this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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I technically started with Steam Deck and finally took the plunge of partitioning my daily driver to install Linux Mint back a few weeks ago.
No regrets....
I'm a developer (web app predominantly ) and find I can use it for about 80% - 85% of my daily workflow. Things I miss and can't substitute are mainly around image editing / vector editing where GIMP and InkScape are just not there for the way I work.
Loving my time with it and would highly recommend anyone on the fence take the dive and give Mint a go. It's incredibly familiar the moment you boot it :)
I've been on Linux for a while and at this point must people use their computers as glorified thin clients for Chrome.
This has made Linux way more viable as a day to day OS. Valve is working very hard to make games viable and is seeing some success.
The major blind spots remain industry specific software outside of software dev. Things like Adobe suite and Microsoft office for example. They often have a Linux equivalent but it rarely fits well into industry standard work flows.
I'm rather impressed with the MS Office compatibility and comparability of FreeOffice - https://www.freeoffice.com/ The free version trails the paid by one release... seems like a fair compromise. It's not pure FOSS, so purists might not like it, but it really gets the job done, especially with rountripping documents. There are always corner cases where things go boink, but hell... things even go off the deep end between versions of MSO.
Many of today's applications are now just web apps. The proportion of actual native applications that users run has been shrinking for a while, and so the differenced in native application support become less important.
That's exactly what he said, and then he also said except for industry-specific software like video editing, graphic design, etc, where big companies don't offer a Linux version and the alternatives aren't quite up to par. It's true there's Offcie 365 online but it's still subpar compared to the real deal, like if you're a PowerPoint or Excel power user or really need Access or another specialized program.
I'm all for Linux, these big companies have just eaten a lot of the market and refuse to play nice.
Unless you're referring to Abode directly, the video and VFX industry has a much bigger presence on Linux.
All the major software offerings (except for Adobe) not only have Linux versions, but some are also first-class offerings on Linux.
Ok, I don't actually know if it's "all", but it's definitely most.
It's been a few decades since I got into it, but can you tell me the best Linux alternatives to Adobe Premiere / After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and AVID? I've tried a few and they tend to have problems with crashing and overall limited functionality.
Probably the best alternative to Premier is KdenLive or DaVinci.
As for After Effects, I'm not too sure. The alternatives definitely exist, I'm just not sure which one to recommend. It's been years since I've done any compositing. But I use KdenLive for video editing regularly and it's great.
In fact, the past year of development has been monumental in the amount of improvements and new features.
@CeeBee @zkikiz DaVinci Resolve includes Fusion, that's more than enough to replace After Effects any day of the week.
Good to know! Thanks.
@CeeBee Also you mentioned compositing, the industry standard is Linux compatible and has a free trial too, Nuke.
Thanks for all the recs!
DaVinci Resolve replaces all of these and does it better (ok maybe not AVID, but I don't know much about that one, so maybe).
Huh now I know. Never heard of it before. I use OpenShot which is FOSS but it's meh.
Resolve unfortunately isn't FOSS but the free version is quite fully featured and the full version is pay-once and not that expensive (also free with some of the Blackmagic hardware like their cameras I think).
I distinguish between web applications and thin clients. When I was in the business, a thin client meant you ran everything through one instance of Chrome, but today's web applications don't work that way. They each bring their own Chrome with them. It's much less memory efficient but allows them more control over what version is running their app. Also, many web app based applications still have special extensions to expose features Chrome normally wouldn't.
It's possible the terminology has changed over 10 years.
I'm a Linux developer who's made Electron apps, I have complete and total understanding of everything you're saying. You don't seem to be understanding the thing we're saying, which is that if you really really need a specific Microsoft or Adobe product, your best option is still Windows or Mac since Wine isn't very good. This is a fault of those corporations, not technology.
I really need to stop drinking.
We're here to support you in your journey to sobriety, brother!
This hits the nail on the head.... I can get by with GIMP or InkScape or Photopea but they don't quite cut it when I have job going out worth a few grand I want all the tools, checks peace of mind of the locally installed app. I also find GIMP convoluted to achieve basic tasks. Even things like resizing images to canvas etc. Feels clunky by comparison to say Affinity Photo.
Either way, I can never get 100% away from the big boys as ultimately I have to test natively in Windows and Mac OS so it's not the end of the World having to boot into Windows or Mac OS occassionally to undertake the tasks required :)
I've been contemplating forking NextCloud to create a faster, less buggy alternative focusing mostly on the core functionality of office software and storage rather than an ever increasing amount of new modules, but not only would I need a team of developers, I'd also need to monetize it straight out of the gate, because I can't pay a bunch of developers out of my own pocket. With NextCloud being AGPL, the fork would also be AGPL, of course. And I hate PHP, so this would involve a full backend rewrite to Rust or Go, which also renders the whole thing a pipe dream.
Welcome to Linux! I've been using it since 1996 and doing design using FOSS tools for years. (At first, I needed to a separate computer for Adobe products for years, but switched full time to Linux a long time ago.)
A couple of quick suggestions of other apps to try:
Krita, for image editing & painting https://krita.org/
Penpot, for UI layouts (including website design), prototyping, and flow; a great replacement for Figma and Miro. https://penpot.app/
There's a big list of FOSS design & photography software @ https://pixls.us/software/
And a huge list of alternatives @ https://codeberg.org/RayJW/awesome-foss#user-content-creativity (linked to creativity, but there's tons more on that page)
+1 for Krita. I've been using Linux since 2015, and to this day haven't completely got my head around GIMP. I know Krita is designed for a different purpose, but it's a lot easier to use for quick touch-ups, which is all I want.
Have you tried Krita for image editing? I prefer it to gimp
While I've used Linux on and off for years, the steam Deck was really the thing that convinced me that I can actually drop Windows. My laptop has been ruining mint for a few months, and it's working for me. My desktop is going to be fully switched soon
Have you tried https://www.photopea.com/ ?
Hi there, yea I have tried it and kudos to the developer it's an awesome piece of kit.
Unfortunately, for me at least it's just not the same as running native Affinity Suite (which is my go to). We occassionally produce print work for clients as well as developing UX templates and I can't seem to replicate my workflow in Photopea or any of the other available apps. I wish Affinity would produce a Linux version but when asked, they said the uptake just wasn't there to make it worth their while :(
I'm really pleased I have managed to move the bulk of my work over to Mint and ultimately, I will always be left having to test applications natively in Windows and Mac OS so it's not the end of the World I suppose as I can't ever fully get away from them.
What do you use for office?
Not OP but, I use libre office on the Linux machines at work.
Although I heard about OnlyOffice on Lemmy a few days ago... It looks interesting. I want to try it out!
I switched to onlyoffice a few months ago from libre, and I like it a lot better.
Be aware that OnlyOffice is developed by Russians and headquartered in Latvia, it may be perfectly fine but it's worth being aware of. At least one company claims to have severed ties as a result, and supposedly you have to pay for full features? LibreOffice is completely FOSS. https://dms-solutions.co/blog/dms-solutions-stops-doing-business-with-onlyoffice-due-to-onlyoffice-close-ties-with-russia/
Thank you for that! I was about to install it. Looks like I'm sticking with LibreOffice
Try FreeOffice: https://www.freeoffice.com/en/ I've foudn it better than OnlyOffice and it is German vs Russian... so there's that in favour of FreeOffice.
I had no idea...thank you for this.
I saw this about libre if that helps https://youtu.be/4qWgrGc4g20
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/4qWgrGc4g20
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
FreeOffice - It's not open source but it's the best offline doc system I've found. It's essentially equal to Microsoft Office and well worth it.
LibreOffice - If open source is really important to you then this is still the go-to office suite. OpenOffice still exists but it's owned by Apache and fairly behind LibreOffice because it wasn't made a priority when Oracle gave it up.
Google Docs/Sheets/Draw - This is essentially the best and most professional solution. It's not open source, you don't have any control over it, it's Google but thousands of companies use it daily without flaws. I use it at work and makes sense to use it if you are going to be collaborating on documents. If you need to share them then this is the goto office suite.
That said, Microsoft Office is very wine-able from what I found. You absolutely shouldn't need it but you can do it.
I'm currently using Libre Office and It honestly covers the full gamut for me. I haven't once felt "man, where's that option".
It's really solid and come a long way since I first used it !
Any limitations in excel?
Have you tried photopea.com?