Lightroom for Linux - is it possible? Most my friends and I need it, because of not using Windows and current Linux tools can't get so great instruments for raw preprocessing and organizing...
I am paying for PS and LR for years. Windows to Mac transition happened ~8 years ago (if you are in software for 20 years you know why), Mac to Linux transition is in progress (AAPL hardware is not powerful enough and generally overpriced).
I want to continue to pay for Adobe products. I will run LR and PS via Wine/VM or dual boot until I learn enough about alternative tools RawTherapee/Dark Table/Gimp/Inkscape/... to get the job done on a decent quality level.
If you guys at Adobe don't get together until then,... you are out. Forever.
Does anyone acknowledge bug reports? Is there anyone from Adobe listening? I note that the SDK hasn't been updated for quite some time event though new capabilities have been added to Lightroom. Seems there should have been plenty of opportunities to address some of the many SDK bugs.
Why is there no native Version? The last "official" answer which I could find is a forum post from 6 years ago, which pointed out that a linux version is "on the radar of our engineers". Are there any news? Is linux support planned? Considering the huge amount of search results I would guess that I am not the only one with this idea. Are there any recent developments or updates you guys can provide us with?
Adobe isn't doing anything for Linux as majority of users is on Mac/Windows. No sensible reasons are given to outsiders.
Majority of creative users I know would like to slash the feedback cycles / production time by buying a rack full of HW next to their desks, but are unable to as they are used to Mac OS and stuck with Apple HW.
Circle is complete.
Only one that can break it from economy stand point is Adobe (it's easier to change the software than people or HW).
I cancelled my Adobe subscription 1/2 year ago after years of being a loyal customer...
Steve, do you have enough info from inside to explain why it's so difficult to port to Linux and charge customers to do the port? Hell they would get enough money in few hours doing a kick starter. I guess most of the OS dependent code Adobe product have inside is already separated out due to Windows / Mac OS differences.
The good news is that you don't have to wait for Adobe to port Lightroom to Linux. You have a better alternative with darktable. I've been a long time user (and teacher) of Lightroom and I can tell you that there is no chance for me to go back to Lightroom. There is even pro photographer using darktable at this point.
And we should all face it: Adobe as a BIG problem with Linux, I suppose the marketing department is missing some cleaver people.
Okay. I'm intrigued. I am a professional photographer and this is my slowest time of year, so I've got a little extra time on my hands. I'll try out darktable and see how it compares. One problem I have with leaving Lightroom is that I've converted many of my raw files to Adobe's LossyDNG format, which (last I checked) is not supported by any other software. My best work is still in standard DNG format, so it's really just the outtakes and the less important stuff to which I would not have access.
I understand. I'm not a pro photographer, but when I migrated I had more than 30000 pictures. I have then implemented a minimal circuitry in darktable to retrieved some development (do not expect much, but it may speed up a bit the migration process). One important point is that all the keywords should be retrieved. The crop also should be quite accurate. This was with Lr 3.x.
@Pascal, I also like Darktable, but I can't get used to the UI. Also, compared to Aftershot Pro which I'm using now, Darktable is very slow. Even when only changing brightness or sharpness or when I move an zoomed image across the screen, it takes about a second or two or three to get back to me and I can see the result. That is not workable, unless I have to change a setting I'm not aware off.
I'm a professional photographer (and webdesigner) who switched to Linux years ago and I don't ever want to go back to Windows or Apple. So I need a system that is good and fast. Currently I use Linux Mint 18 on a i7 machine with 16Gb or ram. Perhaps you can give me some advice, and then I will try Darktable once more :).
@jack, I'm not sure what can render darktable slow on your machine. With an i7 and 16Gb (my config too) I have also instant response for any changes! What was the last darktable you've tested?
Note that darktable supports OpenCL (Nvidia and AMD only) and makes things even faster.
My recommendation would be to test latest version (2.0.7 and very soon 2.2 will be out) and test. If you still have slowness you should go to the darktable user's forum to get help. This is not the best place to debug darktable issues 🙂
For the UI, well it fits me, after some months of working with darktable it felt just ok to me. You'll need to give some time, switching from one tools to another is always a challenge.
My experience for switching was while still using Lightroom I started developing some pictures with darktable. After some time, when I felt that I could achieve the same effect and when I was comfortable with darktable I switched for good removing my dual boot altogether.
2.0.7 is faster, I had 2.0.3 installed. Changes are not as quick as with ASP, but I could work with this. OpenGL is installed and so is the Nvidia driver. I will try it out again.
I tried them out, Darktable and Aftershot Pro, and while ASP has its flaws. like too many crashes and slow updates, I still like the images I get from it. Perhaps depending on what camera. In this case, this image is form my Fuji XT1, but I also use Nikon: http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1482420737.png
I just noticed the screenshot appears a bit dull, nothing like how it appears here on my pc where it is more vivid.
It's a shame there's not yet linux support. I might decide to switch to another software soon, just because other things (windows 10 policy towards new Intel and AMD processors for example) matters and being on those closed platforms is becoming year after year more unacceptable
Then Adobe will have "won". They'll have won in a way that aspiring Linux users will continue to be recommended to move to Darktable, and Adobe won't have to get off their lazy bottoms to build a Linux version for those who can't or won't move to Darktable.
Tried Darktable many times, but I can work quicker and with better results even by using Aftershot Pro with my Nikon and Fuji cameras. But I agree with Martijn. Adobe doesn't have to move everything over to Linux, just Lightroom.
Porting Lightroom to Linux should be very easy, if it's been written at least half-decently.
With
a macOS version, they've already got the unix-like system calls in
place. This part should be an almost 1:1 translation. Folders differ slightly.
The other part,
the GUI, is (partly or fully?) webkit-based, afaik. That already runs beautifully on Linux
without any effort, proven by things like the CEF and Electron frameworks.
The last part is distribution, and since that is
already cross-platform (meaning macOS and Windows), adding Linux into
the mix should be a jiffy. Creative Cloud isn't for linux, but who cares. It's not really needed for Lightroom.
Creative Cloud is for (desktop) designers. I myself am a webdesigner and photographer and can do all this work on Linux easily. Interesting what you say about porting. If what you say is true and porting could be easy, the only thing that could hold Adobe back from doing it could be deals/contracts with OS-suppliers??? In my opninion, if Adobe would step into Linux, there is no reason left for people not to switch to Linux.
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