[Article Idea]: Beginners/Intro to Free Software Photography

@paperdigits

Thanks for your response and the clarification. Unfortunately there are zealots everywhere.

I agree with your opinion that sometimes the Linux desktop gets oversold. However, I think that some of the linux desktop environments are suitable to new users, with guidance and an awareness of the pitfalls, especially in regards to supported (or unsupported) peripherals.

I’ve added to the wiki post and done a bit of editing. This thread has gotten long enough that it’s probably necessary to remind folks that there is a wiki post waaaay up there ^ . Have a read and remember you are also able to edit it. And I won’t be offended if someone dislikes what I have done and undoes it all!

I have a question regarding the intended size and depth of this tutorial…should it try to be more or less self-contained, or should it link out to deeper dives on the various topics? For example, in the “Viewing,sorting, grouping, and adding meta data” topic, the article mentions the kinds of things that can be done to the images, but provides little advice and no examples. I see two alternatives:

  1. Provide more specifics in the article so that the reader gains an understanding of what can be done, learns some best practices, and sees some examples.

  2. Flesh the article out enough to give the reader a basic understanding of the tasks and provide a link to a detailed tutorial on the subject (photo organization in this example).

Any thoughts? Is there a consensus?

Hey thanks for adding stuff! It was my thought that this article should be fairly high level; a tutorial covering the mechanics of the whole workflow would be very lengthy. I intend to add some diagrams to this at some point to give a visual overview (someone near the middle of this thread made some nice graphviz graphs I intended to use). I’d rather see each section of this article become its own tutorial, then this article can link out to those tutorials.

I see the target of this article as a novice photographer, someone who knows a bit about photography (we should be explaining camera mechanics) but wants to take their skills to the next level. Secondary target audience would be someone who’s workflow is proprietary now and wants free software tools; they should be able to skim this article and have a reasonable idea of the workflow and available tools.

You won’t get such a consensus. Ever. Probably because most distros are just working nowadays, so people are used to what they use and therefore assume it’s the best when in reality Debian is the best. :stuck_out_tongue:

Instead of suggesting specific distros, desktop environments (or no full fledged DE but a window manager?) I would rather explain the new user the whole concept of a modular system like Un*x. Back when I went away from Windows people were still used to booting into DOS and only starting Windows manually when needed, so they understood that the graphical user interfaces isn’t necessarily a core part of the operating system but can be a separate layer. Nowadays people don’t see that any longer when using modern Windows releases and being able to actually change the GUI ontop the base system needs to be explained. Otherwise all those recommendations about KDE being better than GNOME, GNOME being better than KDE, XFCE being the best, only using a window manager with a bunch of XTerm, … isn’t making a lot of sense to new users.

That being said, I wouldn’t even include that into the base article.

@houz, Thanks for your response and input.

You won’t get such a consensus. Ever.

That is disappointing and rather unfortunate. I would have thought there would be at least one or two distros with a stable desktop environment most experienced linux users would/could recommend for new users to cut their teeth on, especially as they pertain to developing a photographic workflow.

I would rather explain the new user the whole concept of a modular
system like Un*x. Back when I went away from Windows people were still
used to booting into DOS and only starting Windows manually when needed,
so they understood that the graphical user interfaces isn’t necessarily
a core part of the operating system but can be a separate layer.

I started with DOS as well. Most new users are not interested in the inner workings. They want to turn on the computer, like a Mac or Windows PC, have it boot into their graphical desktop with icons that let them open their programs and let them work on their photographs. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, it’s just how it is - in my opinion. So, give people a basic starting point, at least in regards to Linux because it already exists for Mac and Windows because of the lack of choice.

Now, the idea of an article explaining the modular system, as it relates to linux (or BSD and others), and the benefits of choice is an intriguing one. Most articles I read in my research so far talk about the different “modules” (while not the correct term, I use it to refer to wiindow managers, desktop environments and whatever else is available) and how things are interchangeable. None, however, describe the variables to be aware of and why - I initially experimented with a base debian 7 install on my desktop, adding all the different desktop environments. I wanted to see which I preferred and figured I could use the login manager to switch between them. After promptly crashing the system I started over and went more slowly.

I don’t think so. It is the result of a bevy of choice and freedom & choice are what many GNU/Linux users value very highly.

Indeed, Ubuntu MATE 16.04. Install it and don’t worry about it for 5 years.

That should mostly work, unless you installed all the desktop environments, then maybe it won’t work so well. If you’re interested in window managers, perhaps Linux BBQ “Cream” would be of interest to you; it features 70-something window managers already installed for you.

Ok…last response. I seem to have hijacked the thread somewhat and gotten off topic. Guess a good article topic might be: New to Linux? or Transitioning to Linux from Mac or Windows!

@paperdigits - choices: I’m all for choices, but a basic foundation from which to start is important, especially when there are so many choices.

Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS - Based on my limited knowledge so far, that would seem to be a good choice for a starting point. Others I have considered are Fedora 24 Design Suite (Riley Brandt’s choice for his laptop, I believe) and Manjaro 16.08 XFCE. So, I would have a small choice of LTS, semi-rolling release, and rolling release - much more manageable.

I did install them all. :anguished: - Hence the crash, I think. Although, when I read the Debian manual, I thought it mentioned it could be done…:confused:. I’ll need to pull it off the shelf and re-read it!
I will look at LinuxBBQ “Cream” - Thanks! I seem to recall reading about it on Distrowatch at some point.
Thanks for all your input!