Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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If you depend on a piece of software for your career, you shouldn't try to force it to work on another OS or some hardware it doesn't have support for. Just run Windows.
You could try using a Windows VM, or even doing GPU passthrough. But do you really want to troubleshoot that for 2 days when an update breaks everything?
fwiw, running photoshop through a VM would be pretty easy and pretty quick to setup with very little (if any) troubleshooting required, and it’s unlikely that updates would break stuff. I’ve done it many, many times.
The real problem is getting good performance out of it. Now, I don’t know OP’s specific needs or what specific Adobe apps he’s using. if it’s just Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, he’s gonna be fine. if he’s got enough memory and he’s running the VM by itself, he shouldn’t notice much of any performance degradation until he’s got some gigantic files open in PS and/or he’s juggling a bunch of files between PS and Illustrator.
Now, if he’s trying to run AfterEffects or Premier, he could run into more serious performance issues and would definitely need to dual-boot if he wants to render anything. But he may not be using those apps.
Running those apps through Wine? THAT is the massive PitA that can take days to configure and troubleshoot and where an update can break anything— but it runs at native speed. Using a VM is pretty simple… just slower.
I mainly work with illustrator and Photoshop but I occasionally edit videos on Premier Pro.
Yeah, I heard Wine does not work well with Adobe products. I haven't tried it though.
Wine will suck ass with Premier, if it works at all. There ARE reasonable alternatives to use in Linux, unlike with PS or Illustrator.
PS in Linux is… ok…. depending on what you’re doing with it. if it’s basic stuff, you’ll get by. start delving into big boy stuff, and it struggles. Illustrator… I doubt it. I’d stick with a VM for both for major workloads until you really need bare-metal performance. This is something you will have to feel out for yourself.
GPU passthrough is a huge headache that doesn't work how you would want it to from what I've vented. You apparently need 2 gpus. There are some setups that take one in theory but I've yet to find anyone who properly set it up.
Those who I've found to have setup a GPU passthrough said it wasn't worth the upkeep and stopped with the first update cycle.
If you need Adobe, just don't bother with linux on your primary work / study machine. Save linux for another system.
As a primary Linux user, this might be the easiest answer. If there is specific software needed for work, then your work computer should serve that purpose.
Still, if I was freelancing and it's my computer, I certainly would look at dual-booting or just having more than one computer (could even use a KVM switch to use the same keyboard, monitors and mouse). Also if I'm using software professionally, I would also have a professional interest in open source alternatives.
Still, this is all optional and extra. Just running Adobe is the baseline.
I really want to switch to Linux as my main gaming/production OS but need the Adobe suite
That's not a hurdle... that's a wall.
If your livelihood depends on running a Windows-only application, run it on a Windows computer.
You are, of course, free to also have a Linux computer for everything else. Use a KVM switch to toggle between them, or something like Synergy or Barrier to pass the mouse/keyboard/clipboard between both PCS. Share the storage between them over your network.
I went Mac. it’s UNIX, and far better than suck-ass windows… but there’s a real limitation when it comes to gaming… Linux is supporting more and more games and macOS isn’t so much… that might change soon, it might not.
Personally, I’m not so much of a gamer, and I really like the Apple ecosystem. I run linux on my server and love it, too, and macOS plays really nice with linux. But if gaming is big for you AND you need Adobe apps like I do, then you’ll have to dual-boot if you want your main OS to be linux.
As for learning the ins-and-outs: there’s a leaning curve we ALL go through, and you’ll always be learning more as you go. But there’s never been a better time to learn as there’s never been more resources to help nor more community to support you with any and every problem you could ever have. Now is a very exciting time for linux. it’s super.
So, if I were you, I’d consider the switch away from Windows. You can dual-boot (or run a VM) or find a way to run Adobe Apps via Wine (not sure how that works). Personally, I couldn’t live without them and am very happy with macOS, but it’s not for everyone. Maybe you’ll be able to live with dual-booting into windows for wen you need to work and living the rest of the time in linux. it’s a journey you’re just going to have to take.
best of luck to you!
True! I am still going to college and the school I will be transferring to requires a MacBook so I have to get one anyway.
Does Mac OS have the same issues as Windows where settings change each update? That is my major annoyance with Windows.
True! I am still going to college and the school I will be transferring to requires a MacBook so I have to get one anyway.
I’m pretty sure you’ll like it, a hell of a lot more that Winblows anyway. like I said, macOS is UNIX (which linux was made to emulate), so they’re interoperable and have very similar architectures under the hood. macOS is defiantly different in its Apple-y ways, but still plays very nice with linux systems and also supports many linux software ports. There’s also a macOS command-line package manager called Homebrew that’s used to distribute many of these crossover software packages.
Does Mac OS have the same issues as Windows where settings change each update?
NO! macOS updates very rarely (if ever) break things, even with the legendarily persnickety Adobe apps, mostly because Adobe apps don’t have to hack shit in order to run on macOS, because macOS isn’t a dumpster fire of an OS like windows is.
Stick to Windows. Linux is fine for IT pros and as a hobby. For graphic design with Adobe I just don't see your productivity would be the same.
Youre stuck on Windows Im afraid, and Im pretty sure Adobe will never make a linux port
Don't feel bad because you're really good at using a tool that doesn't follow your values. I use Windows during the work week and I use Linux for gaming on the weekend where I literally can't work even if I wanted to.
For me Windows is a tool box with propriatry tools that have no Linux compatibility. That's OK for me. People get emotionally invested but that's neither healthy nor helpful. No point being angry at work, it's like being angry that your work uniform is made by one textiles vendor not the other.
You get to choose what you use at home in your own time. If you feel good using Linux then, do it!
Looks like someone created an install script for photoshop on Linux. Uses wine to run.
Photoshop is just one of the many apps included in the Adobe suite. So while this is a welcomed repo, I’m afraid it is not feasible for people who design professionally
You don't need to "switch to Linux". It's not a binary decision. Dual booting or dual partitioning is completely fine. Adobe even with wine and GPU pass-through has far worse performance than if you just boot up windows. It is fine to combine any software you want. That's the "free" in "free software."
Dual boot is really your only option aside from straight up staying on Windows. You can game and general use on Linux, then switch to Windows when it's time to work. Not the most ideal and I know you said you don't want to do that, but if you rely on Adobe products (which sadly many people do) you kind of need a Windows install or a Mac.
Another, much more expensive, option is to get a MacBook (or another laptop I suppose, not sure if the goal is to fully cut out Windows) and have that at your desk for your Adobe uses, and have Linux on your desktop. Not really feasible for most people but I don't really know your situation so I thought I'd throw it out there.
You should try Krita to replace photoshop on Linux, i am on professionnal designer but lt feels really close to photoshop to me.
Adobe suite is one thing that is still an immense pain to get running on Linux, if you can even get it running at all. There aren't a whole lot of good alternatives depending on your workflow, either. GIMP can be a good Photoshop substitute, but there isn't really a good Illustrator substitute (Inkscape doesn't support CMYK, for example), and it gets worse for the other tools in the suite, so your mileage may vary with that approach.
As others have said, a VM is an option. But, how about a KVM? Maybe it sounds old school, but you could have a Linux box for home / fun / gaming that just shares peripherals with a Windows box that is just for work. Then you get a few advantages:
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Linux PC as normal with no fancy setup needed
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Windows work PC has Adobe as usual, and you just do your non-work stuff on the Linux box. Network them together for easy file sharing.
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You don't need to reboot to go between one or the other; simply switch your KVM over. Let Windows do its update nonsense or other data processing while gaming on the Linux box.
Obviously this does mean you need two physical machines, which might be a dealbreaker for you unless you have parts sitting around.
Edit: something else I just thought of: it is also possible to dual boot but get fancy with hibernation (not sleep, but hibernate = write all RAM contents to disk). You hibernate either installation to switch to the other, so while technically a reboot, all of your apps / windows etc come back up as if you hadn't rebooted.
need the Adobe suite as I am a graphic designer.
Then simply use Windows when you need to design something and Linux for everything else.
"But I don't want to dual-boot!"
Then buy another PC and install Linux in it. A $10 single-board computer can run Linux just fine -- even play 4k videos.
$10 SBC? Can you name that one? It seems like every time I want an SBC for a project they're all $50+ these days.
Can you name that one?
Orange pi zero 3. Its super small, has the same/slightly better performance than a rpi 4 and the power draw caps at (worst case scenario) 3W. The only downside is that you MUST be a turbonerd in order to use it effectively.
I do design work in Inkscape and Photopea. I actually prefer Inkscape to Illustrator the software is very impressive. Sadly GIMP is still limited and I don't use it much.
Photopea however is nice and has good PSD support including smart objects, adjustement layers, etc
Steam installs perfectly well on Debian and most games pick up a small performance boost from running on an OS with less overheads.
Unraid servers can be hosted from Debian with few issues .
I've tried switching to Linux many times over the years. There are many things about it that rock... But, unfortunately plenty that do not. Financially it doesn't make sense for Adobe and others to support Linux (sadly).
Dual boot is an option, as you mentioned. However, Linux will run on a toaster. Fire it up on a thumb drive, or an old laptop, or whatever you've got and putz around. It's fun just to explore.
Not sure how good this advice is since I'm not a professional, but: You could try out running Adobe programs in a VM with VMWare (vmware.com). They have an excellent 3D acceleration support already. Just give your VM a good chunk of your hardware resources (I use half of my CPU cores and 3/4 of my system memory). I use that for running Affinity Designer 2 from Sarif, and it works quite well for me. Windows VM boots up in between 6 – 8 seconds and I have a shared folder, where I can drop stuff to interact between my Windows VM and my Linux main system. But like I said, I'm not a professional.
For a long time l had 2 PCs, one windows and one Linux, with 2 monitors, I used the software "barrier" to share my keyboard/mouse between them, it worked pretty well.
I agree with the posters who are telling you to stick with Windows if your career depends on software that isn't Linux compatible. If you want to play with Linux you can install WSL on Windows, run Linux in a VM on Windows or buy a cheap used/refurb business laptop and Linux to your heart's content on that.
Buy yourself a second PC or laptop to be able to use both at the same time.
Just found this: https://www.maketecheasier.com/install-adobe-creative-cloud-linux/
Still, it might be fickle and bite.
Has 3 stars on crossover? Grab the trial and check it out.
Just stick with Windows, it works for you (as it is for me); as the saying goes, if it ain't broke, why fix it?
But Windows is broke. I recommend using it only if you truly have to (e.g. software dependencies for your work). If you think or know you don't need it, then don't use it, don't recommend it and also please don't claim it's not harmful or "just a tool like everything else". Tools don't spy on its users. The monopoly situation due to too many users still using is also in itself harmful for competition/alternatives, and on top of that its users suffer from massive amounts of privacy invasions.
If you don't want to continue to use Windows (which is an important realization to make), but feel like you can't use Linux yet for whatever reason, use OS X. It's sort of middle of the road. Also not great for various reasons, and also not recommended, but it will at least ease your transition to Linux later on because OS X is also Unix-like, and it's at least slightly less bad than Windows. Always re-evaluate from time to time, whether you still need Windows or OS X, and if not, switch to Linux.
I'm sorry...You can blame Adobe for not porting their tools.
Give a look if Adobe provides their tools through the web.
I have a single passthrough VM that I use for building Windows binaries.
I followed this tutorial: