|
This article is part 11 of an ongoing series of articles on this site comparing Apple Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" to Red Hat Linux Fedora Core 4 (FC4). (The previous article is here.)
The point of this comparison is not to say that one OS or the other is
"better" but rather to point out the differences and indicate where an
artist who previously used Mac OS X 10.4 would find Linux to be easier,
harder, or the same to use as the Mac. See the introduction article
for more information and links to the other articles in the series.
Although the focus of this series is on the needs of designers,
artists, and content creators, the content should be relevant to any
number of Mac users or Linux users. If a Macintosh user (OS 9 or OS X, for that matter), wanted to switch to the Linux platform, could they do so without a significant loss of functionality? As part of the answer to that question, I took a look at the software used by a number of typical graphic designers and artists on Mac OS X to see if comparable software existed on the Linux side. At this point, I'm not attempting to say that just because there happens to be (for example) a page layout tool on Linux that it's automatically identical to the Macintosh tools like PageMaker, InDesign, or Quark XPress. All I'm trying to accomplish here is to get a feel for whether the necessary tools even exist. Once I've determined that, I can move on to looking at the tools and comparing functionality to see if comparable results can be obtained with open source software without substantially more effort or a steep learning curve.
The table below displays a class of functionality, the tool(s) used by Macintosh user for that functionality, and the comparable tools I discovered for Linux. (Given the wealth of open source options out there, I recognize that this list is probably not comprehensive and that I may have overlooked some good packages. If so, please feel free to let me know the best address to use is "freeipod" at the domain name of this site.) The Linux list will include both commercial and open source tools. My thinking here is that if you were willing to cough up money on the Mac side, you'd be willing to pay for the same tool on Linux if it was available (or at least SOME commercial tool if the open source tools weren't up to snuff). Here's what I discovered:
Since the tools do exist to allow a designer to perform the necessary or desirable design functions, the real question becomes whether those tools are capable of doing the job and if they work as well together as their Macintosh counterparts. In the case of drawing/illustration tools, I found that the answer is "yes". Inkscape provided the vast majority of functionality found in FreeHand. Inkscape can even be used on Mac OS X if you don't want to wait for Linux. In the case of page layout and design, the answer is "maybe". While Scribus is an incredibly useful tool for laying out pages, it does lack the robust import capabilities found in Adobe PageMaker and InDesign. Still, if a designer wanted to use Scribus on Linux, there are file conversion tools and other techniques that could be employed to make it work. The real question is whether the designer in question was willing to take the time to translate incoming files into a format that Scribus accepts. If so, Scribus should do the trick nicely. If not, you'd better wait for Scribus to catch up on its import formats while you stick to the Mac. (Scribus, too, can be used on OS X today if you don't want to use InDesign or PageMaker.) For myself, I'd be willing to use Scribus to do all my page layout work and I don't think I'd miss Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign, or Adobe PageMaker. There's a great reference site for artists on Linux at: http://www.linuxartist.org It outlines the available Linux tools for 2D, 3D, fonts, web work, and a lot more. Check that page out if the table above isn't complete enough for you, that site probably will be. For video editing, there's an excellent reference at linuxmovies.org, which shows free and commercial offerings for video work on Linux.
In the next installment of this series, the application installation, upgrade, and management features of OS X and Linux will be examined.
Related Blogs:
Related Links:
|
