Why I hate Windows.....and why I have to use it!

[mgibbs]

I use Spinrite from Gibson Research for hard drive maintenance and recovery. Written in assembler. 170kb and that includes a copy of FreeDOS!

Mark

[JSR]

A couple of years back, I tried to start moving over to Linux. Not the 10MB one (that's a little too restricted for anything but the basic stuff, or if you really want to roll your sleeves up) but to a 100MB one that boots from my SD card or USB stick. The biggest stumbling block was lack of hardware support - particularly printers. Something as simple as printing was like a hurdle of epic proportions.

It's not like me to gravedig an old thread, but I thought I should update my old post.

I decided yesterday to take another look at Linux, for no other reason than seeing my old laptop running Windows 98SE and there being no practical way to bring it into the modern world.

Previously, my main bane of Linux was the lack of hardware support - specifically printer support. However, that seems to be rectified quite a lot since the last time I used Linux.

With very little hassle, I've been able to install my three of my network printers (two Brothers and a HP) and one of my USB printers (Brother), and they installed just fine.

Now to work on installing my Epson printers and laser printers, and then seeing if I can get the Brother scanners to work over the network before trying.

[Justin]

I see there's an updated version of Ubuntu just been released as well.

Now that you can subli print using Powerdriver I wonder if Linux may be a good alternative for many users to change over to a more reliable OS? Does Powerdriver work in this environment though?

[JSR]

I don't use PowerDriver and I haven't begun to work out how to use ICC profiles on Linux, but just being able to print is a vast improvement on the old days.

Incidentally, I'm using PuppyLinux on this old Laptop (a Dell Inspiron with 128MB RAM, P3 500/600MHz), but if it continues to work okay with my hardware then I'll look at running it on one of my netbooks.

I don't have any reliability issues with WinXP on my netbooks, but PuppyLinux takes up a whole lot less space, runs in RAM, and is much easier to upgrade.

[JSR]

Well, that's all but two of my printers installed, and one of my five scanners setup. If it had been this straightforward before, more people might have been using Linux years ago.

[rossdv8]

I know others here have looked at things like Ubuntu, so here's my setup.

Linux - modified by me but based on Ubuntu, Mint and Zorin. However, any of these alone will work.
Computer is whatever was cheapest on the day. Currently a compaq of some sort, pretty low spec, hooked up to 2 LCD screens.
Printers include
1 mono Brother HL2040 - pretty irrelevant here.
1 colour HP CP1215 - general office hack.
2 Brother MFC-J6520DW inkjets. One runs Epson compatible sublimation ink, the other runs Epson compatible pigment ink.

I do not use ICC profiles because most of my work is reproducing colour photographs.
Editing is initially done in GIMP. For my printer, setting Colour Balance initially to Cyan -15 Magenta -20 Yellow -15 (those are 'minus') gets colours close to reality for my ink, paper and printer.

I do a lot of my layout in Libre Office Draw because I have created templates with most of the images for say 20 mugs and the text I will use laid out around the edges. Think MS Publisher. For those of us who had WYSIWYG in DOS days, think Express Publisher. The thing MS more or less copied.

I simply drag the image and text into position and it is almost ready.

Clicking on an image brings up a box that allows me to tweak brightness, contrast and gamma, usually something like Bright = 20, Cont = 10 and Gamma = 0.6 is sufficient combined with preset CYM from GIMP.

I can also adjust Red Green and Blue ffrom this box, essentially over riding my previous settings.

Once I get a satisfactory print on the substrate I want, I save that template in a 'Production' folder with a title that lets me know what photos are on it.
It took me a while to work our how simple this can be, but now I know the basics, lack of ICC profiles is not an issue. And it is so much simpler to work in such a basic manner.

I hope this is some help to anyone else that has an interest in using Linux in their Dye Sub work. I know from searching that there is very little info our there, and in fact was told it can't be done easily.

I will post some mug shots when i have the time, but in the mean time, here's what I did in my first 2 weeks of experimenting with Heat Transfer and with Dye Sublimation. http://www.rossdevitt.com/whitsundays/shirts/

It's not very exciting, but it was the first time I tried either type of printing. You can easily tell which are Dye Sub and which are Heat Transfer.

I am still wearing and washing the shirts sublimated 'into' 100% cotton, but it is not really a retail option. I simply do it because I like wearing cotton that has no hand at all. The odd thing is that the saturated sub method outlasts JetProSS.

Ok, hope that helps someone.

Cheers,

RossD and Jo.