Need some Help switching to Linux

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

Hello guys,

I am working on the transition of switching to Linux, I am currently a windows user. I don't like the amount of telemetry that is built into windows 10 and i have finally made up my mind to switch to Linux. Also I am in school for software development. The problem I am having is finding software alternatives. I need alternatives to Lightroom, Photoshop and IDEs, i have been using Microsoft Studio 2015 and JetBrains IDEs(not really sure if it has free versions, I have them free since i am a student). Microsoft Studio I have been using for C++. my teacher for my C++ class made us use that. I have been using intelij for Java. The only problem I have with the JetBrain's IDE's is not sure if it is free after i am not longer a student. I have looked on website looking for pricing and haven't really found the price after free trials. I also need some kind of text editor, In my web development class, we had to use Notepad so that we typed out everything what are my cross platform options. I have used Notepad++ in the past, but really want something closer to sublime hopefully for free(EDIT: Did not know this was free just found out, always thought it cost money or just got a trial for free). I am also looking into learning Python, php and javascript over the summer so need IDE's for those haven't looked into them alot just know i wan to learn them for projects and for web development

How good of an idea is it to switch to Linux for someone looking to do web, cloud , mobile and desktop development. I am undecided on what part of software development i want to go into currently, so i am learning about them and playing with each of the ones i am interested in and trying to find what i have the most fun doing.

I am trying to create a work flow that works for me on linux and windows so that i can move back and forth for classes that I have that requires windows for some proprietary windows applications.

Any tips about the transition are welcomed. I have been a windows user since 2009 (my first computer I am 20 got into this a bit late).

Thanks guys.

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They have linux clients, just download them and sign in with your student account.

darkroom

GIMP

See first comment about jetbrains, but atom with gcc and gdb or some linters work amazingly well. Suggest you learn to automate using make files. I find IDE's redundant these days.

You are correct, they are about 90$ after that.

sublime is free? what the hell are you getting on about.

Jsut use Atom or Vim.

No, you don't need IDE's, this is an illusion. You could install apache with mod user_dir and PHP for the full LAMP stack on your box. Run that shit native yo.

fucking amazing.

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You mean Darktable?

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I always thought it cost money my bad.

Alright, I will have to look into this a bit, haven't really played with it yet.

So could i just use atom like an IDE, haven't really played with a lot of this on my own just what i have done in class

Will look into both of those have used GIMP before completely forgot about it.

That is what I was really hoping, so far it feels like Linux is way more hands on.

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probably should be mentioned GIMP is not Photoshop, and the lack of which is a big hurdle to overcome. but if you can, you can.

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Will look into it, See if i can use if for what i do with it before cancelling my Creative cloud sub. I may have to dual boot for school anyway so if i can't use GIMP then should't be the biggest deal, worse case can just use windows for photography and video stuff linux for programming and daily thanks reminding me to check before i drop Creative Cloud.

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If you are willing to use Gnome for your desktop I really like builder as an IDE.

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Will look into it, I really like Plasma, but I am not 100% locked to any distro or desktop environment.

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Darktable... yeah :sweat_smile:

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Oh, and if we missed anything we also have a mega thread about stuff like this.

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Not sure if you meant Visual Studio Code or not, but that runs on Linux. I use it myself. I also use Webstorm. Also check out Krita, but that is more for cartoon'ish drawing than Photoshop type work.

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-GIMP is the most recommended abomination I know of mostly because there is no current alternative. I highly recommend you look into some plugins for gimp and guides to improve its workflow that mimic Photoshop.
-Krita is very good but is designed for painting and does not handle vectors or text.
-Atom is a nice text editor.
-Brackets is great for web development.
-XAMPP is my preference for controlling the server environment.

VIM is a joke old penguins play on windows users. Just don't.

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That person has never even tried to learn vim. And he's talking about vi.
He's also an emacs fag fan :stuck_out_tongue:

But yeah enough of the editor wars.

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Vim is awesome and you get to unleash your inner regex guru but it's only for the strong of heart and pure of mind :smiley:

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I stay out of terminal entirely.

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How even.

I sense some major heresy here

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If you're having trouble going cold turkey, consider dual booting. This will give you an opportunity to get up to speed with the alternative FOSS tools, without disrupting your current workflow.

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Will check it out looks like a clone pretty much thanks for that.

Did not know about this will look though it today.

Nah didnt know that was a thing, will look into it i meant the IDE, from my understanding it is made to make windows applications in C# and visual basic. it has a cloud app for Mac but nothing for linux, i really just need a god C++ IDE or alternative to replace what i was using it for.

Have used it in the past may just have to keep a dual boot on my desktop, have used Photoshop for a bout a year, but I will try to use GIMP it for a month or so, I will use it manly for photo retouching.

not useful for me, should have said my use case for Photoshop.

I am currently looking at it want to learn how to make it an "IDE" use it for all my languages and just compile them manually or find a way to automate it.

Will look at it haven't seen anything about it.

Willing to admit i know almost nothing about this, but when i start learning I will look into XAMPP.

Know nothing about it i will find out eventually

what is VIM have seen it mentioned don't know what it even is started being serious about this about a week ago

The terminal is what make Linux so interesting for me(not for a text editor), used windows shell a good bit, but felt so under powered to use over the GUI in windows Linux so far i really like how simple it has been to learn have to navigate using the terminal and really like using it over using the package manager to install thing so far( i think package manager is correct name once again first week actually being serious)

I am currently, I have both of my main machines running Antergos. Still not 100% on what distro so not jumping fully into Linux till then, I know that distros are all just preference so just experimenting on my own for what i like, I really like Antergos and arch so far, using the revenge installer, only problem is haven't found how to add Pamac to normal arch once i do i am almost 100% switching to arch. still not great will installing things. Once again first week really using it every day for more than 30 Mins.

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I prefer a GUI over VIM. However, once you start to poke around and learn VIM an IDE begins to lose its shine. It is very much a different animal.

Also: you can make GIMP behave almost exactly like Photoshop.
Is it a Photoshop replacement? Hell to the no.

However, it gets close enough (after some configuration) that most people would not exceed its use case. For instance start with Single Window Mode.

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Vim is "Vi Improved". Vi is a text editor that's about 40 years old. Vim is a much improved version that irons out many of the annoyances of the original. It runs in text mode so you can use it without a gui, very useful in a situation where your graphical stack won't start. As a beginner you're probably better off with nano. It will seem much more familiar.