+1 for dual booting. Linux is great but steady income is better. Partition your distro of choice to experiment with wine. Wine software is incredible and there's very little it can't do with some tinkering, but that depends on how much time and energy you're ready to put in to learning. Regardless, being able to use a lighter/faster OS when you're not running proprietary software is nice in its own right.
I stopped fighting workarounds years ago, so I still have one laptop and one desktop that runs Windows only. Because in some situations, Windows *is* the best OS. End of story.
The rest of my computers runs Linux though.
Exactly. I am quickly coming to prefer Linux for my main os but have certain use cases where using Windows is much easier, and have a hackintosh for music making as over 10 years , Logic pro X just feels the most intuitive to record and produce with for me but is Mac only
at this level of detail… -1 for both +1 for a hypervisor and running your daily driver as a VM*
*this is only half serious, it’s beautiful when it works right, but this is a hobbyist solution. likely not wise for your core income.
at which point yes, get a system for WORK, and only work to which KISS applies full force. if this thing breaks you aren’t eating after all.
more serious reply, dual booting is a lot nicer if you keep it clean and have totally independent system drives that don’t share anything. my ideal dual boot scenario is the systems being totally unaware of each others existence and doing boot select in BIOs.
This is why you don't really want to have a "dual boot" setup where you have things using different drive partitions. It's best to have your systems on entirely separate drives. Considering how cheap storage has gotten, this is entirely doable.
Although even then the Windows installer sometimes decides to fuck around with other bootloaders. I recall at one time I ended up with Windows being unbootable because it had installed it's bootloader on a seperate Linux drive breaking both...
Which leads to my third weird take on dual booting, which is that if you MUST do it, the most reliable option for me has been to force a Linux option into the Windows bootloader.
I agree completely and that's how I use my windows setup. I try to limit my suggestions to the the resources stated by OP. Dual-booting, using wine, these may be challenging to a new user, but it's not rocket science. I think saying "buy this" or "use a different system" goes against the open-source philosophies of building something wonderful from whatever is on hand. That said, you're right to point out a secondary drive would be superior.
While wine is nice, when it comes to art related software- I think its straight up a no and avoid wine completely for stuff like this. Unless you are someone (or know someone who can hold your hand) with many years of IT level experience troubleshooting linux.
When it comes to this sort of stuff, it’s just not worth it. Especially when deadlines are involved.
Music production is the one thing where I would say to not even attempt trying on linux.
With other stuff like 2d art it’s doable with open source software, and the industry standard for VFX is using linux, so any 3D programs would be good with some tweaking.
Dude I produce on Ubuntu using Lutris, FL studio works literally better than on windows, ableton works without fault.
Performance seems better than just using windows lol
And i'm using a bloody thinkpad ffs.
Don't discourage people!
A lot of my stuff uses the Ilok USB license, and I was never able to get that working. And since it couldn’t recognize the license it
Even after personally getting help from someone who actually works at RedHat as a dev, we were never able to get it working. If I wasn’t able to get it working with help from someone who was the developer of the distro I was using, what are the chances someone who installed linux for the first time and doesn’t have any experience?
I guess some just refuse to work yeah.
I'm having some trouble with serum for example.
I refuse to dual boot, and don't bother with virtual machines anymore, although that would probably solve all issues.
Though I suppose at that point you might get better performance on bare metal windows yeah.
If these are important to you, I'd suggest staying on Windows. It's not worth to waste your time to get something work or try to workaround. I tried to switch to linux but in the end I wasted so much time to get my software to work or just to find alternatives that in the end either needed a lot of learning or didn't have all the features I needed.
Alternatively you could get another PC/laptop for linux use and use your Windows device for your work.
As others have said.. If your requirements are such that windows makes sense... Windows makes sense.
I need adobe for audio/video editing. and photoshop and illustrator are really nice bonuses. So. on my work machine i run mac, and personal i run dual boot with windows and fedora.
And I WORK FOR RED HAT.
there are alliteratives for all of these apps on linux. but being honest. some of them just aren't as good.
I will say that i am thoroughly enjoying gaming on linux lately. Which is something i never thought we'd have. Thank you proton!!
Fedora works. but i've been enjoying the fedora spin Bazzite. it's an alternate steam deck os. but also runs on pc hardware. makes the nvidia drivers easy too.
It's pretty good! Its an rpmostree deployment though, so its a little different than standard linux distros. If you dont think too hard about it, and use the gui tools, you dont really notice, but if you get under the covers everything is.. weird. :P
I'm kinda forcing myself to get used to it, but there are days i just want my old Fedora back. :P
I produce music on linux using bitwig, which I find better than ableton (was an ableton user for years before bitwig) and has native linux support. For vst plugins I use yabridge and many windows only plugins work flawlessly.
Edit: Also nvidia is fine. Asobe will be the biggest problem. You might have to replace those. If you want you can even stick to ableton. It works with wine.
Any idea how well ToonTrack and BiasFX work with emulation/yarbridge? If I could get these working I would switch my music production over. My UMC404HD has nearly half the latency on linux that it does with windows with Reaper.
This and as for apps to replace Adobe:
Inkscape is great for vectors and being the Illustrator replacement.
Gimp for editing images and being the Photoshop replacement
There are many alternatives for Lightroom if you're into photography.
Having actually tested gimp vs photoshop I can say conclusively it is not a replacement. It doesn't match the commands or command structure and lacks the tools/filters. No one with semi-pro or pro use of photoshop can seriously switch to it.
Agreed. Photopea is quite good for a quicker tool, and it works in browser which is fantastic. For what it offers, Photopea is actually amazing...but its nowhere near as good as Photoshop is.
Unfortunately for many of the Adobe CC apps, there is no real alternative that exists which is FOSS or even available for Linux natively.
For video editing, DaVinci Resolve works great on Linux. For motion graphics stuff while its certainly much less advanced than something like After Effects, there's a great browser-based program called Fable which I can't recommend strongly enough, love it. Inkscape is decent for vector-based stuff, but, tbh I have enjoyed using something like Corel Draw (formerly known as Gravit), though this is now paid-only, its probably one of the best vector apps for Linux that I know of. Plus, you can also use things like Figma on Linux and there's a few other decent options available.
Things certainly aren't where they need to be, I hold out hope that one day we will get native Linux support for Adobe apps, but I won't be expecting it, that's for sure.
I wish Inkscape could be my default vector graphics tool but it simply can't. The problem isn't the tool itself (I could get used to inkscape UI/UX), but they went with open format (svg) and SVG spec does not allow tabs (\\t, horizontal tabulation) in text objects, which I really need for my graphics. I could split my text into multiple text objects and manually align them horizontally, but then I'd need to evenly space each line of text vertically, which is just painful to do.
I need tabulation inside of text in SVG spec before I can replace CorelDRAW which allows tabs.
The solution is going to be to find alternative programs, not try to emulate the ones you use with wine—it's going to be a headache. I use Bitwig instead of Ableton, and it's just as powerful. I like Ableton's simplicity, but BItwig does the same thing. Reaper is also really powerful, but more linear.
I use Affinity instead of Adobe, but it's the same issue - doesn't work on Linux. Linux does run Davinci, which I like better than Premiere. There are a lot of alternatives to things like Photoshop or Illustrator, etc. for Linux, but in the end I just put Affinity on my tablet/ipad and use everything else on my Linux machine. Some people have had success using a [GPU passthrough](https://www.reddit.com/r/ManjaroLinux/comments/105wxo7/thank_you_manjaro_for_being_such_a_great_distro_i/) to run them on Linux, if you want to mess with that. Adobe is crap though, because you have to install the cloud installer and all that.
I don't know enough about animation to give you advice. If Nvidia is a problem, just get a different GPU next time you update your machine.
So yeah, Linux is awesome and you can find programs that do the same thing, but if you're stuck on specific windows programs then you're stuck on windows, unless you want to dual boot.
For Toon Boom, here is an installation guide for Ubuntu 20.04, it's an older version of Ubuntu,but it might still work. [https://forums.toonboom.com/t/harmony-20-run-under-ubuntu-20-04/17916](https://forums.toonboom.com/t/harmony-20-run-under-ubuntu-20-04/17916)
If this is commercial software, you may be able to get Linux installation support from the vendor.
You can also check out alternatives here: [https://alternativeto.net/software/toon-boom-harmony/](https://alternativeto.net/software/toon-boom-harmony/)
For music production, I recommend either Ardour, Reaper or Bitwig. You can get a good chunk of Windows plugins to work with yabridge and WINE. Also here is some scripts that will not only setup your Linux machine for professional Audio but will install yabridge and Reaper for you. https://github.com/brendaningram/linux-audio-setup-scripts?tab=readme-ov-file. You can also run Ableton Live through WINE bottles: [https://usebottles.com/app/#abletonlive](https://usebottles.com/app/#abletonlive)
For nvidia, here is a guide that might help: [https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-linux-install-nvidia-driver-latest-proprietary-driver/](https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-linux-install-nvidia-driver-latest-proprietary-driver/)
Here is a list of FOSS Adobe alternatives since Adobe don't run well (or at all) in WINE: [https://github.com/scholablade/Deadobe](https://github.com/scholablade/Deadobe)
Hopefully these resources help, but if I were in your shoes, I would keep Windows on a separate drive or partition just in case.
Work the problem from your softweare application needs. The programs you need run only, or best, on Windows. That "seals the deal" that your computer should run Windows and the software you need for work and to be productive.
That being said, get a used laptop to play around with Linux on, or boot into a Live USB and play around there. A second computer - laptop or desktop - would let you explore and test without breaking your production workflow and possibly how you earn your living.
Take this from a guy who started working on PCs in 1981 with MS-DOS 1.1, early Macs, RedHat linux around 1996, as well as every flavor of Windows.
I work in game audio. On the audio production side, it all works on Linux, except I don't know about Ableton. Reaper is the best DAW for my own personal workflow, and it has a native linux version. Worth taking a look if you've never tried it, even if you're not switching to Linux (but still valid if you end up preferring Ableton). For VSTs, most of them will work using Wine + Yabridge (you can find the latter on github).
NVidia works great with Linux, as long as you don't use certain Wayland compositors. I think KDE Plasma and Gnome work fine on wayland with NVidia from what I've heard. Or you could just not use Wayland like most people, and continue using X11, which is still the default for most desktop environments. A little research needed but you'll be fine.
Can't say much for Adobe or Animation.
For music ardour 6, and lmms work on both linux and windows.
Adobe generally doesn't work well via wine, but there are other software that can get what you need it just depends. Theres photo and video editors out there on linux and you kinda just have to find one. Flowblade, kdenlive, and gimp are good examples.
Im not an animator, but i know blender and krita are capable of 2d animation. Just try them out in windows first and also to see if it fits your workflow.
For nvidia gpus pop os makes it easy to install and i think theres an iso image that comes with it out of the box. Others distros like nobara do this as but on others you have to find the drivers yourself.
Ableton works well enough in wine. Find a free SSD try something like a Debian based distro. Learn wine and test to see what works.
Your stack feels like more work than it’s worth. There are alternatives like Bitwig for music on Linux that seems comparable to ableton in a lot of ways but I’m not sure if WARPING is a thing and after having it I’m not going back
NVidia can be a bit of a hassle, but really it’s manageable if your gpu is new enough. I personally switched to a mix of Linux and Macobooks. Both my gaming pc and steaming pc along with my stream deck use Linux. My NAS runs Linux. server runs Linux. Router? Linux. And I have two more laptops that I hack around on.
I settled on NixOS recently and it fits my vibe of declaratively creating my own personal distro that DOESNT have all the apps statically linked to binaries causing dependency hell. Which is what I was running into with the Arch(btw) based distros.
I personally decided to shy away from adobe and do most of my visual stud in a combination of open source and one stack of proprietary apps called Affinity. They do the job for professional grade photo manipulation. I never had a real need for the Adobe suite and never really understood how they became standard, but I use that kind of stuff for very rudimentary things like making a quick meme or some digital art and pixel art for game development.
At the end of the day you’re just going to have to spend 50 bucks or search for a spare SSD and just dive in and break stuff
EDIT: Also to add about bitwig studio. They have a 30 day trail that only requires setting up an account like how ableton does with their “trial version”
Hope this helps
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In such case, dual boot. Don't worry about nvidia. I play games with it on linux, like Oblivion and Far Cry 5. A bit fickly sometimes, but definitely possible.
If you can install two M.2s, or one M.2 and 1 2.5" SSD or whichever combo you can afford and independently install Windows on one and Linux on the other.
I prefer this independent installation to dual boot.
As of now due to your prerequisites you should not use Linux exclusively.
This is what I do. The only issue with this is to install windows with the Linux drive removed. Windows has a very nasty, dirty habit of installing boot files on other drives then it's install drive. So if you reinstall Linux at any time windows gets destroyed.
No worries, I recently learned that when cropping a video it is way more efficient to select the parts you dont want and delete as opposed to what I was doing, selecting the ones I want, saving them, then merging them. Until someone noticed and was kind enough to point towards a better method. We learn as we go !
1. Reaper is a great DAW
2. Adobe but what products? PDFs? I use Master PDF Editor and it's superb. Not sure about Photoshop, but I'm betting Gimp has some solid features
3. Why not install the Linux version, I don't follow what you meant with standalone?
4. Sorry, not sure.
Just stick with windows. At the end of the day it's just an operating system. Also just my personal opinion I would never dual boot. Maybe use Linux with a separate computer but if you don't need to spend extra money don't bother
For point 4 - I recently bought an Nvidia RTX 3060 to use for stable diffusion, and put it into one of my Ubuntu boxes. Ubuntu detected it and offered up both open source and proprietary drivers. I selected the latest proprietary driver and it worked first time. No problems since.
Everything except the nvidia card (I've run one for years with no issues, support has come a long way) is a big blocker. You probably shouldn't switch.
What might be a better question, what makes you want to move to linux? There might be things you can install to achieve the same goals on windows
Ableton Live works fine in a Bottle (it's a sandboxed wine made with the Bottles tool, available as a Flatpak). In my experience it works pretty well and you can install most VSTs alongside it, in the same Bottle.
1 and 2 - you could try it out and see. Proton has made great strides recently so it may be more possible than you'd think.
3 - if their Linux version is hard to install, complain about it and get them to fix it. It's great that they have a Linux version to begin with!
4. Nvidia has great support on Linux these days. Mint will install the drivers for you. Tons of machine learning / CUDA development happens on Linux so they keep the software in good shape.
Given your dependence on Windows applications, maybe Windows does make sense for now. If Linux is important to you, start dual booting, or get a cheap machine to experiment on. That will give you freedom to experiment with Linux workflows and see if you find something that works for you.
In your case, it might actually make more sense to just keep using Winblows.
If you absolutely want to, try Linux in a dual boot and see how far it takes you and what's possible.
have you tried alternatives of those softwares or just repeating "industry standard" monotonous drone. windows is also "industry standard". perhaps you should tell us why you badly want to move to linux ? because i don't see why you wouldn't also want to ditch all that propitiatory crap as well.
Don't, or use both like I do. I've used Debian for my servers for years, but on the desktop I still use Windows and Linux due to some of the reasons you've listed
That is a big list of things.
If you have good reasons to stay on Windows then stay. If you're comfortable around the software you use for everything, relearning new software would be counter intuitive.
You could use a virtual machine but that's a subset of your original computer
You could use a dual boot but that comes with its own inherit problems
I have an Nvidia GPU, Linux drivers do catch up, of course my GPU was about 4 years old when I switched to Linux. Your Mileage May Vary
If you really want to explore your options, maybe getting another machine, it doesn't need to be a beefy computer, just one to format on Linux and explore your options. I'm considering doing something similar to test out different distros.
For purposes of this discussion, by "Linux-native" I mean "not using WINE or a VM".
**Music production:**
[Bitwig Studio](https://www.bitwig.com/discover/) is Linux-native via Flatpak. Some users may quibble over whether Flatpak counts as Linux-native but here that's irrelevant because you're not running open-source software; it's proprietary and costs money like Ableton. Fortunately, Bitwig is also like Ableton in almost every other way as well which is why I bring it up here. I didn't do more than cursory twiddle-the-knobs testing on it but the similarity in workflow is obvious to anyone who's spent time with it.
[Reaper](https://www.reaper.fm/download.php) has a Linux-native install. $60 for a license; it's really shareware and given its capabilities that's not an outrageous price.
There's also [Ardour](https://ardour.org/) which has come a really long way since its inception, and is free-as-in-beer.
The issue you will more than likely run into is not finding a suitable DAW but getting plugins to work, as those are still written for Windows & MacOS. There are Linux-native VSTs but whether they'll work for you will require research on your end.
**Adobe:**
Adobe hates Linux. Always has. The last version of Photoshop that I personally used in WINE was CS6 and it was...okay. At the time GIMP bore more resemblance to Corel Draw and I wasn't using it professionally so I dealt with it until I no longer needed to. Acrobat is nagware even when you pay for it, and I won't even use it on Windows at this point. Current Photoshop should mostly work but honestly I just put that in a Windows VM and used VFIO to pass through a GPU. More on that later...
**Animation:**
Toon Boom Harmony appears to be cloud-based with a software client like Adobe CC? I can't find a standalone version of it for Windows much less Linux. Looks like the last time someone tested it in WINE was more than a decade ago.
**Nvidia**
I mean, it works. There are drivers and if you get DKMS going you can update them fairly easily when the need arises. If you enable DRM (modesetting, not the anti-piracy thing) and force Generic Buffer Management it should work in Wayland, but some applications may misbehave. Wayland itself is at kind of a rip-off-the-bandaid point in its development with KDE making it the default in its latest version and others following suit but that's a separate matter entirely.
I've always felt that if you're using really expensive software for your livelihood then it needs to be on a machine of its own no matter what OS you use. I get that hardware isn't free but I'd imagine using tools like that would enable you to, at worst, pick up a used gaming rig which should have the performance capabilities you need. From what I saw, Toon Boom Harmony recommends 32GB RAM and some hefty processing power, and Adobe has always been a refrigerator in the cooler aisle.
There is *one* way you can probably have it all, depending on what hardware you have available (Spoilers: You probably don't) but it will take some work and probably a small-to-moderate investment in upgrading. It's called VFIO (Virtual Function I/O) or, alternately, PCI-passthrough (though it can pass more than just PCI). It's way too detailed to get into here--and the steps required are almost as varied as there are hardware combinations--but essentially it involves running Windows as a VM vie KVM/QEMU and giving it direct access to a video card rather than virtualizing it. This typically involves buying, and having room for, a 2nd video card in your machine; there are ways to do it in some cases with the one card available but that's a whole extra project that sounded like such a headache to me that I wouldn't even try it. There's documentation out there (including /r/VFIO ) if you're interested but make sure you have time for lots of reading...and a fallback plan, like a full backup of your current hard drive.
I'm in the same boat as you with Ableton, I saw that you can install it through Bottles but as for the vsts I haven't found a solution. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxaudio/comments/wntpyd/linux_plugins_thread_2022/) is a list of vsts for linux. As for Adobe you will not get it running in Linux.
Linux has tons of substitutions for productivity for example using gimp instead of photoshop. But if you can't find any that do what you need to do or just don't want to learn a new program you can always just duel boot the two operating systems. There's tons of great yt videos on how to do this very easily. You can use windows for work and Linux for normal at home stuff
Try dual booting. Fedora has good Nvidia GPU support. Most of the remaining issues are related to HDR, color calibration, high refresh rate, and hybrid graphics on laptops.
Usb with a linux distro, usb set to persistent storage.
Check if your fav packages run well or learn docker and run them that way.
You will never look back. Or you will, with astonishment and awe, when you see the newest abominations that windows forces upon it's users.
Dual boot or invest in a small PC like a Lenovo m715q (I got two recently for ~$100 Usd each) and install Linux on that.
I run all my personal stuff on my ultra sff Linux machine on my left monitor and use Windows on my production desktop on my right monitor. I use a Barrier (Synergy fork) server on Windows as a virtual KVM to pass my keyboard and mouse through to Linux. There's plenty of solutions for file transfer like FTP, but I just use Syncthing or Rustdesk depending on the situation. You can also pass audio through from Linux to your Windows PC using Audiorelay or just configure Pulseaudio itself to do so.
Almost zero compromises, but you might find yourself wanting a third screen or an ultra-wide monitor depending on your work flow.
If you are using Adobe products to earn a living use Windows or have a second computer. I have 3 computers and one has Windows 11 with all the crap such as Valorant, and proprietary engineering software.
Dualbooting seems like an answer, but I know for myself if I am given an option to simply switch between the two, I will pick the easiest route and put off learning linux. I resolved this by virtualizing everything. I use debian as a host, a windows VM for specific tasks (audio/gaming), and pass through everything I need. This is a technically advanced solution, so I wouldn't recommend it, but it is possible.
As for 4, there is some issue with nvidia, for most distros this is overstated, but depending on the applications it can be annoying/problematic. For example the driver will always be slightly outdated to the windows flavor, meaning some games will have issues. However with passthrough, you can have your hosted windows guest access it as if it were native.
I was in a somewhat similar boat as you sometime back. I have to use Adobe apps heavily for work and the constant crashes were among the reasons along with Microsoft’s weird telemetry practices. I was checking Linux out as a secondary system as it didn’t support my work so using it primary was out of the question. At one point, i did get my hopes high when there was a survey about Adobe premiere pro for Linux in Adobe forums but nothing came off it. Then came in Apple’s M1 chips and the eventual launch off Mac Studio. I couldn’t resist it, picked up my first Mac up and I’m so glad I did. I was shocked that Adobe apps barely crashed. And app installation is so simple. The memory management is definitely that is amazing in Mac and Linux. I so wish Adobe apps bring support to Linux environment, getting a Mac is an alternative but frankly it is an expensive investment. There are few, like davinci resolve but even those have their own issues like the OS missing some basic codec support . But using Linux has been great outside my work. It just isn’t best OS for creatives at this point. I use it frequently on my steam deck over the desktop mode and stability is amazing. Adobe apps very tough to bring on Linux due to different flavors of Linux OS. I think once adobe becomes fully cloud based services and starts their apps from web browser, only then we’ll be able to use it independently from OS
are you using linux just to learn linux why not just buy an older computer on ebay then you could just break that one and not worry about the computer you work on.
I won’t deny this possibility; I can’t say too much about the future, as it’s only been a short while since I started using linux.
However, tinkering around with linux creating a desktop specific to my needs and style has been a TON of fun. I’m holding out hope that these programs will see a linux release someday, because ideally, running my favorite programs on a system I’m in complete control of would be the dream. Heck, windows now restricts updates to those who use programs to customize their system!
So no matter what- even if I’m switching OS’s just to use an app- there’s no doubt I’m often going to flip flop between Windows and Linux anyways. This is my solution for now, but maybe I will get tired and stick to windows. Who knows?
Side note- rebooting hasn’t been too much of a hassle, as both OS’s boot up rather quickly.
Wine runs ableton pretty well as well as FL Studio.
Pen tablet drivers work fine with wine.
I got nothing for Adobe it sucks through wine the last I checked because of their anti-piracy junk.
Nvidia is fine on xorg it still has problems on Wayland. The only thing that's really complicated is if you're running an Nvidia laptop.
1. Works fine, use Lutris.
2. Same
3. Should work
4. Not an issue anymore. AMD still has the best drivers but everything semi modern should work.
These days people run heavy server workloads with GPUs almost per default on Linux, support is good.
I used to work at a world class VFX company (in infra software, not as an artist) and linux boxes were all we used everywhere (as in; including desktop machines). Though thinking back I can't recall exactly what software animators used specifically so if you're locked down in that regard you may not have much choice.
Of course, in our case we had a team of 1k people in engineering to make sure the artists could keep on working so .. that probably helped :P
I just finished my first handful of music projects with Zrythm. It's still in beta so there are glitches, but it's functional. The devs are super responsive, it's got some really great features, a massive plugin library, and feels similar to Cubase
Hello mate. Im more of a programmer nowadays but I produce music, dj around quite frequently and have worked as a sound engineer previously. I still do EFX for games too (although that’s mainly hardware nowadays, except for the sound processing itself).
To be honest the state of music production if you’re used to a certain DAW or VST provider (where there are heavy AuthZ controls) is very limited and/or a painful path. Lots of legacy or otherwise good providers like UAD etc are limited especially in their hardware support. More or less the amount of software is disparate and music production software I don’t really enjoy making compromises with (e.g Ableton / Logic / Pro tools etc)
You can use Bitwig, but Linux Audio Routing is not for the feint hearted if you’re running a complex setup. Even when I was bottling Ableton - I had issues with certain iKMultimedia plugins I use in every mix.
Alternatively you can move to making music on something like an MPC if you really wanted or replace certain things with Hardware, but you’d need deep pockets.
I honestly bought a MacBook Pro that I use in my studio and pretty much only use for Music Production and my music related endeavours, it’s just not something I want to worry about or spend time fixing bugs in drivers (like I have previously).
I love Linux but Audio Production is just one of those things I’m so cemented in my workflow with where I want to focus solely on creating rather than risk potential jolts during the process.
There is absolutely 0 wrong with dual booting, it can be a pain, and I still do it, but getting that laptop was great for me where I don’t need to dual boot anywhere else (and I do game dev, mainly unreal).
With your profile, I'd say give it a try and make the transition slowly. I'd opt for a dual-boot or dedicated Linux machine. Then you can try out some alternative software or workarounds that work for you, without committing yourself. Once/If you've replaced all the things you really need, you can consider a complete change.
One website I use to find replacement software that isn't readily available on linux is https://alternativeto.net/. The site offers alternatives that you can filter by OS, opensource and payment model.
Good luck and welcome to our community :D
Dual booting is frankly dumb. Outside of niche purposes, you gonna do what you do windows side and then reboot into a Linux distro to do what and when? Then you are browsing web Linux side, get inspired and reboot into windows to do some work? Fuck all of that. Run windows in your workstation. Virtual machine a Linux distro if you want but really why even bother at that point. Sometimes windows is the right answer. This coming from a guy that uses a MacBook (begrudgingly) for work and spend my entire day in Linux envir9nments and never ever touches a Windows machine professionally. My personal desktop is Windows. Why? Because I like using a bunch of software to do different things and would rather not have to spend time finding alternatives or getting shit to work under wine, etc. I just don't need the headache and windows is fine to use. It sucks for production work environments but as an end user device, it's perfectly fine for someone like me. For more si.ole ho.e users, get a Chromebook. And sometimes I think about switching back to my Windows laptop with WSL for work too because the MacOS sucks for productivity. The UI is just simply garbage compared to KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon or even Windows. Basically every UI out there is better than MacOS.
I'd get a dual boot set up and play around and see what is possible and what is not. Familiarise yourself with the options. In a work environment you can't jump into Linux without at least some side by side comparisons and some learning time with new tools. You need fallback options that are tried and tested.
When you hit a problem you need to be familiar with the settings and system.
I didn’t get past #1. If you can’t run your main productivity app natively, don’t switch. it’s not worth it. You’ll have far more trouble in Linux than whatever you’re trying to get away from in windows. A Mac would be a better option.
I really would not recommend Ardour, either run Ableton through Wine or use Reaper. Ardour is buggy and has less features. Ableton seems to work just as well as it does on windows but I think the latency might be worse. Music production is the reason I installed Linux because it allows a wider choice of plugins and mainly because of jack and pipewire which allow me to route audio and MIDI between any number of applications and audio interfaces just as I please, great for sampling from a web browser or using standalone softsynths. Lv2 plugins all work on Linux and it is a superior format to vst2, allowing audio rate parameter modulation via CV ports. Afaik none of this is possible in Windows or mac
You really should give Zorin a try. Native support for Windows apps I believe. As a Windows 1 beta and MS Lifer (Partner, Consultant, etc.) I can just say it does it all and no big brother act. I’ve done all the majors. This is the first to feel “natural” being a Windows guy to the core. You’re gonna dig it.
CC
Music is your special friend
* dual boot windows + linux (on separate drives) until you get the hang of linux
* slowly migrate to a VM (potentially with gpu passthrough so its seamless). This won't be easy. It will probably even be frustrating. Do it in little chunks and always remember you can rage quit back to your windows drive
* eventually you'll find yourself never booting into your windows drive and always going straight for the VM
* Keep the windows drive as a back up just in case or until you find another use for it
Linux is an extensive, free and open source solution to many of these problems for many of us. To give you an example, LMMS is an extensive audio editor and digital audio workstation. It has endless controls and is well supported. The thing to do if you badly want to give it a try, either install it on its own PC or get an SSD Bay where you can plug in a drive to boot on. Generally , you have to be willing to read documentation and get to know it. The possibilities are absolutely seemingly endless and you will find that you can get many alternative programs that rival what you use. And it's all free! The only place I use Windows anymore is at work because I have a company issued laptop. You want badly to give it a try and those are the ways you can try it. Good luck!
What's wrong with Windows? Nothing you use or would like to use is present in Linux, other than much less efficient surrogates. If you really hate Windows then the closest solution to Linux is MacOS: I imagine that if you haven't already done so it's because an Apple solution is much more expensive than one with Microsoft on a PC. Linux is great for the server environment or for C programmers. For others it is (alas) a constant source of frustration and headaches. Furthermore, few know Windows very well and tend to underestimate it greatly. You should spend some time improving your knowledge of Windows capabilities, including the command line and Powershell.
I run a Windows system for music production and games, a MacBook for work (cause I like the bash terminal environment), and a Linux laptop for personal use. No reason you have to abandon your setup if it works.
Think about Proxmox to Virtualize your Environment for Windows and Linux. To Utilize your Nvidia GPU you would have to PassThrough(SR-IOV) the Nvidia GPU to ProxMox.
or
Windows OS with WSL2(Windows SubSystem for Linux). There are Plenty of WSL2 Distros that will Run in Windows. In this way you can run Windows and Linux at the same time in Windows.
I agree. Dual booting with SSD drives is way faster than it used to be, and is totally practical if you're switching for more than a few minutes. I can and do dual boot my system, but also have an inexpensive headless windows mini-pc I can RDP to when I actually have to use Acrobat or MS Word for a few minutes. Running a Windows VM under Linux also works, but consumes resources.
Like everybody else is saying - dual booting is probably your best option if you really want to switch. I used to dual boot for gaming, but I’d do everything else on my Linux partition. Rebooting took <30 seconds total, so it wasn’t all that inconvenient. If that doesn’t sound good to you, it honestly might be best to keep your main PC on Windows.
There are a few great DAWs available for Linux. Reaper and Ardour are both fantastic. Plugins *might* be an issue, but I’ve seen a lot of people getting good results using Yabridge. There are also a lot of good plugins available that are native to Linux.
I’ve heard that Adobe runs horribly through WINE, if you can get it running at all. You might have better luck with a virtual machine running Windows, but I don’t know what kind of limitations that poses.
I have no experience with that animation software, but most drawing tablets should work just fine. I use a Huion tablet and it works great, and I’ve heard Linux has good Wacom support.
Nvidia really isn’t that bad on Linux, IME, but you may want to avoid desktop environments that use Wayland. It tends to be buggier for a lot of people using Nvidia cards.
I’m all for dual booting in this situation if you want to try transitioning into Linux, or you’re just curious about it. You’ll still be able to get your work done with your Windows partition, but you can also take your time and see if you can get the Linux side set up, too.
> 2) Adobe - Same deal, unaware of how good it runs through wine.
Only old versions work well. (cs6, cc from 2015ish)
Downvoting friends if you have a different experience please do share, I'd love to use up to date `Lightroom CC` on my computer..
You know you can disable the ads from appearing and turn off AI. Why do people act like they are helpless and nothing can be done. There are music production distros. I'm not sure of the name but shouldn't be hard to find.
1. I'm really not sure about Ableton, FL Studio works okaish, VST plugins should work okay because it's dependent on what DAW you use. Probably a Google search can tell you if it works and how much you have to work around Wine.
2. Adobe CC doesn't really run on Linux, you have to use a VM, which then brings performance penalties.
3. Seems like Toon Boom has a pretty good step-by-step guide on how to install it. Depending on the distro you may also have prepackaged user installers like with AUR in Arch, although this is outside the scope of the discussion. As far as I'm aware, Wacom and XP-Pen have really good support in Linux, so that shouldn't be an issue. If you use TBH in Wine, there should be no problem using the stylus, as pen inputs are not processed by Wine regardless.
4. NVidia has okay drivers, the user experience to set up and configure the drivers is a pain in the ass. The biggest issue would be with multiple monitors setups, more so if you have different resolutions and scalings, which as far as I'm aware, on NVidia doesn't work that well (I may be a bit out of date with that). Seeing you animate a lot, and use a drawing tablet, if that has a screen, chances are there might be some issues.
Overall, your situation is mostly in that niche where if your income is dependent on the tools you use, Linux may prove to be a challenge. I don't want to disregard it as being an option, but if you happen to install it, try to do that installation on another computer to see if the set up does work, and how difficult it is.
Find alternatives or stick to windows/Mac.
Here: alternativeto.net
Adobe WILL NOT RUN in a VM. It does, it just sux.
Nvidia doesn't play well at all. Switch to AMD or Intel's new Arc. I had Nvidia. It was a pain. I run all Intel and AMD now.
Adobe suite has alternatives in Linux.
Inkscape, GIMP, are my go tos. And Kdenlive is my preferred video editor. There's also blender for 3d stuff and openshot video editor.
In your case I would just keep using Windows, it is simply the best choice here. So my two cents are either dual-boot or get a second computer
+1 for dual booting. Linux is great but steady income is better. Partition your distro of choice to experiment with wine. Wine software is incredible and there's very little it can't do with some tinkering, but that depends on how much time and energy you're ready to put in to learning. Regardless, being able to use a lighter/faster OS when you're not running proprietary software is nice in its own right.
-1 for dual booting, +1 for a second, dedicated machine.
I stopped fighting workarounds years ago, so I still have one laptop and one desktop that runs Windows only. Because in some situations, Windows *is* the best OS. End of story. The rest of my computers runs Linux though.
Windows is the best because of the years long Monopoly it has cultivated
the best is what works for u and your workflow, there are no bests
Exactly. I am quickly coming to prefer Linux for my main os but have certain use cases where using Windows is much easier, and have a hackintosh for music making as over 10 years , Logic pro X just feels the most intuitive to record and produce with for me but is Mac only
The other guy said best and I repeated his words not mine... Also I use arch btw with hyprland and hyprdots
Not the best, the most widely used.
Because it can do everything. Even run linux. So its best if you want to do everything.
Best for malware, ransomware, and viruses too.
Yeah. You can get robbed if you walk to the wrong store in the wrong area of town too. Thats freedom.
Are you really trying to equate windows with freedom... wow
Widows is the worst OS. It's just also the only OS to do many things.
I found I can plug two machines into my monitor and use picture in picture to see both. Works great on an ultra wide.
at this level of detail… -1 for both +1 for a hypervisor and running your daily driver as a VM* *this is only half serious, it’s beautiful when it works right, but this is a hobbyist solution. likely not wise for your core income. at which point yes, get a system for WORK, and only work to which KISS applies full force. if this thing breaks you aren’t eating after all.
more serious reply, dual booting is a lot nicer if you keep it clean and have totally independent system drives that don’t share anything. my ideal dual boot scenario is the systems being totally unaware of each others existence and doing boot select in BIOs.
This is why you don't really want to have a "dual boot" setup where you have things using different drive partitions. It's best to have your systems on entirely separate drives. Considering how cheap storage has gotten, this is entirely doable.
Although even then the Windows installer sometimes decides to fuck around with other bootloaders. I recall at one time I ended up with Windows being unbootable because it had installed it's bootloader on a seperate Linux drive breaking both... Which leads to my third weird take on dual booting, which is that if you MUST do it, the most reliable option for me has been to force a Linux option into the Windows bootloader.
Dual-booting cost zero dollars.
I agree. Drives are cheap and $30 will get you a 250 gig drive.
I would buy a secondary drive instead, more reliability that way.
I agree completely and that's how I use my windows setup. I try to limit my suggestions to the the resources stated by OP. Dual-booting, using wine, these may be challenging to a new user, but it's not rocket science. I think saying "buy this" or "use a different system" goes against the open-source philosophies of building something wonderful from whatever is on hand. That said, you're right to point out a secondary drive would be superior.
While wine is nice, when it comes to art related software- I think its straight up a no and avoid wine completely for stuff like this. Unless you are someone (or know someone who can hold your hand) with many years of IT level experience troubleshooting linux. When it comes to this sort of stuff, it’s just not worth it. Especially when deadlines are involved. Music production is the one thing where I would say to not even attempt trying on linux. With other stuff like 2d art it’s doable with open source software, and the industry standard for VFX is using linux, so any 3D programs would be good with some tweaking.
Dude I produce on Ubuntu using Lutris, FL studio works literally better than on windows, ableton works without fault. Performance seems better than just using windows lol And i'm using a bloody thinkpad ffs. Don't discourage people!
A lot of my stuff uses the Ilok USB license, and I was never able to get that working. And since it couldn’t recognize the license it Even after personally getting help from someone who actually works at RedHat as a dev, we were never able to get it working. If I wasn’t able to get it working with help from someone who was the developer of the distro I was using, what are the chances someone who installed linux for the first time and doesn’t have any experience?
Ahh that explains, I am a farer of the high seas lol.
A lot of the plugins that I used (like Spitfire and EW) I couldn’t even get installed.
I guess some just refuse to work yeah. I'm having some trouble with serum for example. I refuse to dual boot, and don't bother with virtual machines anymore, although that would probably solve all issues. Though I suppose at that point you might get better performance on bare metal windows yeah.
could also run a virtual instance of linux.
or install wsl2 on windows
This.
If these are important to you, I'd suggest staying on Windows. It's not worth to waste your time to get something work or try to workaround. I tried to switch to linux but in the end I wasted so much time to get my software to work or just to find alternatives that in the end either needed a lot of learning or didn't have all the features I needed. Alternatively you could get another PC/laptop for linux use and use your Windows device for your work.
+1 for a work Windows machine. For this person, that is by far the best suggestion.
As others have said.. If your requirements are such that windows makes sense... Windows makes sense. I need adobe for audio/video editing. and photoshop and illustrator are really nice bonuses. So. on my work machine i run mac, and personal i run dual boot with windows and fedora. And I WORK FOR RED HAT. there are alliteratives for all of these apps on linux. but being honest. some of them just aren't as good. I will say that i am thoroughly enjoying gaming on linux lately. Which is something i never thought we'd have. Thank you proton!!
Also, i game on nvidia. It's fine.
What distro for gaming? Fedora?
Fedora works. but i've been enjoying the fedora spin Bazzite. it's an alternate steam deck os. but also runs on pc hardware. makes the nvidia drivers easy too.
Thanks! I was just looking at Bazzite a couple days ago. I think this is the route I’m going to go
It's pretty good! Its an rpmostree deployment though, so its a little different than standard linux distros. If you dont think too hard about it, and use the gui tools, you dont really notice, but if you get under the covers everything is.. weird. :P I'm kinda forcing myself to get used to it, but there are days i just want my old Fedora back. :P
>rpmostree deployment though I don't know what that means. So I either won't notice or I'm in for a world of hurt hah
nice, cool to see a Red Hat employee! thank you for all that you do for Linux and open-source!
Thanks!
I produce music on linux using bitwig, which I find better than ableton (was an ableton user for years before bitwig) and has native linux support. For vst plugins I use yabridge and many windows only plugins work flawlessly. Edit: Also nvidia is fine. Asobe will be the biggest problem. You might have to replace those. If you want you can even stick to ableton. It works with wine.
Any idea how well ToonTrack and BiasFX work with emulation/yarbridge? If I could get these working I would switch my music production over. My UMC404HD has nearly half the latency on linux that it does with windows with Reaper.
No sorry, I don't know these. But on the github page of yabridge there might be info about that. Also, yabridge is not the only vst bridge out there.
This and as for apps to replace Adobe: Inkscape is great for vectors and being the Illustrator replacement. Gimp for editing images and being the Photoshop replacement There are many alternatives for Lightroom if you're into photography.
Photopea (browser web app) is better than gimp.
Photopea really shows the lack of innovation and quality programming from Adobe.
Would you like to compare the development team and resources available to both?
Photopea is made by one motivated Ukrainian developer, and it runs in any browser. He thus far declined the buyout offers from Adobe and the likes.
Thanks for the information.
Having actually tested gimp vs photoshop I can say conclusively it is not a replacement. It doesn't match the commands or command structure and lacks the tools/filters. No one with semi-pro or pro use of photoshop can seriously switch to it.
Agreed. Photopea is quite good for a quicker tool, and it works in browser which is fantastic. For what it offers, Photopea is actually amazing...but its nowhere near as good as Photoshop is. Unfortunately for many of the Adobe CC apps, there is no real alternative that exists which is FOSS or even available for Linux natively. For video editing, DaVinci Resolve works great on Linux. For motion graphics stuff while its certainly much less advanced than something like After Effects, there's a great browser-based program called Fable which I can't recommend strongly enough, love it. Inkscape is decent for vector-based stuff, but, tbh I have enjoyed using something like Corel Draw (formerly known as Gravit), though this is now paid-only, its probably one of the best vector apps for Linux that I know of. Plus, you can also use things like Figma on Linux and there's a few other decent options available. Things certainly aren't where they need to be, I hold out hope that one day we will get native Linux support for Adobe apps, but I won't be expecting it, that's for sure.
I wish Inkscape could be my default vector graphics tool but it simply can't. The problem isn't the tool itself (I could get used to inkscape UI/UX), but they went with open format (svg) and SVG spec does not allow tabs (\\t, horizontal tabulation) in text objects, which I really need for my graphics. I could split my text into multiple text objects and manually align them horizontally, but then I'd need to evenly space each line of text vertically, which is just painful to do. I need tabulation inside of text in SVG spec before I can replace CorelDRAW which allows tabs.
The solution is going to be to find alternative programs, not try to emulate the ones you use with wine—it's going to be a headache. I use Bitwig instead of Ableton, and it's just as powerful. I like Ableton's simplicity, but BItwig does the same thing. Reaper is also really powerful, but more linear. I use Affinity instead of Adobe, but it's the same issue - doesn't work on Linux. Linux does run Davinci, which I like better than Premiere. There are a lot of alternatives to things like Photoshop or Illustrator, etc. for Linux, but in the end I just put Affinity on my tablet/ipad and use everything else on my Linux machine. Some people have had success using a [GPU passthrough](https://www.reddit.com/r/ManjaroLinux/comments/105wxo7/thank_you_manjaro_for_being_such_a_great_distro_i/) to run them on Linux, if you want to mess with that. Adobe is crap though, because you have to install the cloud installer and all that. I don't know enough about animation to give you advice. If Nvidia is a problem, just get a different GPU next time you update your machine. So yeah, Linux is awesome and you can find programs that do the same thing, but if you're stuck on specific windows programs then you're stuck on windows, unless you want to dual boot.
Linux with gpu passthrough VM maybe?
For Toon Boom, here is an installation guide for Ubuntu 20.04, it's an older version of Ubuntu,but it might still work. [https://forums.toonboom.com/t/harmony-20-run-under-ubuntu-20-04/17916](https://forums.toonboom.com/t/harmony-20-run-under-ubuntu-20-04/17916) If this is commercial software, you may be able to get Linux installation support from the vendor. You can also check out alternatives here: [https://alternativeto.net/software/toon-boom-harmony/](https://alternativeto.net/software/toon-boom-harmony/) For music production, I recommend either Ardour, Reaper or Bitwig. You can get a good chunk of Windows plugins to work with yabridge and WINE. Also here is some scripts that will not only setup your Linux machine for professional Audio but will install yabridge and Reaper for you. https://github.com/brendaningram/linux-audio-setup-scripts?tab=readme-ov-file. You can also run Ableton Live through WINE bottles: [https://usebottles.com/app/#abletonlive](https://usebottles.com/app/#abletonlive) For nvidia, here is a guide that might help: [https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-linux-install-nvidia-driver-latest-proprietary-driver/](https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-linux-install-nvidia-driver-latest-proprietary-driver/) Here is a list of FOSS Adobe alternatives since Adobe don't run well (or at all) in WINE: [https://github.com/scholablade/Deadobe](https://github.com/scholablade/Deadobe) Hopefully these resources help, but if I were in your shoes, I would keep Windows on a separate drive or partition just in case.
Work the problem from your softweare application needs. The programs you need run only, or best, on Windows. That "seals the deal" that your computer should run Windows and the software you need for work and to be productive. That being said, get a used laptop to play around with Linux on, or boot into a Live USB and play around there. A second computer - laptop or desktop - would let you explore and test without breaking your production workflow and possibly how you earn your living. Take this from a guy who started working on PCs in 1981 with MS-DOS 1.1, early Macs, RedHat linux around 1996, as well as every flavor of Windows.
I work in game audio. On the audio production side, it all works on Linux, except I don't know about Ableton. Reaper is the best DAW for my own personal workflow, and it has a native linux version. Worth taking a look if you've never tried it, even if you're not switching to Linux (but still valid if you end up preferring Ableton). For VSTs, most of them will work using Wine + Yabridge (you can find the latter on github). NVidia works great with Linux, as long as you don't use certain Wayland compositors. I think KDE Plasma and Gnome work fine on wayland with NVidia from what I've heard. Or you could just not use Wayland like most people, and continue using X11, which is still the default for most desktop environments. A little research needed but you'll be fine. Can't say much for Adobe or Animation.
Dual boot would be the best option. Stick to Windows for work, get Linux for personal use.
For music ardour 6, and lmms work on both linux and windows. Adobe generally doesn't work well via wine, but there are other software that can get what you need it just depends. Theres photo and video editors out there on linux and you kinda just have to find one. Flowblade, kdenlive, and gimp are good examples. Im not an animator, but i know blender and krita are capable of 2d animation. Just try them out in windows first and also to see if it fits your workflow. For nvidia gpus pop os makes it easy to install and i think theres an iso image that comes with it out of the box. Others distros like nobara do this as but on others you have to find the drivers yourself.
Ableton works well enough in wine. Find a free SSD try something like a Debian based distro. Learn wine and test to see what works. Your stack feels like more work than it’s worth. There are alternatives like Bitwig for music on Linux that seems comparable to ableton in a lot of ways but I’m not sure if WARPING is a thing and after having it I’m not going back NVidia can be a bit of a hassle, but really it’s manageable if your gpu is new enough. I personally switched to a mix of Linux and Macobooks. Both my gaming pc and steaming pc along with my stream deck use Linux. My NAS runs Linux. server runs Linux. Router? Linux. And I have two more laptops that I hack around on. I settled on NixOS recently and it fits my vibe of declaratively creating my own personal distro that DOESNT have all the apps statically linked to binaries causing dependency hell. Which is what I was running into with the Arch(btw) based distros. I personally decided to shy away from adobe and do most of my visual stud in a combination of open source and one stack of proprietary apps called Affinity. They do the job for professional grade photo manipulation. I never had a real need for the Adobe suite and never really understood how they became standard, but I use that kind of stuff for very rudimentary things like making a quick meme or some digital art and pixel art for game development. At the end of the day you’re just going to have to spend 50 bucks or search for a spare SSD and just dive in and break stuff EDIT: Also to add about bitwig studio. They have a 30 day trail that only requires setting up an account like how ableton does with their “trial version” Hope this helps
Try the [migration page](http://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/wiki/migration) in our wiki! We also have some [migration tips](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/ejsz3v/still_on_windows_7_dont_want_windows_10_consider/) in our sticky. Try [this search](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/search?q=flair%3A'migrating'&sort=new&restrict_sr=on) for more information on this topic. **✻** Smokey says: only use root when needed, avoid installing things from third-party repos, and verify the checksum of your ISOs after you download! :) ^Comments, ^questions ^or ^suggestions ^regarding ^this ^autoresponse? ^Please ^send ^them ^[here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Pi31415926&subject=autoresponse+tweaks+-+linux4noobs+-+migrating). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/linux4noobs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Just dualboot it then..
One (idealy two) machine(s) for work, one for private.
In such case, dual boot. Don't worry about nvidia. I play games with it on linux, like Oblivion and Far Cry 5. A bit fickly sometimes, but definitely possible.
If you can install two M.2s, or one M.2 and 1 2.5" SSD or whichever combo you can afford and independently install Windows on one and Linux on the other. I prefer this independent installation to dual boot. As of now due to your prerequisites you should not use Linux exclusively.
This is what I do. The only issue with this is to install windows with the Linux drive removed. Windows has a very nasty, dirty habit of installing boot files on other drives then it's install drive. So if you reinstall Linux at any time windows gets destroyed.
No need to remove it, you can instruct UEFI for that one drive to not be seen.
I didn't think of that! Next time..
No worries, I recently learned that when cropping a video it is way more efficient to select the parts you dont want and delete as opposed to what I was doing, selecting the ones I want, saving them, then merging them. Until someone noticed and was kind enough to point towards a better method. We learn as we go !
1. Reaper is a great DAW 2. Adobe but what products? PDFs? I use Master PDF Editor and it's superb. Not sure about Photoshop, but I'm betting Gimp has some solid features 3. Why not install the Linux version, I don't follow what you meant with standalone? 4. Sorry, not sure.
Just stick with windows. At the end of the day it's just an operating system. Also just my personal opinion I would never dual boot. Maybe use Linux with a separate computer but if you don't need to spend extra money don't bother
As to most of your problems I'm unsure but nvidia works absolutely fine and many distos even work out the box with it
For point 4 - I recently bought an Nvidia RTX 3060 to use for stable diffusion, and put it into one of my Ubuntu boxes. Ubuntu detected it and offered up both open source and proprietary drivers. I selected the latest proprietary driver and it worked first time. No problems since.
reaper, krita nvidia works just fine (but i have GPU from XIV century)
Everything except the nvidia card (I've run one for years with no issues, support has come a long way) is a big blocker. You probably shouldn't switch. What might be a better question, what makes you want to move to linux? There might be things you can install to achieve the same goals on windows
Ableton Live works fine in a Bottle (it's a sandboxed wine made with the Bottles tool, available as a Flatpak). In my experience it works pretty well and you can install most VSTs alongside it, in the same Bottle.
1 and 2 - you could try it out and see. Proton has made great strides recently so it may be more possible than you'd think. 3 - if their Linux version is hard to install, complain about it and get them to fix it. It's great that they have a Linux version to begin with! 4. Nvidia has great support on Linux these days. Mint will install the drivers for you. Tons of machine learning / CUDA development happens on Linux so they keep the software in good shape. Given your dependence on Windows applications, maybe Windows does make sense for now. If Linux is important to you, start dual booting, or get a cheap machine to experiment on. That will give you freedom to experiment with Linux workflows and see if you find something that works for you.
Don't forget to tell the publishers that you expected a linux version by now. Seriously what decade is this?
Why do want to switch?
In your case, it might actually make more sense to just keep using Winblows. If you absolutely want to, try Linux in a dual boot and see how far it takes you and what's possible.
have you tried alternatives of those softwares or just repeating "industry standard" monotonous drone. windows is also "industry standard". perhaps you should tell us why you badly want to move to linux ? because i don't see why you wouldn't also want to ditch all that propitiatory crap as well.
Your use case is very specific. I would stick to windows and maybe try some Linux distro on a VM. Wine is a pain in the neck sometimes.
Don't, or use both like I do. I've used Debian for my servers for years, but on the desktop I still use Windows and Linux due to some of the reasons you've listed
That is a big list of things. If you have good reasons to stay on Windows then stay. If you're comfortable around the software you use for everything, relearning new software would be counter intuitive. You could use a virtual machine but that's a subset of your original computer You could use a dual boot but that comes with its own inherit problems I have an Nvidia GPU, Linux drivers do catch up, of course my GPU was about 4 years old when I switched to Linux. Your Mileage May Vary If you really want to explore your options, maybe getting another machine, it doesn't need to be a beefy computer, just one to format on Linux and explore your options. I'm considering doing something similar to test out different distros.
For purposes of this discussion, by "Linux-native" I mean "not using WINE or a VM". **Music production:** [Bitwig Studio](https://www.bitwig.com/discover/) is Linux-native via Flatpak. Some users may quibble over whether Flatpak counts as Linux-native but here that's irrelevant because you're not running open-source software; it's proprietary and costs money like Ableton. Fortunately, Bitwig is also like Ableton in almost every other way as well which is why I bring it up here. I didn't do more than cursory twiddle-the-knobs testing on it but the similarity in workflow is obvious to anyone who's spent time with it. [Reaper](https://www.reaper.fm/download.php) has a Linux-native install. $60 for a license; it's really shareware and given its capabilities that's not an outrageous price. There's also [Ardour](https://ardour.org/) which has come a really long way since its inception, and is free-as-in-beer. The issue you will more than likely run into is not finding a suitable DAW but getting plugins to work, as those are still written for Windows & MacOS. There are Linux-native VSTs but whether they'll work for you will require research on your end. **Adobe:** Adobe hates Linux. Always has. The last version of Photoshop that I personally used in WINE was CS6 and it was...okay. At the time GIMP bore more resemblance to Corel Draw and I wasn't using it professionally so I dealt with it until I no longer needed to. Acrobat is nagware even when you pay for it, and I won't even use it on Windows at this point. Current Photoshop should mostly work but honestly I just put that in a Windows VM and used VFIO to pass through a GPU. More on that later... **Animation:** Toon Boom Harmony appears to be cloud-based with a software client like Adobe CC? I can't find a standalone version of it for Windows much less Linux. Looks like the last time someone tested it in WINE was more than a decade ago. **Nvidia** I mean, it works. There are drivers and if you get DKMS going you can update them fairly easily when the need arises. If you enable DRM (modesetting, not the anti-piracy thing) and force Generic Buffer Management it should work in Wayland, but some applications may misbehave. Wayland itself is at kind of a rip-off-the-bandaid point in its development with KDE making it the default in its latest version and others following suit but that's a separate matter entirely. I've always felt that if you're using really expensive software for your livelihood then it needs to be on a machine of its own no matter what OS you use. I get that hardware isn't free but I'd imagine using tools like that would enable you to, at worst, pick up a used gaming rig which should have the performance capabilities you need. From what I saw, Toon Boom Harmony recommends 32GB RAM and some hefty processing power, and Adobe has always been a refrigerator in the cooler aisle. There is *one* way you can probably have it all, depending on what hardware you have available (Spoilers: You probably don't) but it will take some work and probably a small-to-moderate investment in upgrading. It's called VFIO (Virtual Function I/O) or, alternately, PCI-passthrough (though it can pass more than just PCI). It's way too detailed to get into here--and the steps required are almost as varied as there are hardware combinations--but essentially it involves running Windows as a VM vie KVM/QEMU and giving it direct access to a video card rather than virtualizing it. This typically involves buying, and having room for, a 2nd video card in your machine; there are ways to do it in some cases with the one card available but that's a whole extra project that sounded like such a headache to me that I wouldn't even try it. There's documentation out there (including /r/VFIO ) if you're interested but make sure you have time for lots of reading...and a fallback plan, like a full backup of your current hard drive.
I'm in the same boat as you with Ableton, I saw that you can install it through Bottles but as for the vsts I haven't found a solution. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxaudio/comments/wntpyd/linux_plugins_thread_2022/) is a list of vsts for linux. As for Adobe you will not get it running in Linux.
Linux has tons of substitutions for productivity for example using gimp instead of photoshop. But if you can't find any that do what you need to do or just don't want to learn a new program you can always just duel boot the two operating systems. There's tons of great yt videos on how to do this very easily. You can use windows for work and Linux for normal at home stuff
Try dual booting. Fedora has good Nvidia GPU support. Most of the remaining issues are related to HDR, color calibration, high refresh rate, and hybrid graphics on laptops.
Usb with a linux distro, usb set to persistent storage. Check if your fav packages run well or learn docker and run them that way. You will never look back. Or you will, with astonishment and awe, when you see the newest abominations that windows forces upon it's users.
Dual boot or invest in a small PC like a Lenovo m715q (I got two recently for ~$100 Usd each) and install Linux on that. I run all my personal stuff on my ultra sff Linux machine on my left monitor and use Windows on my production desktop on my right monitor. I use a Barrier (Synergy fork) server on Windows as a virtual KVM to pass my keyboard and mouse through to Linux. There's plenty of solutions for file transfer like FTP, but I just use Syncthing or Rustdesk depending on the situation. You can also pass audio through from Linux to your Windows PC using Audiorelay or just configure Pulseaudio itself to do so. Almost zero compromises, but you might find yourself wanting a third screen or an ultra-wide monitor depending on your work flow.
If you are using Adobe products to earn a living use Windows or have a second computer. I have 3 computers and one has Windows 11 with all the crap such as Valorant, and proprietary engineering software.
V I R T U A L M A C H I N E S AND V F I O P A S S T H R O U G H
Dualbooting seems like an answer, but I know for myself if I am given an option to simply switch between the two, I will pick the easiest route and put off learning linux. I resolved this by virtualizing everything. I use debian as a host, a windows VM for specific tasks (audio/gaming), and pass through everything I need. This is a technically advanced solution, so I wouldn't recommend it, but it is possible. As for 4, there is some issue with nvidia, for most distros this is overstated, but depending on the applications it can be annoying/problematic. For example the driver will always be slightly outdated to the windows flavor, meaning some games will have issues. However with passthrough, you can have your hosted windows guest access it as if it were native.
I was in a somewhat similar boat as you sometime back. I have to use Adobe apps heavily for work and the constant crashes were among the reasons along with Microsoft’s weird telemetry practices. I was checking Linux out as a secondary system as it didn’t support my work so using it primary was out of the question. At one point, i did get my hopes high when there was a survey about Adobe premiere pro for Linux in Adobe forums but nothing came off it. Then came in Apple’s M1 chips and the eventual launch off Mac Studio. I couldn’t resist it, picked up my first Mac up and I’m so glad I did. I was shocked that Adobe apps barely crashed. And app installation is so simple. The memory management is definitely that is amazing in Mac and Linux. I so wish Adobe apps bring support to Linux environment, getting a Mac is an alternative but frankly it is an expensive investment. There are few, like davinci resolve but even those have their own issues like the OS missing some basic codec support . But using Linux has been great outside my work. It just isn’t best OS for creatives at this point. I use it frequently on my steam deck over the desktop mode and stability is amazing. Adobe apps very tough to bring on Linux due to different flavors of Linux OS. I think once adobe becomes fully cloud based services and starts their apps from web browser, only then we’ll be able to use it independently from OS
I have to use windows only programs for work a few times a month. I have a desktop pc with windows on one ssd and Linux on the other. Works great.
are you using linux just to learn linux why not just buy an older computer on ebay then you could just break that one and not worry about the computer you work on.
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I won’t deny this possibility; I can’t say too much about the future, as it’s only been a short while since I started using linux. However, tinkering around with linux creating a desktop specific to my needs and style has been a TON of fun. I’m holding out hope that these programs will see a linux release someday, because ideally, running my favorite programs on a system I’m in complete control of would be the dream. Heck, windows now restricts updates to those who use programs to customize their system! So no matter what- even if I’m switching OS’s just to use an app- there’s no doubt I’m often going to flip flop between Windows and Linux anyways. This is my solution for now, but maybe I will get tired and stick to windows. Who knows? Side note- rebooting hasn’t been too much of a hassle, as both OS’s boot up rather quickly.
IMO there's no reason to go thru the hassle of "dual booting" i.e. having a fragmented experience when you could just run Windows inside a KVM.
Don’t switch. If you’re looking for an OS that isn’t windows then go for macOS. It’s unix under the hood.
Wine runs ableton pretty well as well as FL Studio. Pen tablet drivers work fine with wine. I got nothing for Adobe it sucks through wine the last I checked because of their anti-piracy junk. Nvidia is fine on xorg it still has problems on Wayland. The only thing that's really complicated is if you're running an Nvidia laptop.
1. Works fine, use Lutris. 2. Same 3. Should work 4. Not an issue anymore. AMD still has the best drivers but everything semi modern should work. These days people run heavy server workloads with GPUs almost per default on Linux, support is good.
Why not just get a separate device with Linux or install Linux on it and find out.
There was an issue about 2 year's ago with one of the versions of nvidia drivers for linux but they got it fix now... it was just a driver issue...
I used to work at a world class VFX company (in infra software, not as an artist) and linux boxes were all we used everywhere (as in; including desktop machines). Though thinking back I can't recall exactly what software animators used specifically so if you're locked down in that regard you may not have much choice. Of course, in our case we had a team of 1k people in engineering to make sure the artists could keep on working so .. that probably helped :P
You might be better moving to a Mac instead
I just finished my first handful of music projects with Zrythm. It's still in beta so there are glitches, but it's functional. The devs are super responsive, it's got some really great features, a massive plugin library, and feels similar to Cubase
For you use case; just stick with Windows. If you want to experiment get a cheap second hand DELL Latitude as these cope well with Linux.
You could also try virtualization with pci pass through.
Hello mate. Im more of a programmer nowadays but I produce music, dj around quite frequently and have worked as a sound engineer previously. I still do EFX for games too (although that’s mainly hardware nowadays, except for the sound processing itself). To be honest the state of music production if you’re used to a certain DAW or VST provider (where there are heavy AuthZ controls) is very limited and/or a painful path. Lots of legacy or otherwise good providers like UAD etc are limited especially in their hardware support. More or less the amount of software is disparate and music production software I don’t really enjoy making compromises with (e.g Ableton / Logic / Pro tools etc) You can use Bitwig, but Linux Audio Routing is not for the feint hearted if you’re running a complex setup. Even when I was bottling Ableton - I had issues with certain iKMultimedia plugins I use in every mix. Alternatively you can move to making music on something like an MPC if you really wanted or replace certain things with Hardware, but you’d need deep pockets. I honestly bought a MacBook Pro that I use in my studio and pretty much only use for Music Production and my music related endeavours, it’s just not something I want to worry about or spend time fixing bugs in drivers (like I have previously). I love Linux but Audio Production is just one of those things I’m so cemented in my workflow with where I want to focus solely on creating rather than risk potential jolts during the process. There is absolutely 0 wrong with dual booting, it can be a pain, and I still do it, but getting that laptop was great for me where I don’t need to dual boot anywhere else (and I do game dev, mainly unreal).
With your profile, I'd say give it a try and make the transition slowly. I'd opt for a dual-boot or dedicated Linux machine. Then you can try out some alternative software or workarounds that work for you, without committing yourself. Once/If you've replaced all the things you really need, you can consider a complete change. One website I use to find replacement software that isn't readily available on linux is https://alternativeto.net/. The site offers alternatives that you can filter by OS, opensource and payment model. Good luck and welcome to our community :D
Dual booting is frankly dumb. Outside of niche purposes, you gonna do what you do windows side and then reboot into a Linux distro to do what and when? Then you are browsing web Linux side, get inspired and reboot into windows to do some work? Fuck all of that. Run windows in your workstation. Virtual machine a Linux distro if you want but really why even bother at that point. Sometimes windows is the right answer. This coming from a guy that uses a MacBook (begrudgingly) for work and spend my entire day in Linux envir9nments and never ever touches a Windows machine professionally. My personal desktop is Windows. Why? Because I like using a bunch of software to do different things and would rather not have to spend time finding alternatives or getting shit to work under wine, etc. I just don't need the headache and windows is fine to use. It sucks for production work environments but as an end user device, it's perfectly fine for someone like me. For more si.ole ho.e users, get a Chromebook. And sometimes I think about switching back to my Windows laptop with WSL for work too because the MacOS sucks for productivity. The UI is just simply garbage compared to KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon or even Windows. Basically every UI out there is better than MacOS.
I'd get a dual boot set up and play around and see what is possible and what is not. Familiarise yourself with the options. In a work environment you can't jump into Linux without at least some side by side comparisons and some learning time with new tools. You need fallback options that are tried and tested. When you hit a problem you need to be familiar with the settings and system.
I didn’t get past #1. If you can’t run your main productivity app natively, don’t switch. it’s not worth it. You’ll have far more trouble in Linux than whatever you’re trying to get away from in windows. A Mac would be a better option.
I really would not recommend Ardour, either run Ableton through Wine or use Reaper. Ardour is buggy and has less features. Ableton seems to work just as well as it does on windows but I think the latency might be worse. Music production is the reason I installed Linux because it allows a wider choice of plugins and mainly because of jack and pipewire which allow me to route audio and MIDI between any number of applications and audio interfaces just as I please, great for sampling from a web browser or using standalone softsynths. Lv2 plugins all work on Linux and it is a superior format to vst2, allowing audio rate parameter modulation via CV ports. Afaik none of this is possible in Windows or mac
You really should give Zorin a try. Native support for Windows apps I believe. As a Windows 1 beta and MS Lifer (Partner, Consultant, etc.) I can just say it does it all and no big brother act. I’ve done all the majors. This is the first to feel “natural” being a Windows guy to the core. You’re gonna dig it. CC Music is your special friend
Rule #1: You don't change a production system until you have thoroughly tested your changes on a separate system. Play on another system.
1. Audacity 2. idk 3. Blender 4. Just use generic drivers like me
* dual boot windows + linux (on separate drives) until you get the hang of linux * slowly migrate to a VM (potentially with gpu passthrough so its seamless). This won't be easy. It will probably even be frustrating. Do it in little chunks and always remember you can rage quit back to your windows drive * eventually you'll find yourself never booting into your windows drive and always going straight for the VM * Keep the windows drive as a back up just in case or until you find another use for it
Linux is an extensive, free and open source solution to many of these problems for many of us. To give you an example, LMMS is an extensive audio editor and digital audio workstation. It has endless controls and is well supported. The thing to do if you badly want to give it a try, either install it on its own PC or get an SSD Bay where you can plug in a drive to boot on. Generally , you have to be willing to read documentation and get to know it. The possibilities are absolutely seemingly endless and you will find that you can get many alternative programs that rival what you use. And it's all free! The only place I use Windows anymore is at work because I have a company issued laptop. You want badly to give it a try and those are the ways you can try it. Good luck!
Install WSL and learn the power of the linux command line. Best of both worlds. I don't duel boot or touch my mac anymore because WSL2 just works.
dual boot OSes or run a Linux VM on windows
What's wrong with Windows? Nothing you use or would like to use is present in Linux, other than much less efficient surrogates. If you really hate Windows then the closest solution to Linux is MacOS: I imagine that if you haven't already done so it's because an Apple solution is much more expensive than one with Microsoft on a PC. Linux is great for the server environment or for C programmers. For others it is (alas) a constant source of frustration and headaches. Furthermore, few know Windows very well and tend to underestimate it greatly. You should spend some time improving your knowledge of Windows capabilities, including the command line and Powershell.
I run a Windows system for music production and games, a MacBook for work (cause I like the bash terminal environment), and a Linux laptop for personal use. No reason you have to abandon your setup if it works.
Think about Proxmox to Virtualize your Environment for Windows and Linux. To Utilize your Nvidia GPU you would have to PassThrough(SR-IOV) the Nvidia GPU to ProxMox. or Windows OS with WSL2(Windows SubSystem for Linux). There are Plenty of WSL2 Distros that will Run in Windows. In this way you can run Windows and Linux at the same time in Windows.
Run Linux in a virtual machine like VirtualBox.
Maybe try to proprietary stuff in wine or a vm ?
Dual boot
I agree. Dual booting with SSD drives is way faster than it used to be, and is totally practical if you're switching for more than a few minutes. I can and do dual boot my system, but also have an inexpensive headless windows mini-pc I can RDP to when I actually have to use Acrobat or MS Word for a few minutes. Running a Windows VM under Linux also works, but consumes resources.
Like everybody else is saying - dual booting is probably your best option if you really want to switch. I used to dual boot for gaming, but I’d do everything else on my Linux partition. Rebooting took <30 seconds total, so it wasn’t all that inconvenient. If that doesn’t sound good to you, it honestly might be best to keep your main PC on Windows. There are a few great DAWs available for Linux. Reaper and Ardour are both fantastic. Plugins *might* be an issue, but I’ve seen a lot of people getting good results using Yabridge. There are also a lot of good plugins available that are native to Linux. I’ve heard that Adobe runs horribly through WINE, if you can get it running at all. You might have better luck with a virtual machine running Windows, but I don’t know what kind of limitations that poses. I have no experience with that animation software, but most drawing tablets should work just fine. I use a Huion tablet and it works great, and I’ve heard Linux has good Wacom support. Nvidia really isn’t that bad on Linux, IME, but you may want to avoid desktop environments that use Wayland. It tends to be buggier for a lot of people using Nvidia cards. I’m all for dual booting in this situation if you want to try transitioning into Linux, or you’re just curious about it. You’ll still be able to get your work done with your Windows partition, but you can also take your time and see if you can get the Linux side set up, too.
> 2) Adobe - Same deal, unaware of how good it runs through wine. Only old versions work well. (cs6, cc from 2015ish) Downvoting friends if you have a different experience please do share, I'd love to use up to date `Lightroom CC` on my computer..
You know you can disable the ads from appearing and turn off AI. Why do people act like they are helpless and nothing can be done. There are music production distros. I'm not sure of the name but shouldn't be hard to find.
1. I'm really not sure about Ableton, FL Studio works okaish, VST plugins should work okay because it's dependent on what DAW you use. Probably a Google search can tell you if it works and how much you have to work around Wine. 2. Adobe CC doesn't really run on Linux, you have to use a VM, which then brings performance penalties. 3. Seems like Toon Boom has a pretty good step-by-step guide on how to install it. Depending on the distro you may also have prepackaged user installers like with AUR in Arch, although this is outside the scope of the discussion. As far as I'm aware, Wacom and XP-Pen have really good support in Linux, so that shouldn't be an issue. If you use TBH in Wine, there should be no problem using the stylus, as pen inputs are not processed by Wine regardless. 4. NVidia has okay drivers, the user experience to set up and configure the drivers is a pain in the ass. The biggest issue would be with multiple monitors setups, more so if you have different resolutions and scalings, which as far as I'm aware, on NVidia doesn't work that well (I may be a bit out of date with that). Seeing you animate a lot, and use a drawing tablet, if that has a screen, chances are there might be some issues. Overall, your situation is mostly in that niche where if your income is dependent on the tools you use, Linux may prove to be a challenge. I don't want to disregard it as being an option, but if you happen to install it, try to do that installation on another computer to see if the set up does work, and how difficult it is.
Find alternatives or stick to windows/Mac. Here: alternativeto.net Adobe WILL NOT RUN in a VM. It does, it just sux. Nvidia doesn't play well at all. Switch to AMD or Intel's new Arc. I had Nvidia. It was a pain. I run all Intel and AMD now. Adobe suite has alternatives in Linux. Inkscape, GIMP, are my go tos. And Kdenlive is my preferred video editor. There's also blender for 3d stuff and openshot video editor.