Panoramas the Automatic Way

[gjtoth]

If you have yet to try panoramas, they can be a real pain to stitch together. PS does a good job as does Fotox (a program for Linux). However, Autostitch makes it totally painless and so simple a caveman could do it. It doesn't matter what order you put them in or how many there are. Just load 'em up and click. Done. Whilst this is a native Windows product, it will run just fine in Linux.

Check it out.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

Yes... it really IS that good and easy.

[LensBaby]

Thanks Gary I will have to try that. Hey can you answer something for me about linux...There is a laptop at Best buy for 399.00 and my daughter wants it (hers broke) and I don't know what all she can do with Linux, and also can you find programs for it anywhere? Its more compact and its pink so I think that is why she wants it so bad

[gjtoth]

Thanks Gary I will have to try that. Hey can you answer something for me about linux...There is a laptop at Best buy for 399.00 and my daughter wants it (hers broke) and I don't know what all she can do with Linux, and also can you find programs for it anywhere? Its more compact and its pink so I think that is why she wants it so bad

You can make it look and work exactly like Windows. Most of the software for Linux is free. Linux is virus-free. While it WILL run Windows software, it's run through an emulator and therefore runs slower. The distribution (version) I run is called, "Ubuntu". You can check it out at (you guessed it):

http://www.ubuntu.com

I have been using Linux for around five years. Installing native Linux programs will take some getting used to BUT, there's plenty of support on the Ubuntu forums.

Hope this helps.

[LensBaby]

Thank you very much! I must say I am really beginning to hate Windows. I have been told that Macs are virus free as well, and that is why a large percentage of photographers use Mac..is this true? Your the computer pro!

[jerryph]

Well the 4900 viruses that I found and "removed" from my friend's Mac a month ago would tend to say that its not quite true. ;)

As an operating system becomes popular, there will be people that make viruses for it. Linux holds a very small percentage of the ovrall operating systems and so malicious people are not concentrating on them as much. There are unix viruses though, that do all kinds of nasty things to DNS, MAIL and file servers.

No one is really 100% safe anymore. Welcome to the internet.

[gjtoth]

Well the 4900 viruses that I found and "removed" from my friend's Mac a month ago would tend to say that its not quite true. ;)

As an operating system becomes popular, there will be people that make viruses for it. Linux holds a very small percentage of the ovrall operating systems and so malicious people are not concentrating on them as much. There are unix viruses though, that do all kinds of nasty things to DNS, MAIL and file servers.

No one is really 100% safe anymore. Welcome to the internet.

That being said, Sue, if you're not running a any of these servers (which I assume you're not), Linux is the safest OS out there. MUCH more secure than Windows could hope to be. Sure, you can make Windows secure by buying all sorts of anti-virus/trojan/malware software. Then, watch your system slow to a crawl. And, sure, you can buy Windows-compatible software... spend thousands, in fact. From what I've seen, Mac software is more expensive. But, you also have a choice. Bear in mind, please... Linux is not a REPLACEMENT for Windows,- it's an alternative.

Download the free Live CD from Ubuntu and try it. The entire OS will run right from the CD without installing it to your hard drive. It will run MUCH slower that way because it's running from the CD. However, it WILL give you an idea of the default environment. You'll see that, on the surface, it's not much different in appearance and performance than Windows. It's also VERY flexible and customizable. As I said, you can make it look like any OS you like. Everything you need is on that CD. Browser, office suite, email client... everything. Or, you can listen to the Microsoft crowd and keep getting sucked in and sucked dry. Next step... Vista in all it's glory. :D