The story of a stranded designer on Linux

Posted on July 22, 2012 / Category: Design

I spent most of last week using Linux’s Ubuntu. My hard drive broke you see, and my replacement drive would not arrive for 5 days (including the weekend) following this sad but unsurprising event. I bought a Seagate drive almost three years ago and I had been having issues for almost the whole duration. When it finally collapsed and I was unable to boot Windows, I popped a USB key in my computer with Ubuntu 12.04 running live on it.

Originally expecting a tough and long week on this system I didn’t know well, I discovered Linux is in general fairly easy to use for the simplest tasks. I was even positively surprised by Gimp’s performance when it came to painting.

Here’s my experience as an artist and graphic designer:

Nice interface and easy to use OS for everyday tasks

The first impression I had of Linux’s Ubuntu (you can try a live preview here) was that it felt like the result of the copulation of Windows and OS X. Although its explorer and icons are similar to Windows’, its Software Center, top menu bar and Dash home are reminiscent of Apple’s recent OS. Using it is pretty straight forward and unless someone wants to tweak the operative system by, say, installing new fonts purchased over the internet or match their tablet with the graphic software offered on Linux, there will be no need to open up Firefox or Chromium to dig for information.

If you are an intermediary or advanced Windows or Mac user though, using Linux will, in my experience, require a minimum of curiosity and patience.

The greatest features I had the chance to try during those five days on Ubuntu are the Software Center (something Windows lacks), LibreOffice (I had previously heard of it but never tried it – it’s excellent for most text editing needs), Gimp (more to come on this) and the simple System Settings (which often seem like a maze on Windows, even for long-time users like me).

Although my use of Linux was fairly light, I recognized several features which made me wonder why I was using Windows in the first place. But then I remembered…

The designer’s dilemma on Linux

No creative Adobe software on Linux. Ouch. That hurts. Feeling a bit lost, I downloaded Gimp through the Software Center. My expectations were fairly low. I realized quickly enough however that the application wasn’t half as bad as I thought; after downloading a set of brushes from DeviantART, I used it to draw and paint with my Intuos4 (I had to change some preferences in Gimp but all went well). Granted, the LED display of my tablet did not work (I read it is possible to tweak it but I got a bit uncomfortable when I saw the lines of code I had to enter into the Terminal), I had some issues with the eraser (I decided to simply change tool manually instead of using the pen’s built-in eraser to solve the problem) but other than that, it responded well and the sensitivity was accurate. Gimp isn’t as intuitive as Photoshop and the text tool is in my humble opinion mediocre, but it holds most of the software’s basic features. Let’s just say it is a good alternative for users who have no access to Photoshop or who want a free application.

Where I felt the most stranded on linux was when it came to tools for graphic and web designs. I heard Inkscape is a fair replacement for Illustrator when it comes to vector graphics, but I felt there should be an application that should handle painting, photo/image editing and vectors, all in one. There is nothing in the open source universe that can do this and for that reason alone, as a creative, I simply cannot switch to Linux even if I love the interface. It would be like crippling myself on purpose.

Progress

After this experience I do have a lot of hope for Linux’s future. As I pointed out earlier, for everyday use it is a good product. Where it seriously lacks is in the availability of advanced graphics software and that is why (unfortunately) designers will keep on using Macs and PCs.

If this situation was to change in the future, if a group of developers were to team up with designers in order to give birth to software that could maybe rival Photoshop, then I would personally reconsider. For now though, it is simply not a viable long-term option in my field of work.

With all my heart, I wish the best of luck to Linux developers and I’m looking forward to future improvements.

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Post written by Tina Mailhot-Roberge.

Tina holds a BFA in Design from Concordia University in Montréal. She practices design and art professionally since 2007.

Comments and reactions

daengbo

I have the Intuos 3, and the eraser operates simply as another tool choice. I can use it as an eraser or really whatever I want.
- http://veodesign.com/ Tina Mailhot-Roberge
  
  Good for you daengbo, I wish it would have been the same for mine :) What happened with me is that I’d switch to the eraser and it would take at least 2-3 seconds before the choice would appear as a new tool, and then half of the time it would still act as a brush/pen anyway. When I switched back to the pen, same problem, in reverse. So I stopped switching lol
http://minimacms.uphero.com/ iweb

You can’t have just one application for vector editing and image manipulation, so you must use Gimp and Inkskape. At least the formats are compatibile :)
Jokaone

Hi Tina did you hear about Ubuntu Studio ? It’s a ubuntu distribution for video, audio, photo and graphic design production.

Great softwares like Blender, Gimp, InkScape, MyPaint, Ardour, and many more…

Completly agree with you, Ubuntu is great for everyday use but a little restricted for the design needs

http://ubuntustudio.org/
- http://veodesign.com/ Tina Mailhot-Roberge
  
  Thanks for the tip Jokaone. It seems to pretty much include all a designer needs, for at least doing the basics :) Good knowledge to have!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=739247946 Dennis Suitters

It really annoys me when people try to compare applications like GIMP against it’s alternative Photo Shop. While GIMP is and can be used by Professional Photographers and Graphic Artists, it is NOT Photo Shop and doesn’t pretend to be, and while it is capable of producing works on par or rivaling Photo Shop, it shouldn’t be compared with it. Beside’s GIMP is available for more systems than Photo Shop, is way more stable on each of those systems, and doesn’t hold it’s user base for ransom due to restrictive licenses and agreements. If you know what you want to do design wise, and do the research, you will find that you wouldn’t be restricted software wise, it’s just a matter of research and finding the application that does what you need. Beside’s, how do you think Studio’s like Pixar, Double Negative, ILM do it, they all use Linux systems, and do everything in house, fairly though most of them create their own software in house to do what they need.

Why are you saying Linux’s Ubuntu? The Linux Foundation do NOT make or distribute other distributions other than Linux itself. Though it does make available it’s Kernel for use in other distributions. Ubuntu, is NOT made by Linux, it’s made by Canonical, and is based on Debian GNU/Linux. Debian is the base distribution of a lot of other distro’s, and one of the oldest Linux derivatives around.
http://www.facebook.com/mfredskov Martin Fredskov

As a student, and not a big fan of big corporates, I’ve been seeking options for opting into Linux based systems for graphic design. Sadly this is the general story i read all over.

So far I’ve been running Inkscape and Scribus which seems like a fair choice, but still lack a couple of tools. Inkscape for example lack the ability to expand vector distortion filters into actual, editable, vectors that could work x-platform.

Scribus is fine for DTP, as once you’ve learn to navigate around it, you’re able to do styles and they actually got a pretty intuitive text-box editing tool where you can apply paragraph styles (and see what style is applied) to the paragraphs with dropdown menus. That said it still lacks a bunch of things for newer technology like tablets, like supporting landscape/portrait mode etc. for e-books.
- http://veodesign.com/ Tina Mailhot-Roberge
  
  Thank you for your feedback Martin. I heard about Scribus but haven’t tried it myself. I am still hoping that within a few years those applications will catch up to at least include all the core features of the Adobe line, not as a copy but as something that people can say “You know, for my work, I don’t really need adobe anymore. This can do all the basics I need for documents/vectors/etc.”

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