Android is based on GNU/Linux and is Open Source (just as iOS is originally based on BSD). However, Google’s own software (Gmail etc) is not open source.
ALL 500 supercomputers in the world run GNU/Linux. All of them. Number 1, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Cray, El Capitan, runs on 11.3 million cores (needs 30 MW of power).
See the list on top500 dot org /lists/top500/2025/11/
All the data centers of Google, AWS etc run Linux. Even more than 60% of customer cores on Microsoft’s Azure run Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, SuSE).
See azure dot microsoft dot com /en-us/products/virtual-machines/linux
Indeed Linux didn’t conquer the (corporate) desktop, but it killed Unix (SGI’s Irix, Apollo, Sun and Solaris, HP HP-UX and IBM AIX workstations). Some components still survive because they became open source. A nice example is SGI’s Graphics Library, GL, which became OpenGL and is still going strong.
In the 1970s and 1980s nobody ever got fired for buying IBM. Today, it is for choosing Microsoft for the desktop.
Of course, my business relies on, and all of my machines run Linux. Last MS Office came pre-installed on a laptop running W98. Everyone should use what he or she likes and be happy.
1 Like
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
104
@zkarj If Linux will become the new standard when Europe reduces the dependency of US Tech it is far from sure that Apple would be spared.
Isn’t that the European government. Not the entire population? I’m not sure how many government agencies are doing RAW photo development. They can switch to darktable.
The lack of photo editing software is literally the ONLY reason preventing me from making the switch to Linux too. PLEASE devs, listen to your customers
I agree completely. But it is a very powerful photo editor and it is available on Linux.
I think you mean “the lack of good photo editing software”.
For what it’s worth, I do think darktable is very capable. It just needs an interface designer to whip it into shape. I’ve had some fans tell me “There’s a learning curve, you just have to put in some effort.” My response to that is, why should I?
Me to would really like a Linux version of DXO PL. I do understand that it’s not possible or practical to get it for ”Linux” as a complete ecosystem but a look on DaVinci Resolve could work as an example on how it can be solved. They support one distro; Rocky Linux. For me I would have prefered DXO PL (and DVR) to support a Debian-based distro but Rocky is better than none. I also do understand the winnings in using a commercial based distro, like Rocky (bug to bug with Red Hat) and its kind of ”stability first” focus. On the Debian side we have Canonical with Ubuntu as an alternative and SUSE with the openSUSE projects as another…
I don’t thonk it is practically possible for DXO to make PL available for every distro but if DXO could pick one to support I would appreciate it.
Both Rocky and Ubuntu is then kind of conservative with new features, libraries, dependencies, drivers and so on so they are somewhat environmentally stable in some sense.
I do like DT as well and use it parallell with PL. Yes, it is a learning curve bit it is damn powerful and flexible. I do belive there is ome answer to the learning curve: It can A LOT!
I do agree in your statement ”why should I accept to bother with a learning curve” for commercial or in other ways paid systems. But in open source projects I usually have a little bit more tolerance for that everything is’nt absolutely perfect. So in this case I think of it as ”because it’s free” when I’ve struggled woth the DT öearning curve for my self.
If you can get it to work on Linux you can try DaVinci Resolve 21 beta which now has a photo editing page. DR uses all the tools it is famous for video editing. The best thing is there is a completely free version.
I have been testing on Windows and it is fantastic!
1 Like
mwsilvers
(Mark - New Jersey, USA, Win10, RTX 4060, PL9, FP8, VP5, Nikon Zf )
114
The lack of photo editing software on Linux, to which you allude, is likely because most post processing software publishers don’t believe there is enough of a commercial market to warrant the cost of development and support of their software on that platform. If very few PP software publishers are willing to invest in Linux why is there an expectation here that a small company like DxO should be willing to take on that financial risk?
I’m not saying darktable “isn’t absolutely perfect”. At least in terms of the user interface it is “absolutely horrible”.
The first computer I regularly used had 128x48 rectangular pixels and if I wanted to draw a circle on screen, I had to know the geometry and write my own program to do it. In a hobby and a professional sense, I have been using software for all manner of computers for around 45 years.
Teach me Photoshop and then give me Affinity, and I’ll figure it out. Teach me Wordstar and give me Word and I’ll figure it out.
Teach me Lightroom and give me Luminar or PhotoLab or ON1 or RawTherapee or Nitro or Capture One and I’ll figure it out. I tried darktable. Twice. I couldn’t even figure out how to open a single photo!
That, in my book, and I’m not alone on this, is a total design failure. Interface design is a practice and a skill and while we nit-pick DxO’s efforts in this area, darktable just haven’t even bothered.
It may be free, but that’s over-priced for a user interface of that calibre.
It’s not quite as restrictive as all that. Fedora is part of the same family and Fedora can do everything which Ubuntu can do, with similar polish (both Gnome and KDE available; Flatpak style sandboxed architecture and traditional integrated versions). Ubuntu is apparently introducing serious telemetry and huge integrated AI (security risk; additional mystery box). The really good news DaVinci Resolve will run on Debian.
High time for DxO to get with the times and be first and get free publicity instead of wasting fortunes on ads everywhere. DxO is paying to advertise PhotoLab to me!
A Linux version would get PhotoLab a mountain of free publicity, stacks of goodwill and make enough sales to pay for itself. PhotoLab would have a space all to itself, instead of following Adobe around everywhere like an abandoned puppy.
Yes, you’re right. Personally I’ve run DVR on a Linux Mint machine. Not exactly ”out of the box” but it worked with some efforts. Not blazingly fast though. I had problem to get it to like the GPU in that system due to an old control chip. But anyway, it worked and on near antique hardware as well (which not would have happen on a Windows machine and absolutely not on a Mac)! My purpose with not mentioning that a program working in one distro is possible to get to work in another (in most cases) was that if DXO PL would work with one distro, you get something to work with and I thought that would be enough.
I also now about the telemetry in Ubuntu. As I see it is Cannonical better than Microsoft, Apple and Google which I ”happily” use services and products from in everyday life. So for me that is’nt a big deal. Youre more than welcome to disagre. I use or have used both private and professionaly a lot of distros and I enjoyed and disliked them all. Every OS/distro (Windows and OSX invluded) have there strengths and there weakneses.
I use Zorin OS, it’s fantastic. By far better than Windows. Lots have been switching recently. I am having to dual boot because Lightroom or DXO can’t be bothered with Linux. DXO would do very well if they switched before any of the others. It would be even better if Darktable etc improved more.
There is RapidRAW. It’s still very limited in functionality, but the UI is far better organized than DarkTable or RAW Therapee. It’s still quite new though and the development is a bit on the slow side, considering it’s a one person project. The good news is that it’s also available on Windows and Mac, so you can test it out without installing Linux.
I also do understand the winnings in using a commercial based distro, like Rocky (bug to bug with Red Hat) and its kind of ”stability first” focus. On the Debian side we have Canonical with Ubuntu as an alternative and SUSE with the openSUSE projects as another…
So in this case I think of it as ”because it’s free” when I’ve struggled woth the DT öearning curve for my self.
Not blazingly fast though. I had problem to get it to like the GPU in that system due to an old control chip. But anyway, it worked and on near antique hardware as well (which not would have happen on a Windows machine and absolutely not on a Mac)!