Linux for Web Development and Design

[Snaphaan]

(These are some noobie questions. I was advised to rather split my original post hereinto smaller sections and post them in the relevant sections of this forum)

Are there any strong points Linux has in favor of Web Development and Graphic Design in general. Why would a linux user want to suggest I switch over? I could use Wine with Photoshop and Illustrator so that is already a big plus. And Blender seems to do quite nicely (great stuff). But what about the rest? Performance maybe? I've read tons of positive things about security, being stable and the list of free Open Source alternatives and of course it's free. Are there any Graphic Designers here who have found linux indispensable for their workflow for some reason?

Thanks

[limescout]

As an advantage over Windows, I know several people who find that having multiple workspaces is very helpful.

[fcole90]

I create my magazine using Gimp and Scribus on LM

[Reprobate]

I would say that if you're looking at Linux just from a development / design perspective as a new user, used to having a nice gui for everything you are bound to be disappointed. I am a web developer but design is secondary, functionality is everything to me. Apache, mySQL and PHP are where I spend most of my time. I don't care about a fancy gui, using a text editor for coding and editing text/config files are fine with me. I come from a windows 3.11, pascal, C++, Oracle background where we used to program with no GUI, edit config files and do loads of work in the command prompt so Linux feels natural to me (albeit with different commands).

Why bother going to the effort of running windows programs using wine when you could just use the real thing? Why go to all the trouble with your ati drivers under Linux when windows will be much simpler for you? Are you willing to learn GIMP and poke about in system files or do you just want windows without the antivirus? All of the major design departments I've seen in operation use Macs anyway and web developers don't care as long as they can see the text, so why try to force something to work for you??

The benefit of Linux is the low footprint of the OS, it reminds me of windows 2000 but with more optimised code and even less bloat. I run KDE (which is supposedly one of the worst for hogging resources) and even with apache, PHP and Mysql running as well as thunderbird and firefox I'm still using less than 0.74 GB of ram!!! Windows can't even boot into safe mode using less ram than that. The OS is instantly responsive, never crashes and never needs a full reboot. I can surf the web and not worry about viruses accessing my system using the admin account as well. From a web development point of view Linux is a step backwards as you can expect no nice GUI's without putting in time and effort getting them working and even then they seem to lack the polish of the commercial windows offerings.

If you're willing to put in the effort the Linux is awesome but don't expect it to be a walk in the park with the OS holding your hand. Remember the learning curve with Photoshop? Expect the same but by a factor of ten, especially if you're already struggling with partitioning which you should already be accustomed to if you have been a 'power user' of windows. I'm not trying to put you off, you just need to make sure you're coming to Linux for the right reasons. If you are willing to put in the effort you will have the same experience as me and find it a major breath of fresh air.

Best of luck
Dave.

[Snaphaan]

If you're willing to put in the effort the Linux is awesome but don't expect it to be a walk in the park with the OS holding your hand. Remember the learning curve with Photoshop? Expect the same but by a factor of ten, especially if you're already struggling with partitioning which you should already be accustomed to if you have been a 'power user' of windows. I'm not trying to put you off, you just need to make sure you're coming to Linux for the right reasons. If you are willing to put in the effort you will have the same experience as me and find it a major breath of fresh air.

Best of luck
Dave.

Thanks for the very honest opinion. I'm not going to drop Linux right now just because it doesn't fit my current design workflow. And also I wouldn't call myself a Windows Power user but I don't shy away from any technical aspects of an OS. So maybe one-day I will find Linux very much to my liking!

Interestingly. I haven't really touched any WYSIWIG editors like Dreamweaver much lately due to a number of CMS. I fiddled with CS5's CMS workflow just to see how it goes but honestly I think using plug-ins like firebug or SEOquake and opening up notepad++ is really just a LOT simpler and faster when working in either Wordpress or Joomla. But when it comes to pulling around pixels I'd rather stick to Photoshop.

Oh yes! The 'low footprint' as you called it really grabs my attention. I heard that some Linux distributions use as little as 50mb or less. If I could run PS or Blender on a OS that uses no more than that it would be incredible. And if the system is as stable and efficient as you said I will probably never look back. I mean really, for my work I just need a OS that leaves most of my system's resources for the applications I run.

But no, I won't make a radical change like this right now. I'll see how my Linux tinkering goes and who knows, maybe I find it indispensable for some workflow in the future. Thanks again.