Hello community,
I am tired of windows slowing down my laptop, and I tought I’d give linux a chance. So I learn, that there are many linuxes, and I wonder if it really matters. which one to choose. Can all linux apps be run on all distributions? Is it just a matter of the ‘app store’ supporting them or not?
I am producing media art for theatre plays. So I have to rely on a stable system as well as the following tools:
- Blender 3d
- a DAW
- Design Software (adobe alternatives)
- Video Editing & compositing
- Projection mapping (I fear, there is just mapmap under linux)
- audio cuing (linux show player)
- maybe also light show programming (artnet / dmx)
The machine would be a Gigabyte Aero 15x with a dedicated nvidia gfx card, and 8 gigs of ram.
What would you recommend me?
Ubuntu LTS
You seem to have actual work to do on Linux and a large suite of software to get working. This will be your most significant challenge. Ubuntu is one of the default targets for nearly all software projects, open source or proprietary and if there’s any documentation or information, Ubuntu will be in it. This alone will give give you a ton of mileage. You probably don’t want to add the difficulty of figuring out why something written and tested for Ubuntu doesn’t work on another distro. Resources like wiki.ubuntu.com, help.ubuntu.com, askubuntu.com and discourse.ubuntu.com are there to help.
I agree with this, but Debian is closely related to Ubuntu so most guides will work. I am just throwing this out there because I don’t personally like a lot of the proprietary stuff Canonical has added to Ubuntu.
This is true, but there’s still a bit of a gap between the two such as versions and or the existence or lack thereof of some packages here and there, along with default packages and configs. It’s why I wouldn’t throw a complete novice on a productivity mission at Debian. If they’re able to get productive on Ubuntu and learn to use it, the switch to Debian is easier.
The choice of distro isn’t too important, you can usually run any software on any distro. The installation process varies a bit by distro because they use different package managers, but they generally all have all the software you need
The most important choice for the start is your desktop environment. I’m partial to KDE and can highly recommend it for linux beginners because it’s a lot like windows by default and extremely customizable. There are also XFCE (very light and fast, not too many features), Gnome (some people swear by it but it doesn’t let you customize much), cinnamon (no bullshit, fast and windows-like) and a bunch of others.
Then pick a distro based on that. The popular ones are usually also the best ones to start with, with one notable exception (in my opinion): Ubuntu.
It uses snaps, which are an alternative way to install software that’s made by canonical (the makers of ubuntu) and generally disliked among the linux community because it slows down application startup and causes very weird issues that are hard to figure out. Ubuntu will install some applications via snap instead of the package manager (which is apt for ubuntu) even if you specifically invoke apt instead of snap.
You can sti use it and probably be fine, but you’ll have to endure snap problems or go out of your way to avoid using it. Picking a different distro from the start is easier than that.
Pretty much any distro will do, but Ubuntu-based ones tend to be easier to use due to having menus and buttons for most everything. As for apps, here are my suggestions
3D
Blender
DAW
Ardour
LMMS
Bitwig
~VIDEO EDITING~
Davinci Resolve (if on Nvidia)
Kdenlive
Olive (alpha software, be wary of crashes and save often)
IMAGES
GIMP
Krita
Photopea (web app)
Inkscape
Lights may be possible with OpenRGB but I haven’t personally messed with these kinda of software
Also scribus can be extremely clunky if you need to make flyers inkscape may be easier.
I’ve made 60 page brochures in Scribus on several occasions without real issues.
However you have to know a bit (not necessarily a lot, but at least understand what you’re doing) of typography, and using styles is absolutely essential.
It’s a quirky program but it works fine.
There already good recommendations, so i’ll just add that you shouldn’t make your work life harder for the sake of running Linux.
Definetly give it a go, and see if it fulfills your needs, but maybe hold off on nuking your Windows install until you are satisfied.
I use my Linux computer for personal stuff and some work stuff (web-browsing, email, office suite) and i have a separate Windows PC just for running applications specific to my field, which don’t have Linux versions or alternatives (or where it makes the most sense for me to use the industry standard)
Fedora or Ubuntu/Ubuntu based both are very beginner friendly and stable, both have wide community support and both have user friendly app centers.
