The truth about doing photography as a Linux user here are some of the benefits and pitfalls what do you think let me know below.

I'm what some might call a power-user, I don't merely browse the web and watch movies on my computer. I post-process and retouch photography, I do video editing and desktop capturing for videos and tutorials on my youtube channel, I've designed my own photo-book which I published this spring. I've switched my entire production pipe-line to Linux in 2019 and I've been having a great time. Sure, it took some learning, some changing of old habits to new ones, but overall I'm really happy I did. I also do a fair bit of gaming... OK, maybe not so much right now, since I have a 6 week old daughter, but the point remains. I own an optimus laptop and I need a fully working, good and stable, hybrid GPU setup, both for gaming and for photo and video production. I haven't said all this to brag, but rather to make a point that Linux can be used just fine by a power-user with demanding needs as far as software and hardware goes. There is also the peace of mind that comes with not having to deal with software subscriptions, licenses on the one hand or cracks and hacks on the other. Everything I need (save for some games I do need to purchase) is free and freely available. Have you already figured it out that I'm a nerd and a proper Linux fanboi?

Don’t run Linux on my laptop, but I only use Darktable. Editing is fast enough and outclasses PS for film like output and denoising. Try running LR or PS on an underpowered computer… I honestly don’t know what I would want to do more to a photograph in GIMP that I can’t do in Darktable. But if you want to start blending layers, stacking etc then GIMP or some of the dedicated programs.

Great thought process here. Photographers are generally willing to learn things that don't hold their hands. I came from Photoshop to GIMP and it wasn't a hard transition, in fact GIMP is better in my opinion. Darktable for sure is just as capable as Lightroom too, just less hand holdy. Again, more things photographers are okay with. For about 98% of situations we aren't even needing to do much to our photos though.

i'm on linux and i use mainly rawtherapee. yesterday i tried to clean a shot i took with my infamous 6D MK2 on 100,000 ISO. just a test shot, nothing serious. i managed quite well but not as perfect as it would been on topaz, DxO or lightroom a.i noise removal tools. i did use a.i. i used upscayl in the process. in 99% of my photos i don't need the commercial software, the open source is doing 1000 times more than we could have ever imagined during the film era (and i used to develop color prints in liquids). it seems to me that eventually all these a.i software will go open source but i don't really know if i want the software to do all the work for me. when i strive to correct noise out of a photo and have to work hard for it, i feel the photo is mine and not machine made. anyway, i'm not going back to windows anytime soon.

I have AdobeRGB monitors. Are there 10bit per channel driver for video cards? I also profile/calibrate my monitors and will not give up either profiling or 10bit color per channel. Thanks.

Using linux I have to be more involved, things are very different. Image software too. I use digikam and rawtherapee.

Last time I investigated it in any detail colour calibrated printing on Linux was a real pain - requiring user custom calibration using a spectrometer and command line tools… People should be aware that using professional print labs is probably necessary for all but hardcore techies.

Is there open source software that will auto-mask the subject, sky etc? Can I develop true HDR (jxl, avif) photos using open source software?

x11 support going away mid term … is wayland getting better true color over time?

Thank you! I am new to photography but a long time linux user. Not sure where to start but it looks like you enjoy darktable over rawtherapee? I would love to hear your software preferences since there are lots of places that list programs, but most are made by non professionals.

I just discovered your channel. Great videos. Can you please do a video on monitor calibration/profiling in Linux and compare it to the Mac/Windows workflow? Keep it coming!🙌🏼

i'm on linux and i use mainly rawtherapee. yesterday i tried to clean a shot i took with my infamous 6D MK2 on 100,000 ISO. i managed quite well but not as perfect as it would be on topaz, DxO or lightroom a.i noise removal tools. i did use a.i. i used upscayl in the process. in 99% of my photos i don't need the commercial software, the open source is doing 1000 times more than we could have ever imagined during the film era (and i used to develop color prints in liquids). it seems to me that eventually all these a.i software will go open source but i don't really know if i want the software to do all the work for me. when i strive to correct noise out of a photo and have to work hard for it, i feel the photo is mine and not machine made. anyway, i'm not going back to windows anytime soon.

I develop raw files in Darktable on a fast pc under Win 10 without delays (5 incidents of the large modules with iterations will begin to slow it down - or more than 30 drawn masks, but that's not the norm). So, what are you saying? - is it that Linux is making Darktable slower? - or do you say that Darktable is slower regardless of OS? My short experience with Linux was that newer versions of attractive photo software still were out of reach long after the release. But what made me go back to Win was the somewhat rigid UI - at least compared to Windows, or maybe we just get used to how a specific OS works and get hooked. That said I hope Linux will improve - like Darktable has improved - and get more users - to shame the gold diggers, not least Bill Gates.