this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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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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Depends on what you need from your computer. If it's just web browsing and some light "office-like" tasks, it's very easy, especially if you've interacted with a computer before. If you need some specialized hardware support or rely on some complicated proprietary app (looking at you Adobe), it can get complicated quickly.
In any case there will be some pain as you get accustomed to the new OS. But overall it's not as bad as it used to be.
By the way, the Affinity suite works particularly good on Linux, through Wine.
Of course I wish they would release a native version, but this is acceptable in the meantime.
I use Photoshop for my side gig, but I stopped at the last version before their criminal subscription bullshit.
I'll have to look into it.
See if you can get by with a combination of Krita and GIMP. The former especially has improved a lot lately and is now a fairly professional tool.
New-ish versions of Photoshop are very difficult to run in WINE (which allows you to run some Windows apps natively - it's the thing that powers all recent linux gaming advances). The best you can do is run it in a VM with a window passthru, like so: https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps
I've tried Krita and GIMP, but my brain, man . . .
I'm using PS CS5, which was released in 2010. After a quick look, it looks like it runs in Wine!
Disclaimer not an artist and still not jumping on Linux for reasons but going to
I've seen this mentioned only by a career digital artist. He mentioned using Photopea as an alternative to the adobe suite rather than Krita and GIMP.
I think it's Michael Tunnell when he was reacting to Pewdiepie moving to linux (Mint and Arch btw) and pewds said he changed the icons and shortcuts for GIMP to be more like photoshop.
I have a wife stuck in the Adobe-verse and yeah, going back that far should work great. It didn't become a huge hassle until they started being insane with the licensing.
Heh, that is really quite old. There might be a chance.