Photoshop on Linux becoming a reality

Running Adobe Photoshop on the Linux operating system is becoming real thanks to development work funded by Google.

In a blog posting last week, Google Software Engineer, Dan Kegel, said the company has sponsored developers from Codeweavers to make Photoshop CS and CS2 work better under Wine. Wine allows software written for Windows-based machines to run on Linux.

Kegel, who is also a Wine 1.0 release manager, said Google already uses Wine to implement Linux support for its photo management software, Picasa.

According to Kegel, Photoshop is one of those applications that Desktop linux users are "constantly clamoring for".

He said Google has sponsored the Codeweavers developers "to improve support for Photoshop ('cause so many people want it) and for Dragon Naturally Speaking ('cause even Linux users get RSI). While not yet perfect, those apps are a lot more usable now as a result. In particular, Photoshop CS and CS2 are quite usable indeed."

The Wine Wiki page for Adobe Photoshop offers tips needed to run it successfully on Wine.

Free desktop publishing alternatives that run on Linux include Gimp, Gimpshop and Cinepaint.