hi
i'm trying to migrate completely from windows to linux. currently i'm using open office and other product under linux and they are great!
but i have a problem! i need some good replacement for some daily software:
1- photoshop: I'm a pro user of photoshop and i need some advanced features in it. GIMP is not so advanced.

2- for writing cd/dvd. I'm using k3b or gnome but i'm not feeling well with them. nero linux edition is good but not enough option and feature!

3- for viewing movie and dvd. in first step i was using ubuntu 8.04 and there is no problem with mpeg file and dvd. next on mandriva 2008 every thing was good! but now i want to choose Fedora 9 or Opensuse as my distro and problem started. i know i need codec for my distro. where can i found a free codec for fedora or open suse?

4- finally i have 2 hard drive, one with ntfs for windows and one with ext3 for linux. but my most important files are in ntfs (i afraid to move them in ext3! ). i have read-only access to ntfs in mandriva and opensuse. in ubuntu i have read-write access. but in fedora i even cant have read-only access to ntfs partitions! i mount them and now i can just read them!

5- i found gnome better than kde, but both of them are needed and usefull!

finally i believe linux is great and computer os future linux!

We run Slackware and have all those bases covered except one ... no gnome's here.

Wine-1.1 runs Photoshop 7.0 and InDesign CS2 fine for me. Nero would more than likely
work also, however ...

I burn CD/VCD/DVDs with cdrecord and growisofs from command line interface. It is much
more efficient than Nero, and there are scripts/commands to verify the burns.

Slackware has a MPlayer package and codecs, so I can play/record any CD/VCD/DVD with
no problem whatsoever.

Slackware can setup read/write NTFS access to Windows dual boot when you install.

What was your question?

Slackware has your answer.

1. Gimp will do virtually anything Photoshop will, it just takes a while to learn.

2. What are you missing in K3b? It burns and copies files, ISOs.

3. Both Fedora and Suse have setup guides that will provide this information and much more.

4.See #3. You can have read/write access to NTFS in about five minutes.

5. At least on Fedora you can run any Kde app in Gnome or any Gnome app in Kde.

tanx for reply
gimp has not any adjustment layer, RAW format support. HDR support, curve control.
nero offers some advanced tools for encoding video files and composing video DVD (menu and music).
i found way to have read and write access to ntfs. it's good!

I think you need to learn a little more about gimp.

One thing you will have to learn if you are going to use linux is one of it most basic premises. Do one task, and do it well.

Avidemux2 is very good at video format conversion.
QDVDauthor(among others) does video dvd composing.
K3b is meant to burn disks, it does this very well.


Edit: Raw plugin for gimp: http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/
I found this in about a minute with google.

Edit2: Gimp HDR howto:

1) GIMP is actually superior to PS, you need to get some plug-ins tho.

2) What you want is an all-in-one application, so far there is none. Instead use dvd authoring software to author dvds, video encoders (ffmpeg, transcode, mencoder) to encode dvds, and k3b or just the command line to burn dvds. What you have to understand is that most Linux programs and all good programs do one thing well, and that's it, they don't try to be everything to everyone, they will likely fail in every aspect.

3) I dunno how your distro handles thing, but if you install mplayer yourself with all the features you want enabled, it will work perfectly.

4) You can read and write to NTFS, but only reading is safe last time I checked. You can write to NTFS, but it may result in filesystem corruption in some cases.

5) No, actually you don't need either, I think they're both bloated and slow, so I don't have either installed. There are many more to choose from.

Excuse me, but having grown up in the graphics industry, run print shops,
and used Photoshop since it's inception ... GIMP is limp ... period.

Beginning with the convoluted interface, and ending with no reliable
support for CMYK. If you're just a home user who is editing photos on
a small scale, it will serve you well. I even use it sometimes when the
only thing I want to do is crop or resize a photo for the web. But for
press work, it is not comparable to Photoshop.

I read a good write up by someone heavily into the GIMP, but don't have
the time to look for the link atm.

While I agree CMYK is poorly handled (maybe use inkscape here) I think a lot of the problem is people are used to how PS does thing:

It is just like jumping from windows to linux. If you try to think windows and run linux you are going to fail. Just like learning a language you have to think in it to use it effectively. You cannot think PS and run gimp. If you think gimp while you are running it things will go much smoother.

If you want a much better job with vectorial images (like CorelDraw does), you can try with Xara or with Inkscape.

NTFS is better worked with ntfs-3g.

To take codecs for video and dvd:
* http://www.mplayerhq.hu for property codecs. Read on to know where to save files.
* libdvdcss for reading dvds with any video player.

Take fun!!
emi

Yeah, that and one other feature I don't recollect is actually the only professional features that are really missing from Gimp.

Everything else is in there either as a different name/method or via plugin.

The interface is arguable. I rather like having 3 windows for it. When I use Macromedia Flash MX or something like that, I remembered thinking, "it would be nice to have 3 separate windows right now." Don't really remember what I was doing. So for some people it does work out for the better.

OK--since it is now a PS vs GIMP thread-----

I have found GIMP to actually be better in some ways, but, for 99% of what I do, I find no substantive difference. It is simply a question of learning a different interface.

One thing in the back of my mind is that GIMP + typical Linux Printing Environments don't seem to support creating and using printer profiles. I acknowledge I have not researched this recently.

Did I just read somewhere that Google is paying CodeWeavers to get PS working 100% with Crossover? (Wine)

Were any of the "the GIMP" articles these:
http://www.spotswood-computer.net/articles.php

Note: Robert Spotswood is a local (Houston) Linux user.

http://www.vmware.com/de/products/server/

;.) With vmware you can use window$ on linux ...

for grphics try krita, i read an article saying its good. its not yet very well known i think, so you can be the first off the mark.

cd burning - brasero is another one, try that.