I've used shotcut quite a bit. It's pretty decent, my only gripe with it is that it's ability to handle captions is fairly terrible but if you have an alternate method for captioning then it's everything most people would need.
DaVinci Resolve has a native Linux version, with the caveat that it can’t import mp4 files (have to convert them to another format beforehand with a tool like ffmpeg.) You also may have to do some tinkering based on your hardware - Arch Wiki has a good compatibility table, though the Debian packages will probably not match what Arch Wiki has listed, and you’ll need to use the installer from the Resolve website since I don’t think Debian has it in their repos.
If you’re looking for something free & open source, Kdenlive is also a great option, though it doesn’t have nearly as much functionality as its more professional-grade counterparts.
My 2¢: kdenlive works (worked; been a few years) shockingly well for being free without a commerical version. It’s not polished or fancy like commercial solutions, and it has had stability issues, but it really does work. Someone better than me could get professional results out of it.
As others have stated, Dual boot but with two HDs one OS per Hard Disk. Otherwise Windows will write over the Linux grub (the equivalent yi windows MBR) one day (been there, several times 😭) and then it’s a right pain to get it back to normal. For the sync option, there are several options, Dropbox is available as an app on Linux, Also NextCloud works extremely well
@Minty95 Thank you, yeah I think I will probably invest in External Hard Drives as I have a lot of data to store with over 5TB worth currently on my Sync Cloud Storage and that's ever-growing. I looked into a 10TB External HDD and it seems they are around £200 which isn't cheap by any means but is cheaper than paying £300 a year (If I only use up 15TB per year).
Maybe a second hand NAS? They can be found dirt cheap, and often you can upgrade the HDs easily, or if your running a desktop PC with room, just add internal HDs as these are cheaper
@Minty95 The Second-Hand NAS is a good idea, I've already stuffed about 5 hard drives into my already small case for my PC so NAS might be a good option.
Since people have suggested virtual machines, I wanted to mention that most of them will not be using your GPU (and GPU passthrough is tricky), so they won't be helpful if you are using GPU-intensive apps.
On the other hand, moving form Adobe Illustrator to Inkscape was a pretty smooth transition for me, and I can't say I miss any of Adobe's features (except the Shape builder, which is also coming to Inkscape). However, I'm not a professional illustrator - it's mostly a hobby for me and I only use it for creating icons, simple illustrations and infographics
Gaming experience has been really good, though! (Steam/Proton and yuzu for emulating some Switch games)
@CorInABox Thank you for this input, sadly I would be using GPU intensive apps with things such as Premiere Pro, So I might have to re-look into this at a later date or even decide to look into how I can use GPU Passthrough
GPU passthrough is not easy, thankfully there are guides online, but I did have to do a bit more digging after an issue I had.
You do need 2 GPUs, on a laptop it’s not an issue as most of them use an intel or amd gpu to render the desktop and only use dedicated graphics for intensive tasks, but on a desktops, you don’t have that option and you’ll need to turn off the graphical portion of linux, making it accessible only through something like ssh
The biggest issue with switching is your "must have" applications.
A lot of people spend time trying to make them work, it often doesn't work well and so they go back.
Take Sync, Linux has similar solutions (insync is a popular one), but there alternative solutions. Perhaps the server could run syncthing or your tooling supports ftp, etc..
The key thing is not to ask for the equivalent of X, but think what you actually use X for.
So if you use Sync to share video on Slack, you don't need a Sync replacement you need a way to share video on slack.
Alas I think Photoshop is the one killer application
@stevecrox Yeah I will have to see what I can find without moving to Linux and see what I can find. Sync sadly isn't a bypass for me it's more of a destination for my files to store (Instead of using Google Drive or any other system). The Adobe suite I've kind of got to keep on using especially with how much work I would loose if I did move across, So I'll have to re-evaluate what I can do from what someone mentioned, I need to learn how to GPU Passthrough for the VM if I where to go that root.
@stevecrox Yeah I basically do need that, There's a lot of usage with Sync that I enjoy such as its auto-saving to the cloud. I think because of the amount of storage I do take up I will be looking into External 10TB Hard Drives as they cost only £200 each (What is a lot but sort of worth it when your currently paying £300 a year on Cloud Storage).
@bedrooms That's fair enough, from what everyone else has said, I will probably try emulating Windows through a VM on Windows first then try Dual-booting Linux on my PC before deciding to ditch windows for a all Linux set-up where I can then just use a VM for Windows.
I think Premiere is gonna be a problem on a VM. Haven't touched that software for a decade, but that ass was unresponsive already on a native Win. You should test it on the VM first. And other Adobe apps, too.
Unfortunately if you can’t afford to take time to learn new programs you’re most likely going to have to dual boot. As someone who also does creative work, and had been pretty dependent on Adobe prior to moving to Linux, I can tell you that trying to run any of the Adobe programs on Linux is a fool’s errand. Photoshop kind of works in Wine, but the rest are just plain unusable.
There’s also winapps, which essentially uses a VM to run Windows programs while integrating them into your regular Desktop in a seamless manner. I’ve never tried it and it hasn’t been updated in 2 years, but you could give it a shot.
If you do decide to try out alternatives though, DaVinci Resolve is good for video editing, Photopea (which is a web app) is pretty goddamn similar to Photoshop, Inkscape is pretty good for vector graphics, and Ardour, Audacity, and Reaper are all good in different ways for audio work.
@carlytm Cool, I think I will try to run Windows through a VM other than learning 50 other software to do my functions atm. Especially as it would allow me to Sandbox any setup I know is slightly more risky in the future. But thanks for the suggestions.
@readbeanicecream I was suggested to use a Windows VM earlier on another post I made, I think that's probably the best way to go but will have to work out how they work as I've never been able to successfully launch a VM yet.
Also, cloud versions are out of the question sadly.
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