AfterShot performane comparision on Linux and Windows host

[wlodek3055]

Friends,
Did anyone tested speed/overall performance of the AfterShot installed on Windows (precisely on 7 professional 64bit) vs installed on Ubuntu 64bit? Does the host system influence on AfterShot speed at any noticeable level?
I am asking because I am going to make dedicated to photo editing PC machine (powerful one - certainly i7 / 16Gb RAM good Radeon video card etc). As I am quite fluent with both mentioned systems I don't care which one I will install - speed of functioning is the clue so I want to know on which system can I expect better performance.
Best Regards,
WW

[klaxian]

The final rendering process which is what takes the bulk of the time and processing power seems to be pretty consistent across platforms. It's perhaps slightly better on Linux but I don't have any evidence besides personal experience on that. There is a difference in the speed and responsiveness of the user interface prior to exporting JPGs though. On my Macbook Pro retina, the UI is more responsive than my Linux desktop even though the desktop is much more powerful. I am using every tweak to improve the Linux experience too. It is definitely usable on both systems, but it feels a little smoother on the Mac. I'm not sure about Windows.

If you are looking for raw throughput when outputting JPGs, I'd generally suggest Linux. For better responsiveness in the working UI, select something else. These are pretty minor differences though.

Also, keep in mind that ASP is a 32-bit app. Even the 64-bit Ubuntu package contains a 32-bit app and just depends on the 32-bit libraries instead. That means that ASP can't make use of more than 3-4GB RAM and may be losing out on some performance gains when processing (or not), among other things.

A better video card won't do much for ASP because it doesn't tap into GPU power. You'd be fine with integrated Intel HD 3000 or 4000 graphics or less. That is unless you're going to be gaming or video encoding on Windows where you would have another use for the GPU. A better CPU with more cores will provide the biggest improvement for ASP.

You might want to look into Dark Table. It's a native Linux app (being ported to Mac too). The technology and potential seems very promising. It supposedly makes use of 64-bit improvements, OpenCL for your video card, and multi-threading. There are lots of modules and the developers are active and responsive. I just began exploring it myself and initially I find the UI not as polished as ASP but it's worth trying.

[wlodek3055]

Thanks for reply.
I know very well that ASPro is 32 app. The evidence has been given in Ubuntu 12.04 64bit where developers remover lib32 library used by "64bit" version of AS. Thus the installation of 64bit deb on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit is not possible any more (without extreme tweaking at least). On the other hand installation of 32bit deb on the Ubuntu 12.04 64bit goes flawlessly. This is really wired that you have to install 32bit version of the application nor 64bit version in 64bit system:) although this version exist(!).

Any other users opinions?

[afx]

Thus the installation of 64bit deb on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit is not possible any more (without extreme tweaking at least).

Nonsense.
Installing a few 32bit compat libs via synaptic is definitely trivial, not extreme tweaking.
All my Linux boxes run 12.04 in 64bit...

On the other hand installation of 32bit deb on the Ubuntu 12.04 64bit goes flawlessly. This is really wired that you have to install 32bit version of the application nor 64bit version in 64bit system:)

Well, only for those that know how to install via the commandline and use the appropriate architecture override flag which seems to be too daunting for most users.
And you still need to have the 32bit compat libs installed.

In general, imaging on Linux is still limited in terms of available software. So I would not set up a dedicated imaging machine with Linux. But it all depends on your planned software.

I/O wise Linux is usually faster and it seems to handle multiple CPUs better than Windows.

cheers
afx

[wlodek3055]

@ Afx:
"Installing a few 32bit compat libs via synaptic is definitely trivial"
Could you be so kind and give me brief tutorial then? I used extensive Google search many times but still don't know how to do this properly.
Regards,
WW

[afx]

Install ia32-libs, ia32-libs-multiarch:i386.
Your system might only show one of them.

I do have plenty of :386 packages installed, but I keep forgetting whether I installed some of them explicitly or they where all pulled in through the above metapackge.

If you need specific packages, have a look at the architecture selection in synaptic and filter on 386 packages, then you can explicitly install the 386 versions.

cheers
afx

[wlodek3055]

@Afx
Thanks for replying. Could you please help me in another problem as you are fluent in Linux systems, I see. The issue is: as you know Ubuntu is not displaying raw (nef in my case) thumbs just right after system installation. I manage to make it displays thumbs with raw-thumbnailer however the thumbs are rotated not accordingly to EXIF. I mean the horizontal ones are OK but vertical shots are 90deg rotated, which is annoying. Is there any way to solve it?
Best Regards,
WW

[afx]

Sorry, no idea. I am a commandline guy and when I want to see the images I fire up AS or an image browser...

cheers
afx

[klaxian]

I'm confused. Are you saying ASP isn't displaying RAW thumbnails? That's pretty strange. Is your camera supported? Make sure "Create previews during Importing and File System Browsing" is checked in settings.

[wlodek3055]

No, no, of course not ASP:) The Ubuntu itself. Question is just slightly out of toppic, but I wanted to use opportunity to know something more:) In the fresh Ubuntu (12.04) system install RAW thumbs are not displayed. The way I found in Google is to install raw-thumbnailer. Works but the vertical thumbs are not properly rotated to landscape. What is more interesting jpeg's are properly displayed - horizontal shot is display as horizontal and vertical as vertical. I am pretty certain you have came across this issue as you are Linux user.
PS I use Nik D700 so it is rather supported:)

[klaxian]

Ah, I understand. I don't care for RAW thumbnails to be displayed in the file browser (nautilus in your case) so I haven't installed anything to deal with that. Sorry, I'm not sure of the limitations of raw-thumbnailer. JPGs are supported natively in nautilus and they are oriented by reading the EXIF.