One of the most common objections raised when considering a move to free software goes something like “I can’t switch, because my favorite program isn’t available on GNU/Linux.” They perceive the inability to run a specific piece of proprietary software as a technical deficiency of the free system. They see it as a bug. This reaction misunderstands the point of the transition: They’re judging the free world by its ability to replicate the prison walls they just left.
Many people’s income, especially in creative fields, simply depends on specific software. Photographers, video editors come to mind; having a certain style and efficiency to your workflow might just be the thing that keeps the cash flow positive. There’s often no time or energy to even think about an alternative, sadly. This is one of the things why I think it’s crucially important we don’t demand, even implicitly, that people switch everything at once. I just installed Spotify flatpak on a friend’s Debian. No regrets. Every little switch matters in the end.
Adobe stuff still doesn’t work reliably on Linux to my knowledge. And having to even consider any kind of virtualization is a huge deal for anyone who’s using the technology for some other purpose than technology, which is most of the users.
[User-lock-in] Nonsense.
There are an abundance of creative tools with free software licenses.
A poor artist blames his tools.
Don’t fall for the user-lock-in of the likes of Adobe.
I’m an artist since birth. Using the computer, foremost, for art, and in 2003 when I decided to switch from M$windows, I had already seen, in college a couple years prior, from using sgi machines with IRIX, that there are alternatives out there for creative use, so that maybe eased my way out of the mind-capture of the user-lock-in, already having that ignorance smashed by experience. When I sought an alternative from the abuses of M$ windoze, I at first was thinking I would be taking my familiar Adobe tools and softimage|XSI with me. But in the search, I found the free software philosophy, and the notion of even falling back on using wine to continue to run the software (and software (licensing) paradigm) that had been abusing me withered away too.
Never regretted it.
Bye bye Stockholm syndrome.