[Techtalk] Mac or Linux for photo printing?

[chris]

Carla, 
I experimented with GIMP (to replace photoshop), Inkscape (replace
Illustrator), and scribus (replace inDesign), but it was too big of a
leap in functionality and usability for me.

On a mac, a non-adobe alternative would be to use iPhoto (a free
pre-installed application) and their print services (not free, but
cheap) http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/features/calendars.html
Provided you like the layout templates they provide.

As to your question about why designers use macs -- I think it's mostly
because of the system-level color management and image and text
rendering. And one does have to justify spending jagillions of dollars
on software by spending more on the computer as well.

You might find some interesting info re: macs and graphics at
http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/GS_GraphicsImaging/index.html

Anyway, if I were doing this project and did not like the layout
templates provided by iPhoto, then I'd use Illustrator for text and
drawn graphics, Photoshop for images, and InDesign for the layout. If
you don't want to shell out the $1200 for the software, you might be
able to rent a design station at Kinko's or similar business center.

On the positive side, you could get a new x86 mac book pro and
experiment with running linux under parallels. However personally, I'm
waiting for VMware to come out with their mac version and I haven't come
up with any reason other than curiosity for running linux on a mac. All
the linux applications I use are easily installed to a mac.

.02
chris