[maxeem_com]

I understand that Linux is super duper for browsing and gaming and generally being a geek, but I'm a geek who likes to make cartoons in Flash and the Macromedia BBs are just a bunch of people pleading with Adobe to release a Linux-friendly solution, because "Wine"-ing it doesn't work right.

Has anybody here gotten the Shockwave/Flash builders to work completely properly in a Linux build of any kind? I know there are many cryptic sites out there that supposedly "allow" me to "find" a "distro" that works, but I have been slogging through this stuff for months now and I give up. I just want to use someone else's solution. I don't play any games, but I need the big Adobe Suites (Photoshop, Illustrator, AfterEffects, Premiere) and Flash to work.

If whatever you use runs Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, After Effects Flash MX 2004 and Microsoft Xcel almost perfectly, and can support my 11x17 USB Scanning Bed, my Wacom Tablet and my Linksys Wireless Network Adapter, I'll be happy with it. Is anyone else here an animator or web designer who uses heavy graphic programs and needs a similar system? I'm kind of desperate.

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unitl Adobe ports those programs to linux, you can only use Wine, and that doesn't even guarantee full functionality.

I do all my web design on Linux using eitehr Nvu or Bluefish. Nvu is wysiwyg and bluefish is strictly hardcore hand coding (ie html no graphical interface).

If you insist on using Adobe products your best bet is to wait until Adobe officially ports there stuff to Linux.

Hopefully that will be soon, but probably not for at least a year or two.

[Dragon]

unitl Adobe ports those programs to linux, you can only use Wine, and that doesn't even guarantee full functionality.

I do all my web design on Linux using eitehr Nvu or Bluefish. Nvu is wysiwyg and bluefish is strictly hardcore hand coding (ie html no graphical interface).

If you insist on using Adobe products your best bet is to wait until Adobe officially ports there stuff to Linux.

Hopefully that will be soon, but probably not for at least a year or two.

[maxeem_com]

I don't insist, but Microsoft Sparkle looks like the only thing that can compete with Flash right now for ease of fast commercial animation, and that's not coming out for a while, let alone built for the web. That is unless I am paying for something like Toon Boom which is twice to twenty times as much cash.

I appreciate your answer! Thanks! I had heard Macromedia talking about porting to Linux earlier this year with something like an update 'more compatable with Wine' but was hoping they had fulfilled this. Turns out they mostly haven't yet. For now I tinker on the Mac and PC and hit "save" constantly!

The stability I fear is less a platform issue than it is a Macromedia one. They just don't build the stablest of stuff. But for the price, it can't be beat!

[Dragon]

I don't insist, but Microsoft Sparkle looks like the only thing that can compete with Flash right now for ease of fast commercial animation, and that's not coming out for a while, let alone built for the web. That is unless I am paying for something like Toon Boom which is twice to twenty times as much cash.

I appreciate your answer! Thanks! I had heard Macromedia talking about porting to Linux earlier this year with something like an update 'more compatable with Wine' but was hoping they had fulfilled this. Turns out they mostly haven't yet. For now I tinker on the Mac and PC and hit "save" constantly!

The stability I fear is less a platform issue than it is a Macromedia one. They just don't build the stablest of stuff. But for the price, it can't be beat!

as is normal for most software vendors, they don't don't feel there is a big enough market in Linux for their software. If only they knew how wrong they were. I have talked to a lot of fellow website designers and we all agree, Mcaromedia and adobe are both turning profits away because they haven't properly ported to linux. but we keep badgering them to do so.

[shard92]

I know you said you didn't like wine or that it didn't do a good job but have you looked at crossover office?

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/

they claim to support at least some of that stuff. Not sure about supporting your hardware though...

[maxeem_com]

brilliant!

thanks, shard. this looks like i could almost afford to start experimenting with this. awesome!

thankfully pre-made Linux boxes are cheap!

[shard92]

brilliant!

thanks, shard. this looks like i could almost afford to start experimenting with this. awesome!

thankfully pre-made Linux boxes are cheap!

Actually it depends on who pre-made the linux box in question. Dell open source software machines tend to cost more than windows boxes....

[maxeem_com]

oh well i was thinking of going with general nanosystems anyway. i'm up in minneapolis, and they have a great little store in dinkytown that caters to nerds. (http://www.nanosys1.com/)

i've had two family members buy a dell machine, have them crash and lose everything and have to get a replacement from the company that then works fine. and it isn't that i don't like the end result, but i just don't want to go through that, and my boss has used GNS consistently and has never had a problem. plus they have fun shaped boxes!

[shard92]

Thanks I'm also in MN just a few hours north of you. I've been to dinkytown but that was a LONG time ago and a memory far far away..... I'm checking out the link now....