It's just about a year since I last did a journal!  How sad.

A lot has happened, including new and broken cameras, sickness and happiness, too much travel, and the demise of my favorite piece of software.  So, updating my workflow, here's my new approach:

Software

a) Darktable - the Linux and free equivalent of Lightroom.  See here for more details [link]
b) Neatimage when needed for noisy photo's ... it's really, really, really effective!!! Commercial, runs well under Linux as well as other platforms - [link]
c) Fotoxx (Linux opensource) for HDR
d) Gimp (desperately waiting for version 2.8)

Hardware

a) One of the best things I've ever done is buy and calibrate my screen with a eye1 colorimeter ([link]) to create a custom color profile.  Under Linux you can apply the calibration curve system-wide using GNOME Color Manager.  (For manual calibration, this site is quite useful: [link])
b) I have a 12" Wacom tablet - [link] which is very useful when needed.
c) My PC runs Linux Mint 12, with a 2TByte RAID, 4 core Intel i7, Lenovo wide gamut L220x photo screen
d) Nikon D5100 and D5000
e) Nikon lens: 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 35mm
f) Other lens: 105mm macro (Tamaron) and 17-70mm f2.8 (Sigma)

I find I use the Sigma 17-70 f2.8 and the kit lens 55-200mm mostly