Is it possible? My colleague is achieving wondrous results working with the Gimp, so much so that he receives queries from around the World. He has a fairly large community on Fotothing asking about it and as a result is promoting suseLINUX. The drawback is that they would need to convert their files. Is there anything available that would do this? Similarly, hardware that one buys comes with a CDROM for Windows; can that be read, or must one install the Windows applications available with openSUSE? 
Hardware-drivers which are added via CDs and the like are not usable in Linux, but are mostly not needed. The machine and its components has to be supported by the Linux-Kernel (and in most cases will be supported unless it’s extremely new).
What files are you talking about? I never heard about the need to convert them for Linux.
A little pointer: Gimp is developed for Windows, Mac and others as well…
If you are talking about converting the files made by Gimp there is nothing that I know of to convert the .xcf file to something else but Gimp. Now if the other people want the layers still intack, is all your buddy has to do is save his files as .psd, thats if they are using Adobe Photoshop and Gimp will do this. Gimp will save files to a lot of different formats, plus it will open them to, there may be some slight changes because of the different programs. I know that somethings will not show up from Adobe Photoshop to Gimp just because those things are made just for Photoshop and Gimp can’t read them but there are verry few of those.
Linux will read Windows CD’s at least most that I have tried, it will not install the programs for the most part, unless you have wine installed, and then it wont work with all Windows programs.WineHQ - Run Windows applications on Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X
Like gropiuskalle said Gimp is made for just about all OS’s. GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program
If you question is, is it possible to use Linux (openSUSE, or any other), the answer is yes. It may not be for everybody, but many of us find that it easily worth suffering the learning curve in order to get the benefits.
My colleague is achieving wondrous results working with the Gimp
The Gimp is an impressive piece of work, to be sure, but the user interface is not the simplest in the world. But then, if you were being completely fair, you would have to add ‘neither is photoshop’.
If you are going to use any complex photo processing app, you are going to have to devote time to learning it; some are more ‘dumbed down’ than others, depending on how they see the ‘ease of use’/‘power’ compromise. The Gimp does not make many concessions to ease of use, so, again, it won’t be suitable for everybody, but some people will love it.
Of course
- it isn’t a Photoshop clone, so don’t think that all of your Photoshop experience will be directly transferrable, all some will be (Gimpshop works more like photoshop, if that’s your thing)
- It is not the only photo processing software available under Linux; I rather like krita, but haven’t tried a recent version
…that they would need to convert their files…
I am guessing that these people may be photo enthusiasts and that they may, therefore be using ‘raw’ files and not, eg, jpegs. While jpeg is a standard and can be coped with by any photo processing software worth its name, ‘raw’ isn’t a standard at all, and different people’s raw (and even different models of SLR) will be different from one another. Unfortunately the camera manufacturers generally don’t do much (translation: nothing) to support Linux, but that doesn’t mean that a search of the 'net won’t find you a utility to do the job.
That said, you may find life easier if you are looking for such a utility for Canon or Nikon, rather than some less-well-used manufacturer, and there may be a cost, depending.
Thanks to all. I realise that Windows CDROM’s are not applicable for installation and that, in most cases, Linux can can handle the product. It would just be interesting to view the Users Manuals that come with peripherals
I would not know whether the Gimp is more sophisticated than PhotoShop. Perhaps those that my colleague is in contact with are less educated in the medium than is he with the Gimp. He can let them know that they can install it under Windows. I guess that most buy their PC with a standard installation and without any knowledge of options. He has spent many months of trial and error to achieve what he is now creating - a long and arduous journey.