This PC is basically my life, I use it for work (freelance business), entertainment, and to self host a server so I’m hesitant. I have a handful of questions for now while I look into it more:
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I’d prefer not to dual boo, but it might be the safest way to start? If I dual boot, get used to Linux and (hopefully) get everything I need working, can I then go from dual boot to erasing the Windows partition and recombining so I then only have Linux installed and can keep the work and programs I already installed on Linux?
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I do voiceover work, music production, and digital art/photography. Anyone else here do all this and what programs would you recommened to replace Audition, Photoshop, and Cubase?
–2.1. Regarding music production, has anyone successfully used vst files from Windows on Linux?
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The drives for my server are NTFS. Does anyone have experience with this format on Linux (I use Emby)?
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My bread and butter right now is voice acting so I NEED everything to play nice. I’ve read there might be some issues with drivers for my hardware, namely Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 and Behringer UV1. Anyone have any experience with this?
EDIT: Wow that’s a lot of responses. I’d like to respond to each but I’m a bit overwhelmed with all the info haha. I think I’m gonna grab an old external USB drive and live boot from there and test things out. Thanks to everyone, I’ve got a tonne to mull over now. Appreciate it!
Since OP uses it for freelance business, self-hosting and stuff, I recommend even one step further, by a new computer and try to replicate all workflows there. Don’t fuck with the old one until one day OP suddenly noticed that he hasn’t booted his old computer for one year, then he can sell it as parts.
That’s the problem, I’m freelance and barely scraping by haha. I’d love to grab something to try out but it ain’t gonna happen right now. My laptop is a Samsung galaxy book3 ultra which I slapped Mint on a while back and had issues and went back with a cracked windows 11. Apparently linux and the galaxy book line don’t play well. But, I’m very tempted to try another distro on it first, like bazzite. Probably be the smart thing before touching my main PC.
That’s a rather expensive laptop you got there… I personally bought a used Thinkpad x280 for $160, and I run Linux on there. Another option is to get an small computer (sbc) with at least 8 gb of ram, if you already have a monitor.