Regarding Photoshop in Wine: unfortunately, missing GPU support is probably a no-go when dealing with 6000x4000 pixel, 14 bits per channel raw photos.
Also a tiny bit amusing that within 24 hours, it was rated it both “Garbage: It launches, that about it.” and “Silver: it pretty much works well with a few caveats.”
The right choice doesn’t help me if I can’t get my literal job done and have to give up half of my hobbies.
Why?
I don’t ask that to talk you out of it. I like desktop Linux. I’m typing this on desktop Linux. I’ve been using desktop Linux for most of my adult life. I ask because your reasons will inform the advice people can give you.
Because enshittification is becoming more and more unbearable. So far, Windows 10 (and to some extent even Windows 11) works for me but it’s getting worse and worse every year. I have no interest in OneDrive, Copilot, Recall and whatever MS wants to sell me next. I’d rather have a system that does exactly what I need, nothing more, nothing less. On servers and embedded systems, linux has done a great job for me over the last 20 (!) years.
Another option is to run Windows in a VM for those apps.
Kind of defeats the purpose if I run my two most-used applications in a Windows VM, doesn’t it?
I’m more than open for using something different and learning a different workflow as long as I can eventually get to the point where I can get roughly the same results in roughly the same time. I like tinkering with stuff and I’m not even opposed to write my own tools for closing a few gaps in the applications I use (see my recently started immichtools). But there is a limit. I just can’t afford to spend half my day working around problems that I wouldn’t have had on Windows.
Edit: formatting
What you’re proposing is exactly how I got to the point where I’m writing this post. My servers are mostly Ubuntu, apart from a couple of Pis that run Debian. So naturally, I’ve tried Ubuntu, Mint and Pop!_OS. I can’t remember exactly which desktop environments I’ve tried over the years but at least Gnome, KDE, XFCE and Cosmic. Probably more.
When that didn’t work out, I tried Fedora and even some Arch-based distro (I think it was EndeavourOS).
Each time I ran into the same frustrations. Stuff didn’t work and troubleshooting consisted more of filtering which guides are actually applicable to my current combination of software than actually solving the problem.
Cool. Can you help me solve mine so I don’t have them either?