A Tea Addict's Journal

Turning to the dark side

April 26, 2009 · 8 Comments

No, I still don’t drink coffee.

However, I did format my harddisk and install Linux.  I was a Windows user (XP).  However, it gave me a nasty crash yesterday.  Some system files got corrupted.  When I tried to recover the computer using the pre-installed files that came with the computer (Lenovo doesn’t give you a recovery disk) the computer can’t seem to find that either.  So what that means is that I couldn’t load anything up at all.

I had two options.  I could wait for the folks to send me a disk, which can take three to five days.  Or, at the suggestion of the kind folks at my school’s help desk, I could use Ubuntu to boot up and recover all the documents/files I want, and then, well, wait for the recovery disk or just use Ubuntu.

I have been pretty fed up with Windows recently, and have thought of doing something about it.  This was enough of an excuse for me to make the switch.

That does mean, however, that I have to install everything again, and to re-learn some things, since I’ve never used Linux extensively before.  It also means I need to find the right programs for the right tasks again.

For the purpose of this blog, I need to find something that manages photos, and also does some simple editing — cropping, changing brightness, the basic stuff.  I don’t like toying with the pictures too much, because I feel like heavily edited pictures, for a blog on tea anyway, takes away the original flavour of the image.  This is especially true when you switch colour balances and that kind of thing.  You don’t want to see blue tea leaves, which sometimes show up on vendor pages because they did too much to alter their image.

So, any suggestions on software is welcomed.  Until I’ve figured this all out, however (hopefully not too long), expect low amounts of updates.

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8 responses so far ↓

  • mfuess // April 26, 2009 at 11:44 pm | Reply

    Gimp should already be installed on your computer (you said you installed Ubuntu). It’ll handle anything you want with regards to file cropping, brightness, white correction. I’m not sure what you mean by managing photos though.

  • trentk // April 27, 2009 at 12:28 am | Reply

    have you tried picasa?
    http://picasa.google.com/linux/

  • Jayaratna // April 27, 2009 at 2:41 am | Reply

    Welcome between Ubuntu users: I too switched to Ubuntu a couple of years ago: I don’t miss windows much. Gimp is perfect for image editing. If you’re used to Photoshop, use it with Gimpshop plugin. Fspot manages pictures as well.

  • Anonymous // April 27, 2009 at 6:04 am | Reply

    The Gimp is quite powerful, but overkill for basic tasks, and doesn’t really do any photo management.

    I second the recommendation for Picasa. I’ve been using it for a couple years and have been very satisfied. Before they came out with the linux version, I even kept an old windows machine around just for picasa (well, that and turbotax).

  • Anonymous // April 27, 2009 at 12:07 pm | Reply

    Gimp is pretty good.
    fspot opens by default in ubuntu when you upload from the camera. It’s not bad.
    If you have a windows program you like, you could try to run it in wine. Wine lets you run windows apps under linux. I’ve run alotta stuff in wine, and it’s gotten way easier over the last 3 years. Alot of windows installers will just run and install into wine now from gnome.

  • Anonymous // April 27, 2009 at 1:27 pm | Reply

    Try gthumb

  • sexycaliblond // April 28, 2009 at 4:15 am | Reply

    i like picassa from google myself

    vaporizer

  • Anonymous // April 28, 2009 at 11:56 am | Reply

    I use Digikam (with the kipi plugins) + Gimp. Better integrated to my desktop than Picasa.

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