Upgrading, and some thoughts about making digital art on open source software

Finally I got to upgrade the Linux distro on my computer. Because there was some problems with my Wacom Cintic I initially reverted to the old version back when the new one was released. But I really do not fancy using a desktop that do not have access to security updates. So after I saw that the problems seemed to be solved with my daughters Wacom I tried again yesterday.

As usual I had to pick a fight with some of the things that didn't work as perfect as I wanted them to. Kwallet again, but at least this time I got an idea about what was wrong and have fixed it. I also have a working Wacom tablet and I am on the track of the last missing bits. A good feeling and I have not been using too much time - I also get a bit wiser every time.

So why use Linux when you are a graphic artist? When I talk to other people working with with computer graphic they are almost frightened by the thought of a person who do not pay his Adobe-tax. I have been using Gnu/Linux since 1999, but it took me some years to move all my activities to the platform. From my work with print making and painting I knew that it was not the machines that made art, so I moved as soon as I could. And when the finance-crisis destroyed the art-market I moved from handmade art to digital without much worry.

One of the people I have been inspired by is the French comic artist and illustrator, David Revoy. Here he explains his way from the expensive commercial software to open source software.

I use the Mageia Linux distribution - I know that it would be easier to just go for Mint or Ubuntu, but I am crazily loyal. I always used the KDE windows manager, and in that I am also crazily loyal. Since I installed Mandrake Linux for the first time 20 years ago on my wife's newly bought laptop, I have been reading through 1000 flamewars concerning different aspects of this free community, but personally I really just feel cheered up by all the creativity leading to so many different WMs, package managers, text editors, IMs and video-players.