Hey, I use the Adobe Suite for daily use to build and develop posts and videos for multiple people and can’t have my workflow slow down by learning a new application, I’ve looked into Linux a few times and want to really move over in the future but due to it not having support for Adobe, I’m not sure what to do.
One of the other applications I use is Sync (sync.com), It’s an application to sync your files from a folder to the cloud allowing me to switch from my to laptop (what I can’t run most things on) and then I can still access the files on the go if I need to send them to someone.
I also play plenty of games on Steam but not all of them have native Linux Instances. I believe Proton is actually helping bring non-native games to Linux which is a plus as really wouldn’t want to lose access to playing them.
Any advice on how I can get using Linux without losing these sorts of functions or do I have to wait till Windows annoys enough people making them all move to Linux first?
One solution that has long existed is to have a dual boot system… you can choose which OS you want to load each time you start the system.
Another option is to run a Window VM in Linux.
If you must dual boot, have totally separate hard drives, and the choosing between Linux and Windows should be done in the UEFI boot menu, not GRUB menu. Windows can render Linux unbootable otherwise, requiring a rather complicated rescue. Windows would ideally not have any chance to see the Linux hard drive while booted.
An external SATA SSD in a USB enclosure is cheap these days.
Yeah, Windows likes to overwrite the MBR with no warning as if that’s perfectly fine. I’ve always wondered what combination of carelessness, incompetence, interface streamlining and competitive malice is responsible for that. It’s also ridiculous how in 2023 there’s still no native way to read Linux filesystems from Windows.
@Zeppo That does sound ridiculous especially as I wouldn’t mind running linux through Windows, I know it wouldn’t work as well but I know I would do a lot of my less complex tasks through there such as browsing the internet as I could game on Windows or Linux as I don’t really mind if I’m VMing one
I’ve got Windows and Mint dual booting from the same drive, using grub. All seems to work fine for me…
I do the external usb ssd for my windows drive and recommend it endlessly. I use the windows drive for music production and the maybe 2 games in my several hundred game library that don’t work in linux. 100 bucks for a 1tb samsung external ssd, and wintousb to make it functional.
@technologicalcaveman Thank you never have heard of a WinToUSB but will really need to look into it as it sounds like a great way to be able to run Linux.
For your steam games you can check compatibility at https://www.protondb.com/
@nlm Thank you will check it out, didn’t know we actually had a database for it.
There’s also https://lutris.net/ and https://usebottles.com/
A lot of games work really well these days but you’ll probably notice a 10-20% fps drop. That’s at least what I’ve found.
Since people have suggested virtual machines, I wanted to mention that most of them will not be using your GPU (and GPU passthrough is tricky), so they won’t be helpful if you are using GPU-intensive apps.
On the other hand, moving form Adobe Illustrator to Inkscape was a pretty smooth transition for me, and I can’t say I miss any of Adobe’s features (except the Shape builder, which is also coming to Inkscape). However, I’m not a professional illustrator - it’s mostly a hobby for me and I only use it for creating icons, simple illustrations and infographics
Gaming experience has been really good, though! (Steam/Proton and yuzu for emulating some Switch games)
@CorInABox Thank you for this input, sadly I would be using GPU intensive apps with things such as Premiere Pro, So I might have to re-look into this at a later date or even decide to look into how I can use GPU Passthrough
GPU passthrough is not easy, thankfully there are guides online, but I did have to do a bit more digging after an issue I had.
You do need 2 GPUs, on a laptop it’s not an issue as most of them use an intel or amd gpu to render the desktop and only use dedicated graphics for intensive tasks, but on a desktops, you don’t have that option and you’ll need to turn off the graphical portion of linux, making it accessible only through something like ssh
The biggest issue with switching is your “must have” applications.
A lot of people spend time trying to make them work, it often doesn’t work well and so they go back.
Take Sync, Linux has similar solutions (insync is a popular one), but there alternative solutions. Perhaps the server could run syncthing or your tooling supports ftp, etc…
The key thing is not to ask for the equivalent of X, but think what you actually use X for.
So if you use Sync to share video on Slack, you don’t need a Sync replacement you need a way to share video on slack.
Alas I think Photoshop is the one killer application
@stevecrox Yeah I will have to see what I can find without moving to Linux and see what I can find. Sync sadly isn’t a bypass for me it’s more of a destination for my files to store (Instead of using Google Drive or any other system). The Adobe suite I’ve kind of got to keep on using especially with how much work I would loose if I did move across, So I’ll have to re-evaluate what I can do from what someone mentioned, I need to learn how to GPU Passthrough for the VM if I where to go that root.
You miss the point about Sync.
You don’t need sync, you need a cloud storage solution that works with linux.
Its being willing to step back in that way which will help you transition.
@stevecrox Yeah I basically do need that, There’s a lot of usage with Sync that I enjoy such as its auto-saving to the cloud. I think because of the amount of storage I do take up I will be looking into External 10TB Hard Drives as they cost only £200 each (What is a lot but sort of worth it when your currently paying £300 a year on Cloud Storage).
I’d just use WSL. Yeah, it has problems but it’s the simplest solution for me.
@bedrooms That’s fair enough, from what everyone else has said, I will probably try emulating Windows through a VM on Windows first then try Dual-booting Linux on my PC before deciding to ditch windows for a all Linux set-up where I can then just use a VM for Windows.