Windows is hell, i need to do something

Yo linux team, i would love some advice.

I’m pretty mad at windows, 11 keeps getting worse and worse and I pretty done with Bill’s fetishes about bing and ai. Who knows where’s cortana right now…

Anyway, I heard about this new company called Linux and I’m open to try new stuff. I’m a simple guy and just need some basic stuff:

  • graphic stuff: affinity, canva, corel, gimp etc.. (no adobe anymore, please don’t ask.)
  • 3d modelling and render: blender, rhino, cinema, keyshot
  • video editing: davinci
  • some little coding in Dart/flutter (i use VS code, I don’t know if this is good or bad)
  • a working file explorer (can’t believe i have to say this)
  • NO FUCKIN ADS
  • NO MF STUPID ASS DISGUSTING ADVERTISING

The tricky part is the laptop, a zenbook duo pro (i9-10/rtx2060), with double touch screens.

I tried ubuntu several years ago but since it wasn’t ready for my use i never went into different distros and their differences. Now unfortunately, ready or not, I need to switch.

Edit: the linux-company thing is just for triggering people, sorry I didn’t know it was this effective.

laughterlaughter ,

pretty done with Bill’s fetishes about bing and ai.

I agree with all your points, but Bill Gates has no agency on the company's decisions these days. Blame Satya.

dan00 OP ,

"What you read is not what's happening in reality. Satya and the entire senior leadership team lean on Gates very significantly. His opinion is sought every time we make a major change."

Business Insider article

No agency you say?

laughterlaughter ,

Well, shit!

tsonfeir ,
@tsonfeir@lemm.ee avatar

You sound like a dick, and “Bill” is not involved anymore. That’s like yelling at Steve Jobs.

Regardless, I just switched a dozen people in my company to KDE Neon with no issues. Full hardware support. They’re all using Thinkpad, mostly the T16

JackbyDev ,

Re edit: That combined with double touch screens made me think this was all a shit post lol

FangedWyvern42 ,
@FangedWyvern42@lemmy.world avatar

Gimp and Blender are both available on Linux. VS Code is on Linux (most coding stuff is on Linux). Linux file explorers work pretty well (Dolphin, for example). I’d recommend Kubuntu, KDE neon or Linux Mint for the distro, all are pretty similar in appearance to Windows. It won’t take much learning with them.

BlastboomStrice ,
@BlastboomStrice@mander.xyz avatar

video editing: davinci

Btw, there's olive editor 0.2. It's kinda unstable, but much better interface than davinci. Plus, it's open source.

SuperSpruce ,

I don't think Olive is a good alternative to davinci resolve. First, nothing is good if it crashes a lot. Second, Davinci Resolve is feature rich and super powerful, while Olive is not. The closest FOSS alternative is Kdenlive, but I'd recommend finding a distro that can run Davinci itself, as Davinci does have a native Linux client for some distros.

BlastboomStrice ,
@BlastboomStrice@mander.xyz avatar

Well, can't argue much with that. It's a shame it crashes often.. I might check kdenlive some time though.

phoenixz ,

I'd recommend installing kde neon. KDE is a user interface that looks a bit more like windows, it should be an easy transition. KDE Neon runs most of the latest versions, should have the best support whilst being easy to install.

Most of the software you manage should work, for those that might be problematic, you might be able to find alternatives, see alternativeto.net

eutampieri ,

Just beware that Affinity won't work well (there's been an attempt with a custom version of Wine that I haven’t tried: https://github.com/daniel080400/AffinityLinuxTut)

the16bitgamer ,
@the16bitgamer@lemmy.world avatar

OK, let me fill you with my experience. Now I am on Desktop Linux, and I can't say how your Double Touch screens will work. But I can tell you about some of your points.

Affinity, canva, corel, and cinema4d are not Linux compatible and you'll need to run them in Wine/Wine GE via software like Bottles or Lutris. Most will not work, while others like affinity might work, but requires a lot of working around. If these software's are required, you may want to look at a Mac.

keyshot, gimp, vscode(ium) are all native and have either scripts or can be installed via Flatpak or from the distros app repos.

Davinci Resolve is interesting, You've lucked out since you have an rtx2060, but Resolve is quite finicky to get working Linux. You'll need nvidia drivers and the open source free drivers will not work. All good Linux distros should have easy access, but I found Fedora to be trickier to install. Once you can get Resolve working, you'll either need to buy Studio if you want H.264 support, and if your videos aren't using PCM audio then you'll need to convert it using FFMPEG. I have a script which I use at the end of my injest. Afterwords, it runs and works fine, with no issues (assuming you have the RAM to run it 32GB recommended). If you don't want to deal with any of this (understandable) Mac OS has no issues out of the box.

Working file explorer: up to taste, and personal preference. Every distro will have one and it'll be good enough, but some distros tailor theirs to their OS's tastes. If you are running with a popular Desktop Environment, i.e. KDE Plasma, Gnome, Cinnamon, then it'll work.

Now if you want my two cents on all of this. First you should aim for a Ubuntu based distro. While Ubuntu itself isn't bad, I personally prefer a different Desktop Environment as Gnome is too different for me from what Windows offers. Linux Mint with Cinnamon and POP_OS are good alternative with a more Windows/Mac flavoring, and since they are running Gnome underneath it'll have the same compatibility as Ubuntu proper with hardware.

Another option is Kubuntu which used KDE's Plasma. Plasma is OK, but I find it to be a little less refined than it's appearance lead me to believe.

Now for testing, I'd advise you to get a second SSD and an enclosure and plug it into a USB-C port. It'll do wonders to quickly go an run everything, without sacrificing you existing install of Winblows. Linux is so efficent I ran my main PC for a week off of it, and only noticed while running games.

Finally, depending on how often you are using your Windows only software. You might get away with running them in a Windows 10 VM, and using a shared folder to the Host machine to move files back and forth.

This is definatly a project you should look into, but I feel you should probably look at more cross platform alternatives to your software first. Since another alternative, if you aren't playing games, is a Mac.

dan00 OP ,

Thank you! DaVinci feels like the bigger problem, but between changing os or changing application, i will change davinci in a second. No more compromises for me, enough.

If i ever buy apple again i hope someone will find me and beat me up until I'm unconscious.

the16bitgamer ,
@the16bitgamer@lemmy.world avatar

Well your only alternative is Kdenlive, which is a very unstable experience. There are some alternative video editing software on Linux, but they follow the adobe model of, give me your money forever to use it. Resolve works, just need to tune your injest to get the video to work. I have a bash script I can send you that batch fixes videos which I can send you.

As for apple machines. I get the distain as I too don’t like Apple, and feel their locked in software, hardware, and ecosystem is overpriced and unreliable. But the way I see it, if the computer is for work, which this appears to be, I need the best machine for the job, and Apple unlike Microsoft and Google, has very clean software and hardware that I can trust for professional work. No ads, very fast hardware, stable, with no compromises.

That said I will not use them for personal use. Hence the switch over to Linux. I would’ve got a Mac Mini for work if I had the budget for one.

SuperSpruce ,

Quick correction: Canva is web based so you can use it on Linux no problem.

For me, the Windows software I use are:

  1. Musicbee
  2. Davinci Resolve

That's pretty much it. I could definitely switch to Linux full time, but Musicbee is soooo good that it feels like a sacrifice.

ILikeBoobies , (edited )

Gimp and Blender are Linux software

DaVinci Resolve has a Linux version

Code OSS (or VSCode is you want Windows telemetry included) works

a working file explorer

Not an issue, you can use Dolphin on Windows if you wanted

NO FUCKIN ADS

That’s easy

Now unfortunately, ready or not, I need to switch.

Try Mint

The things I missed are ones I know nothing about

mlg , (edited )
@mlg@lemmy.world avatar

Linux Mint if you're unsure

Fedora if you're brave and want the full Toolbox

Please not Ubuntu. It has enough of its own issues that it originally turned me away from Linux.

Oh and KDE for the desktop environment if you want great out of box windows like UI if you go with Fedora. Mint comes with cinnamon which is also pretty good. xfce if you want to run linux on a potato.

Scary_le_Poo ,
@Scary_le_Poo@beehaw.org avatar

Sounds like a pihole on your network would solve all of your issues.

LeFantome ,

Does that stop the ads in the Windows UI? I would not have thought so.

ILikeBoobies ,

It’s just blocking the urls, if you block the ones that Windows use then it will

Scary_le_Poo ,
@Scary_le_Poo@beehaw.org avatar

Also, winaerotweaker makes it easy to turn of ads, telemetry, auto updates and tons of other stuff

Scary_le_Poo ,
@Scary_le_Poo@beehaw.org avatar

Also you don't have to have a pi to run a pi hole. You can run it in windows using WSL. Just search Google for pi hole WSL. All you do is run the power shell script and it does practically everything for you

Crozekiel ,

Linux is the kerbal, the company would be GNU.

/s

eutampieri ,

Maybe the kernel? :)

Crozekiel ,

Ah damn. Didn't proof-read myself. It's a fun typo though, maybe Linux is related to Jebediah?

mbryson ,
@mbryson@lemmy.ca avatar

I heard about this new company called Linux

I thought it was funny at least, so you gave me a good laugh.

I'd say Linux Mint or Ubuntu (you're familiar with this one) would be good "Out of the Box" options. They run an environment known as "Debian" so they're super similar and are pretty similar to what Windows offers in all honesty. You just burn them to a USB, run them from your desired computer's BIOS, and the rest is through a GUI interface you can follow along with. I have no experience with a touchscreen as I'm running Linux Mint XFCE (lightest weight version) on a laptop from the early 2010's with an Intel N2820 in it, but I'm assuming some workaround can exist to implement that. You also seem somewhat familiar with the alternative programs for different purposes, but rest assured both Ubuntu and Mint come with file explorers (Mint XFCE uses one called Thunar which is pretty effective) and you can easily swap out/install a different file manager to get jobs done as needed.

Plus - any programs you used with Windows which may not have Linux alternatives or versions - can be run through Wine. I've encountered a few hiccups when doing this (like a program I needed for school which was unable to pass the initial installation and actually run the program).

I've run Linux Mint XFCE as my daily driver for work and school tasks on my laptop for about 2-3 years at this point and it's been pretty great. Full disclosure: I still run Windows 11 on my main PC at home and have Windows 10 on a HTPC/Server with docker on it (though I've been debating switching to Ubuntu for this as well) so I still know there are benefits to a Windows system (while working to remove any and all advertising and AI garbage) but if I were to recommend someone a distro it would be as I've said above.

Good luck! Hope you find one that works for you!

CileTheSane ,
@CileTheSane@lemmy.ca avatar

Can Mint read files from a Windows partition or is it a different filesystem?

I'm waiting until there's a good sale on Hard drives to set up a dual-boot.

thevoidzero ,

Reading filesystem is not about which distribution you have but drivers on disc. If you have FAT the defaults should work, for NTFS you might have to install the ntfs driver. I don't use mint but it's the linux way so either it's already there or you can install it. Once you have driver just mount it like a normal drive and it's done.

CileTheSane ,
@CileTheSane@lemmy.ca avatar

Good to know. Thank you.

dan00 OP ,

Thanks, I feel like Mint could be already a valid one but maybe Fedora kde could be more useful. I'll check both for sure asap. It's crazy how bad windows is honesty and still so necessary for some jobs.

MrPenguinSky ,

Fedora will always be my go-to, and the KDE spin should be pretty familiar layout wise for former windows users.

Since you have an nvidia gpu, Pop OS will probably be your best bet if you need it working immediately.

I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu anymore, as it's been pushing snaps (package manager) MS-style, and it's gotten some shit from the community for various reasons over the years.

Linux Mint is also good, too. It's very easy to just get up and going, perfect for people who aren't familiar with Linux, too.

ghen ,

The worst part about snaps isn't the fact that their packaged like Windows files, it's that it makes updating everything on your computer confusing as fuck when you don't really want to ever think about it.

ILikeBoobies ,

Me updating my system then updating Flatpak because the gpu driver difference breaks everything

octopus_ink ,

Edit: the linux-company thing is just for triggering people, sorry I didn’t know it was this effective.

Heh it really was wasn't it? Been on Linux for near to twenty years now and I'm still surprised to see it. :D

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