Linux for designers

Posted 18 April, 2009 in Other Stuff

A tough choice!

I use a PC. I can’t stand the Mac tax and the Mac image. I don’t mind PCs; I understand them, but I am growing very fond of Ubuntu, one of the Linux alternatives to Macs and PCs. The problem is that I do a lot of design work and as a designer I am married into adobe. It was a shotgun wedding, but there we are. Adobe don’t do Linux.

Adobe now have a monopoly (or as good as) in the field of design software, and as long as they don’t do Linux, I can’t make the move. I know there are alternative packages out there, but adobe make very, very good bits of design software. I hate that there is no real competition. The other problem is that as a designer I need my software to be 100% compatible with everyone else’s. Sure, file formats can be read but it always goes wrong and always when you are working to a deadline. So as long as Adobe don’t do Linux, I am stuck with a PC.

Don’t get me wrong. Adobe are not anti-Linux, they just have not spent the time and energy needed to port their top products to the platform.

Here are three of the main Adobe packages with some Linux alternatives:

Adobe Illustrator

Xara Xtreme for Linux
Inkscape

Adobe Photoshop

GIMP
Krita

Dreamweaver

KompoZer
Nvu
Bluefish

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