Linux?

I've just installed this OS on a spare PC and was wondering,

Does anybody use it?

What editing programmes are available?

Any suggestions on usage?

I prefer Linux, got a dual boot on my PC. I only use windows for Paintshop and a couple of other windows only Aps.

Gimp is a Linux based photo editing app, but I couldn't get to grips with it.

I use Linux (Debian distro; Ubuntu is based on Debian) on my primary home PC. I also use MS Windows (XP on laptop, Vista at work) so I can compare. I really like Linux, however there some Windows applications you'd like to have and they won't work - ie I tried Silkypix demo version - without success, it was terribly slow. But then hey, it's free, it's really easy in use nowadays.

But then you have LOTS of free software, available to install. I'm not good in postprocessing / photo editing, so I do not use such programs extensively, but I mostly use:
* GIMP - for advanced editing
* gThumb (in Gnome environment) - for quick viewing, rotating, etc
* RawTherapee v 2.4 - for RAW editing
* Picasa (Google app) - there is Linux version - for photo management / Picasa albums upload

You can also use many other, of which I'd mention:
-RAW editing:
* UFRaw
* RawStudio
-Photo management:
* digiKam (KDE) - quite powerful - create albums, editing, tagging, etc
* KPhotoAlbum (KDE) - advanced image tagging

What flavour of linux are you using?

I use Ubuntu Linux on my Desktop, Laptop and EeePC and find it to be very capable indeed.

I use:

GIMP for photo editing:- If you you're used to Photoshop then the interface will seem a little odd at first, there is a version called GIMPshop which is supposed to have a more Photoshop-like feel, but I've never used it and I don't know how up to date it is. GIMP 2.6 is MUCH better than earlier versions.

RAWTherapee for RAW conversions :- This isn't "free software" in the freedom of speech sense, but it is free as in free beer which is good enough for me. UFRAW is also quite good and is free in both senses. It is less polished though and I find its output isn't quite as good (that's nitpicking, both are very good!). UFRAW has one major advantage and that is when doing Astro photography work. It can take a dark frame PEF and subtract it during the processing step which saves a lot of time in the field because you can turn the in camera dark frame subtraction off.

ArgyllCMS with my Huey for monitor profiling :- it's basic and command line driven, but it seems to work

NeatImage through WINE for noise reduction :- WINE allows you to run Windows software on Linux. It can be picky and works better with simple apps but it works flawlessly with Neat Image. There is also NoiseNinja which is available as a Linux native program, but Neat Image's free mode is not particularly crippled so I use that.

Thats about it really

It is Ubuntu I'm using. It was free and downloaded quickly.

Thanks for the advice so far, I'll give Gimp a go, and a few of the other suggestions as well.

one other benefit of UFRAW is it can be used as a plugin for GIMP, allowing you to open PEF and other raw files directly in GIMP.

If you want a shot at basic colour management but don't have a hardware calibrator, then xcalib will let you load icc profiles into your x session. Download the binary into something like /usr/local/bin, install Adobe or other icc profiles, then place a line in your ~/.bashrc along the lines of

xcalib "/usr/share/color/icc/Adobe ICC Profiles/RGB Profiles/sRGB Color Space Profile.icm" 2> /dev/null

Geeky, I suppose, but it works and it's fire and forget once installed.

I'll second the usefulness of digikam for basic stuff. If you just want basic topping and tailing for, say, the web you can get through a lot of stuff fairly quickly on digikam.