How can I run Adobe CS5 in Ubuntu?

Question

I have recently messed in Ubuntu and enjoyed the experience I had with the software.

I would like to use Ubuntu instead of Windows (yet keep Windows on the computer for use) but what prevents me from switching over at this point is the fact that I use Adobe CS5.

Can I use the Adobe Suite in Ubuntu? It is for Windows and I use this software on a daily basis. How could I get it to run in Ubuntu?

If I cannot use this it Ubuntu then it pretty much becomes pointless for me to try to continue using Ubuntu; every other software I use has a Linux counterpart that I can get to install in its place, but I need Adobe CS5.

Solution 1

Short Answer: No you cannot run Adobe CS5 on a Linux machine.

Longer Answer: You could, however, attempt to virtualize a Windows instance on the Ubuntu machine using such things as VMWare Player, VirtualBox, KVM and others. I have attempted to run Photoshop elements in a virtual machine and the experience was... unfavorable. CS5 would likely be even worse, unless you have a juggernaut of a PC powered by a blackhole and can dedicate many gigabytes and many cores to the VM.

You will likely want to consider dual booting with just enough space on the Windows partition to do what you want. That would be cumbersome, I'm sure. You'll likely need some shared storage, like an external NFTS drive, to put your files on so that you can see them in Windows, and then also see them in Linux. Note: Windows does not see Linux filesystems without the aid of third party software.

Another option is to do what I've done, and that is use Linux as your main OS (Fedora 14 for me) and then have a Windows machine on the side that you use for other things such as Photoshop. Actually, I have a spare laptop hard drive that I installed Vista on. On weekends I swap drives out to do some gaming ala Steam. To my right is a Vista workstation that I use for Photoshop and as a test PC. Certainly not what most people are willing to put up with, but I'm a SysAdmin. You get numbed to crazy things after a while.

Any way you go, you won't have the most seamless experience unless / until Adobe makes a native Linux version of their products. We can dream, can't we? Or you could just get a Mac and have the joy of Adobe products along with a gloat-worthy notation of running a UNIX03 certified OS (depending on the exact OS X version, of course).

Edit: If learning Linux is your goal, perhaps you can do things the other way around. Run Windows, but keep Linux in a VM and migrate things into it. First, it makes backups a little easier since you can simply robocopy the virtual machine folder to a backup drive. Second, you have the safety of Windows if things get too scary in Linux (although, that could also be a downside since when things got scary for me I had to fix it or I had no PC to work with. I learned a lot). Finally, you've got Windows to run CS5 on.

Most Virtual Machine programs allow you to run the VM in full screen mode so you'd never know you weren't on a physical machine.

Solution 2

I don't know how to make this work for the entire Creative Suite, but for Photoshop CS5, you can use Wine. Once you have it installed, see here on how to proceed.

Solution 3

You're pretty much stuck with Windows or OS X as far as that goes. See the Adobe CS5 System Requirements. Your options are:

• Dual-boot your machine (Windows / Ubuntu) and switch to Windows when you need to run the Adobe suite
• Set up Ubuntu and run a Windows VM for Adobe (in VirtualBox or something)
• Use two machines

Comments

[L84]

Thanks for the information. Yeah currently my computer has a hard enough time running CS5 I could not imagine running it through a VM. Maybe one day i will have that PC powered by a blackhole (and I will post about my experience with the VM then => ) In the mean time I will stick to Windows and dream about a juggernaut PC. =>

[L84]

I must be able to run Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Bridge, and occasionally Acrobat or some of the other suite programs. I will read what you posted but for now I will stick with Windows. Thanks =>

[Lorenzo Von Matterhorn]

i believe your answer does not answer to the QA's problem.