than 15 minutes and I was up and running.

The biggest problem was finding the Linux equivalent of the Windows programs I have been using, even in the Software Centre there are hundreds of apps, often more than 3 for the (supposedly) same task! I spent hours on the web, reading tests for the apps to choose the right one and when I thought I had nailed it I often found after installation that the UI was just not to my liking (to put it politely).

So after two weeks I had almost everything, the only thing missing are the Adobe Creative Cloud apps, Adobe does not have a Linux version of it and as it goes, will never do one and it does not work in WINE, the Windows environment for Linux. No more Photoshop or Lightroom!

For importing RAW files from my camera I use Shotwell, to work them there is Darktable, almost better than Lightroom for the developing, far less good when it comes to cataloguing and managing the photos. I can go with that.

Replacing Photoshop is different, in Linux you seem to have The Gimp or ... The Gimp!

And I don’t like the UI, it just don’t click with me!

So my big work of the next weeks: Learn to love and use The Gimp!