Originally posted by Racer X 69 Spent the day looking at Linux for the OS of a new desktop computer I'm building. A very frustrating day. The latest comprehensive information about the OS and which distro would be best is 4 years old or more.
And the flavors seem endless. Ubuntu. Mint. Cinnamon. Mate.
And it looks like there is little or no support for printers. I have a Canon Pixma Pro 100, and with Linux it appears it is nothing but a dust collector. Did I miss something?
I also have a number of WinBlows programs that I'd like to use, AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, Mechanical Desktop.
Surely those of you here who are using it can point me in the right direction. The Linux OS looks like the way to go.
Convince me that now is the time to fire Bill Gates.
This might help with regards to your canon printer
How to install Canon PIXMA PRO-100 on Ubuntu –
Ubuntu is typically the easiest Distro to get working, but don't overlook openSUSE, Fedora and if your looking for the absolutely most stable OS CentOS. I use Archlinux at home, CentOS at work. I would avoid Mint personally, but it might suit you.
I use Linux as my primary OS for work (work in the VFX industry) and home. I am thankful that majority of the Apps i wish to use have native linux versions (Maya,Nuke,Houdini,Arnold....) The only downside is Photoshop/Image editor. Gimp works well once configured to act similar to Photoshop, but its still not at the level Photoshop is at. You can always dual boot or VM to run specific software. I dual boot for games that aren't Linux native.
The reality is that the difference between Windows and Linux is very small. Windows has too much bloat for me personally, and when i push my system linux performs better, but that is an edge case. Try to find alternative applications that run native for linux, and try using them. At the end of the day if your absolutely require AutoCAD, and no linux app comes close then your better off with windows.
Also Windows isn't a virus ridden parasite. I dual boot windows (and have used windows consistently since i was a kid), along with managing 5-6 Windows machines at work. None of them run Anti-virus, or Anti-malware and haven't ever had an issue. It comes down entirely to the end user. If you get hit with that stuff, your doing things wrong (don't hate, but its true). Don't open email attachments, don't visit dodgy websites, don't install software from non-trusted sources etc.
As far as image editing goes, Darktable is an absolute godsend. It provides excellent results and has a ton of tweaking modules. Lightroom can get me quicker results, but Darktable gives me better results with time. I can't get the results in Lightroom no matter how much time i spend as it just doesn't have the modules/options (such as the equalizer module). I also find Darktable has better colour reproduction on Pentax files. Lightroom doesnt process my k-50 dng out of the box very well. Although my Nikon files don't have this issue.
Currently working on a CentOS 7 powered box, running the i3wm.