I would also recommend Mint with Windows as a VM over dual booting. I find the workflow is better to not leave Linux but rather load the VM for the windows needs. This is especially with nonaggressive apps like modifying PDFs. If you were going to produce music or edit videos dual boot might be a better option.

I wouldn’t recommend WinBoat for you yet. Its too new, and while I like what I’ve tested I want to see it in a year or two after it’s fleshed out. At the end of the day you’re running Windows in a VM anyways, so its pretty much the same thing.

FYI, I found the setting. There’s actually a slider for “image size” that allows you to set it at whatever % you want… Even better!

Thanks, I’m subbed to the community and asking. I’m loving summit so far I’m already uninstalling thunder.

Liking it so far. Is there a way to make the feed images big thumbnails like on thunder? I was looking around and didn’t see a setting for that. That’s really the only thing I’m not liking so far, everything else seems like an improvement.

Thanks for recommending Summit. I’ve been using Thunder and its OK, but initial looks at Summit and it seems much smoother an experience.

Good for you. I switched about a year ago and its been smooth sailing. I guarantee you’re going to like it.

Look at the update settings, you can set auto updates, purging old kernels no longer used, etc. (My partition kept filling up because old kernels were not being deleted)

Also should mention, set up Timeshift which backs up your system settings. That was you can roll back if anything ever goes wrong. (I’ve only needed this when I was experimenting and flew too close to the sun)

I’ve used only office and it’s still not Excel. Like the prior commenter said, even excel online isn’t as good as desktop excel. I actually run a VM for just a few apps, excel being one of them.

I’m not sure I can answer that in detail. Also, “safe” is kind of vague so I’m not sure what your threat model is.

But I will say that I would 100% be running it as my home windows if I wasn’t using Linux. Do I think it’s the equivalent? No. Do I think there’s a possibility of Microsoft turning things back on with updates? Yes. But its far easier than running O&O and a bunch of power shell scripts to try to remove bloat and telemetry hoping you got everything. I have no complaints.

Your lack of time is the biggest issue, followed by your music needs (which are not impossible but I also know its not plug and play).

I would recommend going with win11 for simplicity and times sake. I would also recommend at least trying out ameliorated windows11. https://ameliorated.io/

Basically their stock run book makes the OS far more secure and private by setting up an admin account and then making your account a standard user (the way it should be done). Then it strips out all the bloat, restricts services, and installs open source alternatives like libre office and libre wolf. It also drastically changes the UI, which most of it I like and some is meh, but its all much better than the crap stock UI. I run this as a VM for all the stuff I still need windows for and I love it. Nothings ever going to make windows not windows, but this is pretty close and a simple click install. I highly recommend it.

This is so common they added a notification when you delete a lot of files. It basically prompts you, you’re deleting a lot of stuff are you sure? OK, it’ll be available in the recycle bin for 30 days if you change your mind.

Damn, it looked like candy to me too until I read your comment. Now all I see is candy guitar pick.

I’m going to second the comment to leave well enough alone. Do NOT mess with your machine if its what makes you money.

I know you commented you don’t have funds for a second computer to test with but that really is the best step for you.

This is especially regarding some of your other details. You are not in for a quick and smooth transition (sorry to say).

VSTs are “sort of” supported on Linux. Basically they’re not and there are work arounds that I haven’t done using wine for compatibility.

I run a virtual machine for the windows software I am reliant on. So basically my Photoshop etc I use Affinity in a windows VM and it works fine. Depending if you get intensive with your work you might need a lot of resources or experience lag. But for the most part it should be fine. Look into virt-manager for your VM if you want to go that route.

Besides the VST issue, audio recording will probably give you additiinal problems. I haven’t delved into it because he rabbit hole went too deep for me, but from what I’ve read there tends to be issues with audio in VMs (tremendous lag for one).

But all that being said, there should be a solution for all of your needs. It probably won’t be straight forward though given your use cases. I don’t want to sound negative with my warnings, I just want to make sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot with your work.

I would highly recommend this as I did something similar. I ran Linux on an older machine separate from my main machine. I did so for about 10 months. Plus I built out a gaming machine for somebody and set up another old machine as a media center, both with Linux.

I finally made the 100% switch just a few months ago. I bought a new M.2 drive and swapped out just like you are planning. I really needed to make sure I had no hitches for work purposes. I haven’t even considered swapping back (though in full transparency I have Windows running on a VM for some apps that I can’t get in Linux)

I’m fully in support of LibreOffice and the fact that it can do a lot for free. However it is far from an enterprise product.

I’m still waiting for anybody to make a true competitor to Excel. There’s some decrnt spreadsheet software but there’s really no comparison to the functionality of Excel. Even Google sheets is a distant second.

My point is, when there are power users involved LibreOffice just won’t cut it.

OK thanks for confirming. I’ll stick with Affinity for now. I didn’t know abit kdenlive, something to check out. I’m still getting use to davinci resolve as it is.

You have a good point in needing to try other things, but there’s also a reasonable need to stick with the workflow that works for you.

One of their pledges when they were bought was to always have a standalone product to buy so people don’t have to do subscriptions.

That’s what I do. There’s few programs I still need windows for so I just spin up a VM for them.

How’s the gimp/krita/inkscape transition going? I’ve used Gimp and Inkscape, and they are fine tools, but I don’t think they are Affinity level yet. Though admittedly it’s been a few years since I last touched them.

Question, are you running it? I got really hopeful about it but feedback I read said it wasn’t very good. It worked, technically, but was buggy making it less than ideal. I forget all the details but it was enough to make me not want to even try it.