Will GNU/Linux ever be embraced by artists?

[FFighter]

I was reading the last issue of 2D Artist Magazine (awesome publication btw), and 100% of the software the artists/designers used in the creations for this particular issue was either Windows or Mac OSX based.

I wonder if Linux will ever be embraced by designers.

That's why I strongly support distributions like Ubuntu. While I'm the kind of person who likes programming and graphic design, there are many artists that can't be bothered by lower-level stuff.

And of course, distributions like these also facilitates commercial software companies to port their software to GNU/Linux.

I know there are already many talented artists that have already embraced Linux, and you can see it reflected in the tango icons, themes, wallpapers. But I feel that this number is very small compared to the artists using Windows and or Mac OSX.

Let's just hope that someday in a near future Linux will be considered a good choice for an artist's workstation!

[madjr]

when adobe ports it's stuff it will.

we need a good native flash/svg animator.

on the photo editing front we're getting there. Gimp is mature enough, krita is good, but some need still photoshop cs3.

and on the 3D animation front we're basically there. Holliwood studios have adopted linux rendering farms (maya) and Blender is just awesome (you seen all the latest 3D movies made by FOSS?)

anyway, i've introduced ubuntu studio to a few friends and they made the switch from windows XP, they're very happy with it and find it very cool.

[zmjjmz]

we need a good native flash/svg animator.


QFlash?

[hanzomon4]

I'm an artist and I love Ubuntu. However the main problem with linux for artist, or other demographics, is that more often then not you have to "fix something" or "get something to work". It gives linux the appearance of being difficult to use, where as when everything works it's a pure joy to use. Artist don't really want to be to involved with the software, unless tech is a main focus of their work.

I think a platform would be more successful at reaching the artist community then a distro. If you could give artists a hardware/software combination that would work for sure they would use it; As long as they don't have to worry about X crashing, sound daemons, apps spontaneously dying, drivers, or any of the things users routinely complain about.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

I think the latest Blender open movie (Big Buck Bunny (http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/)) is a fantastic showcase of open source software for artists. Indeed, it is my understanding they also used Ubuntu.

The animation there is absolutely top notch, and the contributions back to Blender are really impressive. It even renders on my computer, albeit slowly. It's interesting to think that I am rendering the exact same production files here as they rendered for the real film - a real showcase of how much this stuff can scale, when I factor in that it would probably take six months to render it all on my equipment, yet I run the same kernel they do. Cool stuff :)

Dreamworks is also using a Linux-based pipeline for a great deal of their work...

[paulderol]

I'm an artist and I love Ubuntu. However the main problem with linux for artist, or other demographics, is that more often then not you have to "fix something" or "get something to work". It gives linux the appearance of being difficult to use, where as when everything works it's a pure joy to use. Artist don't really want to be to involved with the software, unless tech is a main focus of their work.

I think a platform would be more successful at reaching the artist community then a distro. If you could give artists a hardware/software combination that would work for sure they would use it; As long as they don't have to worry about X crashing, sound daemons, apps spontaneously dying, drivers, or any of the things users routinely complain about.

part of this is being addressed in better driver support [ATI changes course! wooO!] and with OEM prepackaging [DELL changes course! wooooO!]. The issue with self-installation is the same as with any other OS, you have to know what's going on and how the interactions work, which, as you point out, isn't that big of a deal per se, but the only thing support contracts really are is the promise that it has been tested and can be fixed by trained professionals who work out the kinks for you.

so i think that we're moving THIS VERY INSTANT towards that goal, with better driver support and more OEM's every cycle. eventually folks like Dell will ask for driver support, and then we're in the game with the other systems.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Ah, here are some links on Dreamworks using Linux:

http://www.linux.com/articles/22473
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/4803
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6103

Sorry, may be a tad redundant, but they're quite interesting!