Graphics and photography have been Apple's chasse gardee for years but for quite some time, MS Windows is on par with the Mac and the system of choice for photographers boils down to personal preferences more than anything else. But what about Linux? "My goal with this entry is to brush a big picture of where Linux stands as far as photography is concerned," Joel Cornuz explains, "What are the achievements, where improvements are needed and being worked on, and which pieces are still missing."
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Member since:2006-11-24
Except for games, I don't use paid for software - although I do have a bunch. I stopped using Nero, too bloted, too buggy, even though I bought it for Linux but don't use it there either. I bought an FTP server but since it hasn't got free updates I went with Filezilla after a while with my basic needs, etc... Maybe I bought like 20 apps, but I don't use any of them anymore, except Winrar, which has life time updates. For the home user, there is loads of stuff; sometimes I get a cover mount magazine, e.g. for an older QuarkXpress version, etc...
This hasn't to do with being "cheap" - should I pay hundreds only to pay someone's lunch and for not being called cheap..? There is no added value in most apps. I could call most commercial proggers 'crap' in turn... maybe they offer me something above and beyond free software for not being called that anymore..? 
Member since:2006-02-05
I agree that most windows shareware is only marginally better then the freeware out there (read: one is slightly crappier then the other), i completely disagree when it comes to osx.
These two apps specifically beat every other competing product I have used, and I have used a hell of alot of ftp clients and text editors
http://www.panic.com/transmit/
http://macromates.com/
One was 30$, the other 60$, and I would pay double that and still consider it worth it.
Member since:
2007-03-06
Don't fool yourself: most users are cheapskates, and that has nothing to do with whether they use linux or not.
Going with linux at home is not really about saving money, as most linux users probably have at least one or several windows licenses already.
Regarding buying software, there aren't that many titles worth their price compared to free alternatives from the repositories (talking about home users here), and I'd say most users would rather give blender a try than pirating maya (much unlike the windows pals, IMO).
Software that really adds some value over what's available for free does get used and paid for, but most of it is expensive profesional software (smoke, houdini, maya...).