Linux

First of all Linux isn't a company, but the name some dude named Linus gave his code he put for free on the internet.

Most modern Linux distros are still not run by companies, that's why they don't force the data collection, ads, ai etc down your throat.

That said: Linux is made from thousands of interlocking programs, scripts, services and libraries, made mostly by some guys or gurls in their free time. So with a lot of stuff you need to fit it to your needs, as granular customization is to troublesome to have working out of the box for every different usecase there could be. So with most stuff you should not be afraid to learn the basics of terminal commands (packet manager, editor, foldermanagment)

Some OS like Ubuntu and manjaro do a lot for you, but if you have weird double monitors, you may need to manually do some stuff.

If you want as much as possible easy install options I would go with manjaro - then you can install everything where users made an AUR (arch user repository) package. Check if they have all programs you want, if not look for alternatives.

If you want a more stable system but with a bit less possibilities, go for Ubuntu, debian, popOS or something like that.

Some things may never run, for example for my music daw(ableton) with low latency and not native support on Linux or the htc vive wireless (where there isn't a driver for the PCI card for Linux) I keep a win machine around. Day to day use is on debian on my side

If you want to test several Linux distributions Ventoy can be useful. You can have 10 or more different Linux distributions on one USB stick depending on the size of the stick. This will also save you time "flashing" an image iso to the stick each time because with Ventoy you'd simply copy the image iso files to the stick, quick and easy.

https://www.ventoy.net

In all honesty, you should decide between Debian and Fedora. If you're new to this, stay away from Arch Linux, Gentoo, or Manjaro. Simplicity is key. The two systems I mentioned are known for their reliability, so you should be fine with either one.

• Affinity Designer can be run under Linux with Bottles translation (forum post how to set it up)
• Canva does not support Linux
• GIMP is natively supported on Linux (official website / flatpak)
• Adobe is not supported on Linux at all
• Blender is natively supported on Linux (official website / flatpak)
• DaVinci Resolve is natively supported on Linux (offical website)
• VSCode is natively supported on Linux (official website / flatpak)
• almost every DE has a file explorer
• no ads included 😀 👍

Just grab yourself some Linux Mint, and try to ignore Arch and Gentoo crowd here.

Half of the apps you mentioned have Linux version right in the system package manager. Davinci has Linux version on their website.

CorelDraw might be a problem, WineHQ lists it's compatibility for the latest version as garbage, so you will probably need to switch to Inkscape.

Anyway, I heard about this new company called Linux

Pedantic explanation about GNU/Linux is coming in 3... 2... 1...

Linux is not a company lol I hope that was a joke. Also Linux is not new.

Now to the software: it will likely run everywhere. Davinci resolve is a bit picky but also fine.

You have quite some Windows-only software. Check https://alternative-to.net or try running it through WINE with Bottles

To the Distro: this is complex. Many people will recommend Linux Mint and it is easy to use but very restricted. I dont think it is great really.

There are many many parallel efforts, so on Linux Distributions (Linux + packages + desktop + ...) you can get very different software.

For a painfree experience running Windows software and Davinci Resolve I recommend to try Bazzite

It is very different from others:

• it updates automatically in the background. But completely different from Windows. Updates always work and are efficient and stable. No 10 times rebooting
• updates finish and you can reboot any time to apply it. Literally a week later, nobody cares
• the reboot takes just as long as any other reboot, no downtime

The system is way better and more stable than "traditional" ones. This is quite complex but lets say while on Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora etc. you will have an indivudual system, with individual packages and in the end some strange errors only happening on your setup, with Bazzite you will have exactly 1:1 the system that the developers create.

It is based on Fedora Atomic Desktops which are pretty great. But for your use case I dont recommend them.

I recommend the Bazzite Desktop version with the KDE Plasma desktop. This will be Windows-like in a very good way, but incredibly more efficient, faster and also more powerful. Like a Filemanager with tabs and extensions, that is not written in whatever bloat Microsoft uses (their Win11 stuff is so slow...).

To sum it up, on Linux you have to decide:

What Desktop environment?

• I recommend KDE Plasma a lot
• GNOME is also good but veery opinionated and minimalist
• I dont recommend others like Linux Mint's Cinnamon yet, as they dont support modern standards (Wayland)

What Distribution family?

• Debian, Fedora, Arch, OpenSUSE
• they are all a bit different but basically doing the same
• Ubuntu stems from Debian and became popular as "the beginner Linux" but they do very controversial stuff nobody else does (like the Snap store) and have tons of bugs. I used it a lot with bad experiences and dont recommend.
• Linux Mint and others also use Ubuntu or Debian under the hood
• Arch is very manual and difficult for new users, dont use it
• OpenSUSE does whatever they do, not recommended
• Fedora is pretty modern in their software, has a nice community and a big variety of options. They are not allowed to ship restricted media codecs for stuff like h264 video though
• uBlue (Bazzite, Bluefin, Aurora) is a project using Fedoras versions and adding nice stuff to it, making them usable out of the box. This is their goal, and they do it really well.

Try Kubuntu as a Distro. Any KDE Plasma Distro would be good as well. -Sincerely The Linux Company

For people coming from windows i think linux mint is the best choice.

Gimp, blender and vscode works well on linux

U can code dart/flutter with no problems on vscode on linux, android studio also works fine if you need to export to android.

For file manager i use nemo (default on mint cinnamon).

Other software mentioned i have no idea.

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.

I generally have 2 recommendations for beginners who don't want something specific, one of which is a community favorite, the other is my own favorite.

The community generally recommends Linux Mint for new users. It's based an Ubuntu, so it had a lot of great support, but it has the enshittification of Ubuntu (snaps, tracking, pro subscription ads, etc.) removed. It's a great, simple distro for beginners that generally works all around without tweaking. It's basically the #1 recommendation for new users, and I gladly support that recommendation.

My personal favorite recommendation is Fedora, through I understand why there may be frustrations for those with Nvidia graphics cards who need to install their drivers. The process to do it on Fedora isn't very complex, and can be looked up easily, but new users tend to feel intimidated by the command line, and I must admit that the installation of Nvidia drivers and media codec are more difficult than something like Linux Mint (for Fedora, this is a copyright issue, since their main sponsor is Red Hat, a private company). In every other area, I'd say Fedora is great for beginners, and provides a great way for users to get new features quickly without having to worry about any of the instabilities or quirks of something like Arch.

You couldn't go wrong with either, but you're certainly going to see more recommendations for Linux Mint in general (especially on Nvidia hardware).

Just stay away from Manjaro, Gentoo, and Void (there's a long list of complex distros, but it really isn't going to help to list them all). Gentoo and Void have their place, but are not a great place for a beginner to start. Manjaro simply has no place, just avoid it like the plague.

I ran Linux on a Zenbook Pro Duo. Fedora's KDE distribution was the only release I ever found that worked out of the box with both touchscreens as I'd expect. You'd think a big release like Ubuntu would work, but whatever they have set up for touchscreens is slightly out of whack. For example, touch and drag would select text instead of scrolling the page.

By default, your laptop might try to stay awake all the time. The second screen is treated as an external monitor, and there's a setting you can find in the configuration menu that forces the laptop to stay awake when an external device is connected.

Some other things to note. If you've got an older model, you might be able to find a third-party software suite such as this one that will allow you to use your laptop almost normally.

However, if your laptop is new enough, you might be unable to find any software (third party or otherwise) that supports the built-in features such as quick screen swapping, numpad, or turning off the lower screen. The lower screen is LCD anyways, so you won't get burn in. If you're worried about power, I've found that despite the lower screen being on full-time, Linux still doubled or tripled my battery life compared to when I ran Windows. I think the biggest immediate drawback is that you may not have any on-board audio due to a lack of drivers, though that might have been fixed in Fedora 40. I know they were working on that in the newer version of upstream Linux (which may not have arrived yet), but I haven't been following it. And finally, you won't be able to adjust the brightness of the lower screen without some configuration. Again, some of that might be mitigated if you can find some compatible and reliable 3rd-party software for your laptop.

I will say that despite all the limitations mentioned above, I still vastly preferred Linux to Windows. The battery life alone was enough to warrant the switch.

I'm at the point whe recommending distros fir new comers its Debian, Arch, Fedora and Linux Mint.

Debian is my go to. Stable, I love the apt package manager. Desktop environment is a bit irrelevant with recommendations because you can easily install any desktop environment or window manager. You will figure out what environment you like along the way. Installation is simple, you can do minimal installs as well and it's what many big name distros are based on.

I really like Arch. Minimal, great package manager, AUR extends application availability even when you have flatpaks, snaps and app images and the repo. You can use the archinstall script these days so you don't have to worry about installing the old-fashioned Arch way. It will also teach you what to do when updates fail because it's a rolling release.

If none of those are appealing then I would advise Fedora. Great package manager, get newer packages if package versions are important for you and a solid distribution that is the upstream for Red Hat. It's the best of both worlds of Debian and Arch in my opinion.

The last one is Linux Mint. I've found myself avoid recommening forks. This is my exception. I can't say a lot because I haven't used it much. But I've installed it 2x to different family members who never used Linux before and use it and love it. I did it because they are forks and I can give support because I'm familiar with what it's based on and the high recommendation from the online community. It's great for beginners and veterans alike from what I can tell from the online community. Great team of developers.

Visual Studio is not available on Linux and not really working in Wine, sadly. You can use IntelliJ IDEA as a good alternative, it supports Linux officially and has a Flutter plugin.

For a beginner, Linux Mint is perfect. It is based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian, so you can follow most tutorials written for either distribution (like the installation instructions for IntelliJ IDEA or other software that is not available from the APT package manager).

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!

Isn't Google dismantling the flutter team?

As a Dart developer myself you won't have any problem with VS code and Dart. Actually, it's a bit better than on Windows because it was originally not much of a windows centric system anyways

Try Linux Mint.

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

Errrr... why would you try to trigger people, especially while asking for their help? Don't you think it's plain rude?

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

As a fellow Windows user tipping ever further towards finally making the switch, this resonates on a lot of levels. Also I saw what you did with the "company called Linux" thing and thought it was funny 🙌

I dunno if it's already been mentioned, but there's VSCodium, it's vscode without Microsoft

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

Hi. So, not all of the software you use will work on Linux (which btw isn’t a company but to put it simply a family of open source operating systems sharing a common core):

• Affinity don’t offer a Linux version so you will need to try something like WINE to run the Windows versions.

• Blender will defo work, not sure about the others

• Davinci will work, has a Linux version

• VSCode has a Linux version

• File explorers work.

Ubuntu sadly is not what it was.

I’d suggest Pop_OS or Fedora- I think Fedora used to have a media oriented “Fedora Design Suite” version.

Linux is the kerbal, the company would be GNU.

/s

Linux is not a company! Its a community driven open source project made by people like you who don't want to be under a corporations thumb!

There are many such open source programs, and they should be your first choice when looking for alternatives.

I suggest trying the Fedora OS, and using the site alternativeto.net to find open source alternatives to any programs you need.

Don't forget to always use the packge manager to install sotfware!

I'm not sure which distro would work with your laptop. I would suggest experimenting with live USB images. Maybe using something like Ventoy which enables you to try out multiple live images from one USB stick. But as far as applications go:

• GIMP is native to Linux and should work fine. You might also want to give Krita and Inkscape a whirl. Also, massive props for ditching Adobe. I hate that company as much as it hates their customers.
• Blender works on linux.
• So does Davinci. Allegedly. Haven't used it, but their website says Linux support is available.
• I don't code so, um, no idea. Sorry. Hopefully someone else will weigh in.
• Good news, Linux has working file explorers!
• No ads, at least for the most part. Ubuntu had Amazon's search integrated into their search bar a while back, which caused quite a kerfuffle. Later, they added a toggle to turn this off, but this was years ago. Might want to check just in case.

Why is no-one recommending pop-os? Works fine for me in all aspects. They even provide hardware, but that's not needed, you can just use the OS.

https://zorin.com/os/ its an out of the box distro that specifically tries to emulate the windows feel. In particular it has play on linux installed by default making running windows programs when needed as easy as it can be. the out of the box is office type stuff really though so you will have to install blender and such.