How well can linux run production softwares ?

[Breb3i]

Hello !
After Anthony's video about trying linux, i thought i should give it a try too, so my question is :

How well can it run productive softwares, like adobe, other 3D softwares ...
(using ryzen + nvidia)
Thank you

[Electronics Wizardy]

Really depends on the software you use. But adobe stuff doesn't run well, and lots of other stuff has issues.

 

Id just run windows, its not worth the hassle for a worse experience here. Then dualboot or run a vm for linux stuff. Or get a mac if you just don't want windows. Or switch to software that runs native on linux.

[RONOTHAN##]

Adobe is the big one that people just can't get to work on Linux, so you'll need to switch to some other software to get it to work. Davinci Resolve is the big one on Linux, so if you're somewhat comfortable with it you can get that to work pretty easily. 

 

As for 3D software, what exact type are you trying to get working? If you just mean Blender, it work great. If there's some other software like Solidworks, you probably won't have a great time.

[Breb3i]

Sadly  
(i kind of like linux interface and feel like it's more organized that's why)
Thank you for the advices !

[gudvinr]

If you use Adobe software for a living, then just forget about that. Same with closed-source DAW and stuff like that.

There is a number of programs that are available natively on Linux for professional applications like Blender or DaVinci Resolve but you wouldn't want to change both OS and software. It'd be too much.

 

If you really want to try then either install as second system and boot there when you're not working or use separate PC for that.

That'll give you much more sane and peaceful experience.

 

You can run Windows VM with GPU passthrough but it isn't an easy task. Albeit makes switching between workspaces faster.

If you're just trying to get into it'll be exhausting and you probably will end up with broken system.

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, Breb3i said:

Sadly  
(i kind of like linux interface and feel like it's more organized that's why)
Thank you for the advices !

The way a lot of people get started is to load Linux up on an old laptop or something where you don't have to rely on, and then use that to test to see what works for you and what doesn't. My laptops were running Linux for a while before I even thought about installing it on my desktop because I needed to make sure that almost everything I do will run on Linux. Plus, even if you can't get everything you need to work on Linux for your desktop, just having it on your laptop can make a lot of sense. There's usually a lot less stuff running in the background so battery life will be better, and some things do just work better on Linux. 

[Breb3i]

I use :

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe After Effects
Blender 

literally nothing else, but seems like adobe is the main problem here ...
 

[pythonmegapixel]

1 minute ago, Breb3i said:

adobe is the main problem here

That sentence sums up an awful lot.

[Master Disaster]

18 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Adobe is the big one that people just can't get to work on Linux, so you'll need to switch to some other software to get it to work.

I mean, not entirely correct. Much of Adobes CC can run fine under Linux, there are only issues with a few of the apps, the main issue is the DRM which throws a fit under wine meaning you pretty much have to pirate it even if you own a license.

 

There are also OSS alternatives for pretty much everything in CC anyway.

[Breb3i]

For Photoshop and Illustrator , if they run, i don't need their full performance because i don't do complex stuff on them anyway, it's just After Effects that concerns me the most, since Blender already runs well.

[RONOTHAN##]

12 minutes ago, Breb3i said:

I use :

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe After Effects
Blender 

literally nothing else, but seems like adobe is the main problem here ...
 

You can try some of the Linux alternatives (most of them do work on Windows so you won't have to install Linux to try them). There's GIMP and Krita to replace Photoshop and Illustrator, but they aren't nearly as full featured and don't integrate as tightly with each other as Adobe stuff does. Blender can take over a lot of what After Effects does, though there is other software out there that will work (I think Black Magic has some that works).

[Breb3i]

Then i guess I will just ,like you guys suggested, test it out on laptop and see if it suits me (i just want to try things )
Big thank you for the great informations  

[Master Disaster]

[Guest willies leg]

The question is pretty weird, that's like saying how well can the Mac run MS Flight Simulator.

 

A better way to phrase the question would be, "I've got Linux, what's most like Adobe product X that would run well on Linux"

 

There's a ton of great stuff there.

Lots of movies were made using open source software.

 

 

[Breb3i]

@Master Disaster
Great informations ! 

[Lightwreather]

22 minutes ago, Breb3i said:

I use :

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe After Effects
Blender 

literally nothing else, but seems like adobe is the main problem here ...
 

Theoretically you could try this:

 

[gudvinr]

@Breb3i Do not listen to people who suggest using GIMP as an alternative to PS. It's not nearly as feature-rich as PS. There are tons of addons for PS and it has great integration with other CC apps. Everyone who says otherwise either never really used PS or use it somewhat casually.

There are no real alternatives to Ai on Linux. Inkscape is a joke compared to Illustrator.

 

Krita, on the other hand, is great application for drawing. Not as replacement for PS, but it is good on its own.

 

It really depends on how you use this software and why. If it is what makes you money then it wouldn't make you any good if instead of working you would end up tinkering with stuff that you have no experience with. Especially if it is required to use specific software at work.

I do not recommend to rely on wine if that's the case.

 

If you use these applications for a hobby and don't mind investing some time, you can try alternatives and then move to Linux when (and if) you become comfortable enough with new software. That way you won't need to learn multiple things at a time. And probably user experience with Linux will just be more friendly so it's ok to do that later but not end up hating it.

It is possible to use wine but don't expect it to work just out of the box. It will break from time to time and requires some prior experience to not make things worse. So I'd suggest to lean towards software that is supported on Linux natively is possible.

 

Valve makes significant efforts to make linux gaming with Steam suck less but other software developers don't do that.

 

I understand that people want to help you but it does more harm than good when you get false hopes and it leads to negative experience.

[Biohazard777]

31 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Theoretically you could try this:

 

I've got WinApps setup, it is just a Windows VM client running in the background to which your host (Linux) connects to via RDP protocol + some file manager integrations and shortcuts.

It works OK-ish most of the time but still, FreeRDP has a few bugs, also you are running a full fat VM in the background so there is quite a lot of overhead and even if that is not an issue if you've ever used RDP (even Microsoft's own client) you will know not to expect the same experience as if you are in front of a real Windows PC.

Also worth noting is that WinApps is looking for a new maintainer,  project hasn't had an update for almost a year. There are a few active forks which have some updates, so it might be better to use one of those.

TL;DR WinApps is fine for stuff like Office, but I would not recommend it for pro photo / video editing.

 

[Breb3i]

16 minutes ago, gudvinr said:

@Breb3i Do not listen to people who suggest using GIMP as an alternative to PS. It's not nearly as feature-rich as PS. There are tons of addons for PS and it has great integration with other CC apps. Everyone who says otherwise either never really used PS or use it somewhat casually.

There are no real alternatives to Ai on Linux. Inkscape is a joke compared to Illustrator.

 

Krita, on the other hand, is great application for drawing. Not as replacement for PS, but it is good on its own.

 

It really depends on how you use this software and why. If it is what makes you money then it wouldn't make you any good if instead of working you would end up tinkering with stuff that you have no experience with. Especially if it is required to use specific software.

I do not recommend to rely on wine if that's the case.

 

If you use these application for a hobby and don't mind investing some time, you can try alternatives and then move to Linux when (and if) you became comfortable enough with new software. That way you won't need to learn multiple things at a time. And probably user experience with Linux will just be more friendly so it's ok to do that later but not end up hating it.

It is possible to use wine but don't expect it to work just out of the box. It will break from time to time and requires some prior experience to not make things worse. So I'd suggest to lean towards software that is supported on Linux natively is possible.

 

I understand that people want to help you but it does more harm than good when you get false hopes and it leads to negative experience.

I share the same opinion, like after years of experience in specific sofwares, you can't just restart from zero, just curiosity and since windows 11 is still not "complete" especially with Ryzen, so I won't be upgrading anytime soon. 

But i will give it try and see i guess.

 

(when i used linux years before, I felt like I own it, unlike windows)

[wasab]

like others said, adobe is a no go. Perhaps someone can make a web version that can open up an adobe file

[Roswell]

15 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

I mean, not entirely correct. Much of Adobes CC can run fine under Linux, there are only issues with a few of the apps, the main issue is the DRM which throws a fit under wine meaning you pretty much have to pirate it even if you own a license.

 

There are also OSS alternatives for pretty much everything in CC anyway.

Depends what you’re using. If Photoshop is part of your workflow, there’s no replacement. 
 

GIMP is… fine for novices/hobbyists goofing around, completely unusable for actual work. No non-destructive editing (this is really inexcusable at this point), no CMYK so forget about physical print and no RAW support. 
 

Same thing with Illustrator and InDesign, there aren’t any appropriate alternatives for real work. In Windows/macOS you have the Affinity suite which DOES have feature parity for the most part, not sure how well Affinity works in Wine though.

[GoodBytes]

-- Moved to Operating Systems  > Linux, macOS and Everything Not-Windows ---

[Magnetron HD]

I use ubuntu, and blender works well on it, also some cheesy designer games like openrocket etc. I think you shouldn't worry too much, I mean, there's always good old michaelsoft binbows...

[10leej]

21 hours ago, gudvinr said:

Do not listen to people who suggest using GIMP as an alternative to PS. It's not nearly as feature-rich as PS. There are tons of addons for PS and it has great integration with other CC apps. Everyone who says otherwise either never really used PS or use it somewhat casually.

The problem is that yes it is technically possible for GIMP to do everything PS can. However the PS addon and CC integration is far better than what we have available for Linux. However, if you put the time in, you can reach the same end result.

 

And the fact that it takes time to learn and readjust is the problem. And that is why Adobe for better or worse is superior. LTT has a video on this.\

However Linux has been involved in 3d modelling and animation for far longer than Windows or Mac OS due to Pixar using it since back in the 90s their tools actually ran on AT&T UNIX and porting to Linux was cheaper and easier than porting everything to Windows/Mac (as Mac was PowerPC based at the time and not x86).

That's why Blender has almost always had the capability to edit videos.