you can certainly buy a frame & everything else to build many different types of vehicles, but upgrading the drive train is fairly popular as a hobby which makes a market for aftermarket suppliers.
everybody is enabled by information/communication technology
the minimum requirements to play are either time or money to devote to understanding whatever it is you would like to build
I used the automotive aftermarket as an example, because it is very mature, but still evolving as technology is developed.

Yes, Gimp is an amazing program. But I've been using P/S for so long now that it is all second nature to me and after spending a few hours working hard at learning all of the differences in how Gimp does things, I find myself just rebooting into that other OS that is on my computer for one reason only: P/S. There are numerous operations I do in my work all the time that are ponderous in Gimp and two-click simplicity in P/S.

In an older version of Ubuntu, I was able to run P/S-7 just fine under CrossOver, but CrossOver no longer seems to work in 12.04. I worked with some tech folks there for weeks and nobody could come up with a fix. I know, using CrossOver is tantamount to sacrilege, but hey, I'm talking desperation here!

There would be many very happy Linux users out there if some excellent wizard came up with the way to make it work with P/S, even an older P/S version, if necessary!/

You might give Digikam a try, the workflow is much better than gimp, batch operations, no wine, no crossover.

I visited the Digikam site and although it appears to be a terrific tool for photographers, that isn't what I need. I do a lot of photo manipulations, but also create ads and gifs for Web pages. I use a lot of text and graphic tools, too, and those seem to be absent from Digikam. I don't need the advanced features of the latest versions of Photoshop, and I still use P/S 5 for most of my work because it does everything I need to do so well and the newer versions, while having more features, don't do the stuff I do as easily as my old version 5. Gimp does it all, but at the cost of processing the things I do the most in ways that are circuitous for me.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. I recommended Digikam to some photog friends who will probably find it very useful and easier for their use than P/S.

You might try using Inkscape. It has features for adding effects to text. I use both GIMP and Inkscape and find that Inkscape provides better ways of adding and changing attributes of objects without affecting the original so you can more easily play with options.

While I can attest to InkScape's power, I fear it might be even a more "different" program than Gimp from PS. To me I see Inkscape as the Open Source Corel Draw - i.e. vector based not pixel based: you draw actual lines & text, not fill in dots along the lines like PS/Gimp does.

I would advise anyone going to "professional" stuff with images, text & graphics to use both types of tool. PS/Gimp is going to bite you in the butt once you need to scale up your stuff if someone asks you to turn it into a bill board. Corel Draw / Inkscape will easily scale it to even print it across the rocky mountains if you so wish - without loosing ANY detail.

I was on PS and Corel Draw too. Usually using them adjust building presentations (e.g. 3d rendered images) and annotate it into slideshows for projectors, as well as brochures. Took me about a month to get to grips with Gimp till I felt comfortable. In some cases Gimp is actually faster & easier to use than PS, in some others it's the other way round. I've found using either is much of a muchness - efficiency wise.

If you simply cannot waste the time to learn Gimp/Inkscape, and you've already got a dual boot into Windows - then how about running it through a Virtual Machine? At least then you won't need to shut-down Linux so you can boot-up Windows. And if you set it correctly and/or use a decent VM manager (I prefer Virtual Box, but VMWare sounds good too) you can even get it into "seemless-mode" so it looks as if the windows program is running in your Linux desktop.

Inkscape is more Adobe Illustrator than Photoshop.

Vector Drawing program rather than Painting.

No matter how you dress it up a power Ps user is just that. I live in Ps all day at work, and GIMP even though I use it is not logical to a Ps user.

Exactly, right tool for job at hand. If you're editing raster images (e.g. photos) then PS/Gimp is what you use.

If you're drawing shapes and text then you want a vector program which doesn't pixelate your edits. I.e. AI/CD/Inkscape.

For me, I generally use both Vector and Raster due to the work process. Inkscape doesn't replace PS, just as Gimp doesn't replace Corel Draw/Adobe Illustrator.

That's quite true. Gimp is very different from PS (in some ways), so a PS expert feels lost to begin with. Though from my experience, it's not as if you'd spend years unlearning the PS way and learning the new Gimp way.

A situation where this gets even worse is moving from 3dStudio to Blender. That is more like moving from PS to Inkscape IMO, totally different mind set, not just the tools being in different places / different orders. But even some tools not existing and replaced with stuff which you've never heard of.

I would have to say 3DS Max and/or Maya, and all three Bioshock games.

AFAIK Maya's already got a Linux version ... at least its documentation states this: http://docs.autodesk.com/INSTALL_LIC...mber=d30e45188

Though it seems from that, they only provide a rpm. And apparently the only Linux approved (i.e. read tested) is Red Hat Enterprise 6.2.

You could always try to install the rpm on other Linuxes (like Fedora), or even on Debian derivatives (like Ubuntu) through Alien. You'd probably need Alien (or something similar), since Gentoo is something strange ... I "think" it's based on BSD, but not too sure.

You know you can run gnome-open and it does the same thing, right? (Note you can't create a symbiotic link that is called 'open' because there is already a command called 'open').

Example:
will open the current directory in your specified default file manager.

Also, still waiting for a Photoshop port, Adobe!

This will of course only work if you use Gnome. If you want a desktop agnostic command try

Adobe Photoshop 7 works on PlayOnLinux OK.

That's cool, I'll have to see if I can scrounge a Windows version up.