Note: all images featured in this post are my own photographic work.
As someone who's recently tried to migrate my photography workflow to Linux, I need to vent about why open-source alternatives still aren't cutting it. Let me break down the frustrations I've encountered with the major players.
RawTherapee and Darktable: Raw Deal
Look, I wanted to love these Lightroom alternatives. I really did. But trying to work with them in a modern photography setup is like trying to fit square pegs into round holes:
- First major headache: They can't connect to network attached storage. In 2024, when everyone's running home servers and NAS setups, this is a deal-breaker. What am I supposed to do, copy everything locally first like it's 2010?
- The lack of automatic subject/background masking is painful. While Adobe's tools are doing AI magic to separate subjects from backgrounds, I'm stuck here manually masking like it's arts and crafts time.
- Bulk processing? More like bulk frustration. The options are so limited compared to what Lightroom offers that it's not even funny.
- And if you're a portrait photographer? Good luck. The feature set is so basic you'll feel like you're editing photos with one hand tied behind your back.
GIMP: The Aging Warrior
GIMP's problems run even deeper:
- Network previews? Nope. Try browsing your NAS-stored PSD files and watch as... nothing happens. Hope you like working blind!
- Speaking of PSDs, good luck with modern Photoshop files. GIMP's compatibility is stuck somewhere in the previous decade.
- The magic wand tool? More like the "go make a coffee while this processes" tool. The performance is painful, especially with high-res files.
- Here's a real-world test: I tried working with files from my Nikon Z6 and Z5. The result? Let's just say GIMP handled them with all the grace of a drunk elephant.
- But here's what really shows GIMP's age: Try finding good photography-focused tutorials. What you'll find is a wasteland of outdated content showing primitive techniques that Photoshop users would laugh at.
The truth hurts, but it needs to be said: If you're serious about photography, trying to rely on Linux-based tools feels like bringing a pocket knife to a gunfight. The open-source community does amazing work, but the gap between these tools and Adobe's suite isn't closing – if anything, it's getting wider as Adobe pushes ahead with AI features and modern workflow improvements.
For now, I'll keep paying my Adobe subscription and booting into Windows when it's time to edit. Sometimes you have to admit that paying a few hundred (Australian) dollars a year is a better deal than spending 4-5x the period of time editing images.
Perhaps I'm just too n00b at linux, but in this particular case, I think Adobe's tools are objectively better than the open source alternatives.
Want more content from me?
Witness my futile efforts to play my Steam Game collection in alphabetical order.
Are you aware that I love photography? Check out my work in a collection. I'm a portrait photographer based in Adelaide, South Australia. You can see more of my photographic work on my website.
Yeh GIMP is feeling pretty dated lately and all I use it for is extremely basic cropping and colour adjustments (and occasionally having to run png files through it as Krita/my computer has been doing something really weird where the will looks perfectly fine in Krita but be super dark everywhere else unless I run it through GIMP first and literally all I'm doing is opening and re-exporting it and it's somehow fine?!).
Been thinking about trying out Darktable but will probably attempt showfoto first as that seems to have come with Digikam.
Is there much development activity around the apps you looked at? Worth opening issues for the things you need if someone else hasn't done it already? I know both Nextcloud and Digikam have optional AI things that you can turn on/use so it's something doable even if concerned about ethics and stuff.
I didn't look into that much depth on the issues / feature lists etc.
Regarding whatever Krita is doing, is it embedding the sRGB profile to your file correctly? Perhaps gimp is doing that in the save step. Not sure if PNG can do colour profiles like jpegs and other image types... but that might be the cause.
There's one thing GIMP looks amazing for though, and that's for doing texture mapping and all that sort of stuff. You can do the same stuff in Photoshop, but it isn't as "plainly labelled make normal map" filter / button as what it is in GIMP.
I can't remember off the top of my head and I'm too lazy to open Krita to see what the dialogue box says x_x It was definitely doing (or not doing) something and I haven't done 2d digital art this entire year again and probably should just to test out the new version (I think it's gone up a couple of minor versions since I last used it x_x)
I have a Blender add-on for texture mapping these days ^_^
though I have to try out a new one as the one I have stopped working on the newest Blender and apparently stopped existing too
I tried getting away from Adobe, hmm, maybe three or four years ago. Mind you, I stayed on Windows because I'm too old to re-learn Linux but still - I'm totally with you. There are some alternatives and they're not bad but once you're used to Lightroom especially - gosh, it is just so very hard to get away from it. Photoshop, I could do with Affinity Photo but Lightroom - I tried, no way. I went back and am
happilypaying my Photographer's subscription.In the last 24 months Lightroom and Camera raw has gone from strength to strength. Its amazing how many time saving features that are present there now.
I'm a bit like you, not happily paying the subscription fee, but paying for it all the same.
I've used Affinity on the iPad, and its decent, but I don't see it replacing my desktop workflow any time soon, as I am simply not prepared to "unlearn" so many years of Photoshop.
Call be stubborn, but there's a return on my time invested there, which one day might pay off, but not at this stage.
My favourite feature in lightroom is the subject detection and multi-part masks for people, it saves me so, so much time! What's your favourite feature?
Unfortunately, GNU/Linux for graphic designers and photographers is still very far behind. The Adobe suite is simply the best on the market. The same thing happens to me with engineering, I love Linux and free software, but I am tied to Windows and AutoCAD, among other applications. But I have my two disks, one for work and the other for everything else with Linux. A hug, I completely understand you.
I'm doing much the same, I have one drive for Windows, which has Photoshop and any games that don't run well under Linux, and the other partition I use full time for everything else. Day tod ay, I find myself using all the major operating systems. Windows at work, macOS on my laptop, and linux on my main PC.
It's the best we have right now, being multi-system. But the truth is I love Linux, I hope one day I can be a full-time user.
It isn't nearly as scary as most people think! :D I am going to ry and get my wife to dual boot next.
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