There are many RAW file developers in Ubuntu and in the open source and/or free softwares area as well as the proprietary ones and in other platforms. Each one is having its own approach towards RAW file manipulation (I dont care much about jpeg files, as there is GIMP and other variants).
In the Linux world, I have seen (not tried all of them) Digicam, Darktable, Rawtherapee, ufraw, lightzone, fotox, gimp (with some plugins) etc.. I think all of them are open source and are very powerful.
The proprietary ones and the ones in other platforms include adobe lightroom, bibble, photo ninja, captureNX, canons software, DXO, aperture etc.. (I have tried only two of them)
All these point towards the only aim: better photos from RAW files
In many cases, a different processing in one software or a combination in another softwares gives the same result. In that sense, if one is patient enough to spend some time, one can avoid the use of proprietary softwares and could promote the open source projects. There are many forums and blogs discussing the same.
What is my point?
1. There is a lack of information about the similar features and how one desired effect could be reached from various softwares.
2. How two open/free programs could give the effect of a commercial program until the effect is included in a open/free RAW developer
3. A comparison of the user interface and experience
4. The discussion of RAW conversion is not universal: it ends in the support forums of respective softwares (I know its not that practical to have one universal forum)
What I have found:
I found that both lightzone and lightroom could give very close results (to my satisfaction of course : this is where the can of worms gets opened)
I am going to try fotoxx : from the features, I think that its a mixture of lightzone, gimp and hugin : Has anyone tried them?
More info and opinions are welcome.
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