I have yet again kicked that misbehaving bastard Windows out of my house and got Linux instead. Since I'm not a computer person I chose the easiest. Though this time I decided that I've seen Gnome already and it's time for KDE so I chose Kubuntu. Well, to be totally honest I still have Windows and my comp is dual boot, just in case. But I'm noticing that things are very different this time around. For starters my computer is a total powerhouse compared to my old one. It has a goody quad core processor that still kicks ass even though it's over 2 years old already so by simply getting some more memory and better video card my comp would still be be considerably good by this days standard. I made a good choice back then. Yay for me doing something right for once o/ Anyways, it runs virtual machine like a charm. And it runs Photoshop in that virtual machine without any choking. It's also the only way I can use my scanner since it seems that nothing from Canon outside their LIDE series supports Linux and you guessed it, my scanner isn't LIDE. BUT. I do think it's a bit of a hassle to use the Virtualbox everytime I want to do something with PS, no matter how little. And the fact that swapping files between the Windows running virtually and Linux would require either using a memory stick or setting up a separate shared partitioning and that leading to some unneccessary moving of files to and from that partitioning made me think it's about time I looked in to other potential programs.

Kubuntu of course has GIMP pre-installed. I've been poking around with it a bit and it does seem like it has improved tons since I last used it and it could very well be adequate replacement for PS. My only problem right now is that it's functionality is very much exactly like Photoshop but the GUI has everything in different places. It gets me seriously confused. I spent minutes just looking for the crop tool. It is going to take a loooong time to digest is all. And when you think about it I rarely need full Photoshop functionality. What I most used could be found from the plethora of different paint programs. And they don't cost nearly as much as official copy of Photoshop.

And that leads me to Wine. It is also something that is very different and much better this time around. I just checked couple of programs that I had in mind after reading this: [link] OpenCanvas and ArtRage both have very good rating of working properly. SAI doesn't have as much but it does seem to work. And they have free 30-day trial versions. Perfect for some heavy duty testing (if I can just force my lazy ass self to actually draw something.)

Since Wine claims to support even the most newest PC game that I own (haven't tested yet though) I don't see much reason to restart my computer in Windows any time soon.

And oh! The game that I'm playing right now? (just look up, between watching and drinking) Try it! It's damn good!