QuestionRawTherapee or darktable for X-Trans files, honestly?

Bueno, I finally decided to stop paying for Lightroom, my laptop is old and I mostly edit on trips, so I am trying the free ones. The question is which one is better for the X-S20 files, because I read many times that the X-Trans sensor is a problem for some raw converters, with the worms in the foliage and so on.

I have tried both for one week, darktable feels very powerful but I am lost in the modules, RawTherapee is a bit more simple for me but slower on my laptop, I think. For travel photos and some night sky, which one would you choose and why? I don't want to learn both, my brain is not big enough for that

Both of them handle X-Trans properly. The worming you read about was mostly an issue with sharpening being applied too heavily on top of a demosaic that wasn't designed for the pattern. In RawTherapee pick Markesteijn 3-pass for X-Trans and keep capture sharpening modest. In darktable, the X-Trans demosaic options are in the demosaic module, and I'd leave it on the default unless you see artifacts at 100%.

Which one: darktable. Its scene-referred workflow handles high dynamic range scenes (sunsets, night skies with a bright foreground) better than anything else free, and the masking is far ahead. The learning curve is real but most people end up using about eight modules. Ignore the rest until you need them.

RawTherapee is a superb raw developer but its local adjustments are clunkier and it's slower on large files, as you've noticed. imo it's best as a second opinion on a difficult file, not a daily driver.

i use lightroom so ignore me but every time i open darktable i close it again within ten minutes lol. if RT already makes sense to you that counts for a lot

rawtherapist said:

most people end up using about eight modules

This is encouraging, which eight? Maybe I can just put them in the favourites and hide the rest

Exposure, filmic or sigmoid (pick one and stick with it), color calibration for white balance, color balance rgb, local contrast, denoise (profiled), lens correction, and crop. Add the masking tools as you need them. Put those in a custom module group and you'll stop feeling lost.

Or... hear me out... shoot JPEG and stop editing entirely! The X-S20 has all the film sims, you're on holiday!

Fuji JPEGs on holiday is the right answer, and keep the RAWs for the handful of night sky shots.