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At my work, most Windows PC's are converted to Ubuntu. But web designers still use Windows because they need graphics editing software like Photoshop. I wanted everyone use Ubuntu for security.

Is there any alternative to Photoshop on Ubuntu ? I use Gimp on my PC for basic photo editing (mostly cropping print screen screenshots), but image is not very optimized like Photoshop, i found there is a save for web plugin for Gimp, but that won't work with current version of Gimp provided with Ubuntu 14.04.

I tried installing Photoshop under wine, it installs, starts properly, but have lot of problem when editing images.

Already using Sublime Text for creating pages, it work perfectly on Ubuntu, so only problem is image/photo editing side.

Anyone have experience in using Ubuntu for Web Design (not development) ?

Yujin Boby
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2 Answers2

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I have experience with designers. Most I have met would trade immediate family members to keep the tools and workflow that they are used to.

I think it is very easy to under-appreciate how people use their tools, especially in a creative setting. If you have an idea and you need to get that "onto paper" as soon as possible, the very last thing you want to do is spend minutes hunting around, or worse yet, finding that what you'd like to do is unavailable.

Perhaps it's easier to understand the other way around. Imagine a series of mega-viruses made Linux (and the GNU tools) a non-viable platform. You'd fight for it still because —if you're anything like me— you'd be completely useless back on Windows.

As an implementer, you have dependants and a company that relies on their output (both quality and rate). You have to look at the bigger picture and factor it all in. You still have a few viable options though:

  • Train them on new tools. GIMP and InkScape are both great but there isn't feature parity and a great deal of features are in different places and work in different ways. It's not inconceivable that you could run a design shop on free tools though.

    Note: Historical work might not be compatible with GIMP. This could cause serious issues.

  • Old tools through virtualisation. There are a number of ways to use Ubuntu as the main OS but use Windows-only tools like Photoshop.

    I use a network-unaware XP install in VirtualBox with shared folders and that works well for me. Provided you have the licenses of Windows to support this, you could share the same sort of image over the network and have it scrub itself between boots. You could even use a kiosk mode to make the box only good for Photoshop.

    But there are things like XenApp where you can run applications on a central Windows server out to any platform clients... But you'd be buying into an infrastructure change too.

  • Old tools, better platform. OSX can run the Adobe Creative Suite and most would agree it shares a fair amount of the technical benefits that Ubuntu does. It's still different so might still upset the designers but it's also fancy and swish, so that might impress them.

  • Old tools, old platform. Least immediate spend, highest designer approval factor... But it does leave you maintaining a pool of Windows systems.

Oli
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You can run photoshop on linux with wine :

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/linux-and-open-source/how-to-install-adobe-photoshop-cs5-on-linux-with-wine/

Nymeria
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