Linux respins for photographers

I don’t see the benefit from special purpose distributions. I think a better concept is to choose a good big distribution, that cares about security, package management, hardware support and all the other boring and hard stuff. If you now have problems with packages or missing packages then help to fix this problems. This improves the situation for more people with less work.

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Well this is what I can do now. I do not know how to make packages for Debian e.g. (I wish there was a good new deb of Digikam). I cannot even even compile properly, not to speak of fixing source code. I am not a programmer or computer scientist.

I do not know how to make packages for Debian e.g.

I think here is a good starting point:
https://wiki.debian.org/HowToPackageForDebian

I wish there was a good new deb of Digikam

Contact the maintainer/uploaders of the package, you can find them here:
https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/digikam

I am not a programmer or computer scientist.

You don’t need to, for creating packages. More important are your communication skills to talk with the developers.

Ubuntu Studio brought me to the open source photo editing world. I don’t use it anymore but it was a good starting point. So I guess it does make sense having photo processing oriented distros. But for sure, maintaining packages, e.g. up to date digikam .deb or appimages (if possible) helps even more. One can also contribute via maintaining documentation or via writing code but that requires more skills and takes more time.

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Interesting.

Is it a Live iso?

yes

and how do I extract two files?

EDIT: The point/issue is this:

image

you need to download all the files and open the nr1 - it is a splitted archive. all will be opened at once then

ok. I think you are trying to download today’s snapshot - all the part-archives are not uploaded yet. try the earlier one or wait for the rest (there are 8 part-archives)

Yeah, that’s what happened :smiley:

I downloaded the prior versions and was able to extract the iso. Thanks!

well, I am curious - as I wrote - I was able to start it in vmware. no other tests yet.
I guess so far it is just something like a sketch?

I’m writing this from your distro running on a usb stick, no issues so far. Congratulations!

Not sure if applies, but considering it is running from a USB stick I’d expect it to be slower than it is.
actually, it is running faster than the main OS, which is Ubuntu 18.04.

As for the installed apps, Darktable 2.6 (good), Gimp 2.10 + gmic (good), and others that I don’t know. Missing PhotoFlow and Rawtherapee.

Hummm… should I migrate from my Ubuntu 18.04? :thinking:… now I really got thinking…

Rawtherapee is in /home/demo/Downloads - it is an appimage

MX is a great distro. Based on Debian but witha new kernel, therefore great hardware support.
And it has those really great remastering and backup/snapshot tools… I think you can even use the live version on a pendrive, there is also that persistence tool…

I see…
There’s probably a way of adding an icon to the Graphics group as it shows in my screenshot, to execute the appimage, right?
What’s your plan with this distro (can we call it a distro)?
When doing an apt update/upgrade, will it update all those apps you added (except the appimages, of course)?

actually, I have not thought of updates. I mean if you see it that way, it would make sense to add even buggy apps - they will be updated when there is a new fixed version.
I am uploading right now today’s snapshot. I have removed XFCE now and customized the appearance of Gnome. There are also some wallpapers in AdobeRGB now.
In the near future, I would like to add more wallpapers by other photographers.
Maybe Cinnamon and/or Budgie versions. Eventually I might make an entirely “fresh” remastering based on the newest MX. I do not really know, my plans are not that concrete yet. And of course I am also open to new suggestions…
Well, it is likely that the design of the DE will change frequently LOL.
Edit: Well, because you asked what my plans are… the ultimate goal is - what else could it be LOL - taking down Apple and Adobe.

Don’t forget the importance of colour management, That’s one of the reasons I went for the Cinnamon release of Linux Mint, rather than the XFCE, purely because of the cinnamon (and Gnome) colour management app.

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I am about to upload a version with Cinnamon only and one with Gnome only. They are based on MX 18.1. I also added the appimage of Digikam 6.0 (it is in the home-folder).
Well, this will probably take a day or so…
The default Debian theme/appearance of the DE has not been changed yet this time since I am still collecting wallpapers… there will probably be another update anytime soon.
So far it should be usable like this as well.
Cinnamon consists of 9 archive files and Gnome of 10.
Some days ago another snapshot was added with Gnome only, I am not sure though if the design was changed.

Are you using any Play_Raw images from pixls.us as wallpapers by chance?

Thanks for the idea!

Meanwhile there is also a version that is based on Mint (upload finished by Thursday) and I have created a page on my blog:

http://betazoid.bplaced.net/lilac/simux-os/

However, 2 interesting questions “appeared”:

  1. in the Mint version, so far the wallpapers are for sRGB screens. However, I wonder which color space I should convert them to for a set for wide gamut screens. I think AdobeRGB is for many wide gamut screens kind of not enough.

  2. so I have been collecting wallpapers. However some people had/have legal concerns. And I think this is a really interesting legal issue.
    So. The thing is, some photographers are willing to provide wallpapers, but only under the condition (“license”) that their provided photos are not used for “commercial” purposes. I.e. the license is cc by nc sa. But such a license is not open source/free any more. This actually means that I am adding proprietary content to the OS. That is why e.g. Debian does not accept/include such wallpapers.
    But what does this actually mean, in practice?
    For me, the following is clear: A system that includes wallpapers with a cc by nc sa license must not be used by a hardware manufacturer that sells computers which use this OS.
    But: Is and advertizing agency allowed to use such an OS?

Well, I think there is a difference between software and art. Art is not open source, it does not have a source code. And it is not indispensable to use something else, e.g. hardware. But I am no lawyer.

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