Hey y’all. I’ve been considering running Linux for a secondary laptop and while I’d like to use it as a general on-the-go laptop, the one thing I’m worried about is Photoshop. I’d like to be able to run Photoshop CS6 but overall the impression I’m getting from WINE is that support remains shoddy. Is it better to use a VM for such functionality, can WINE be made to at least be acceptable, or is there some other in-between I’m not thinking about? It seems like most other programs I might run seem to be possible to use in some capacity on a Linux install, so I’m not terribly worried about those.
But I really do need access to Photoshop and that is currently what’s holding me up. Any help would be appreciated.
Worth noting, I haven’t used Linux in a long time, so I’m also not familiar with whether or not usability has changed, or if I’ll still be spending the majority of my time in a CLI (early indications seem to be that I’ll still be living there).
you absolutely don’t need to spend more than 10% of your time in a CLI but you will be miserable if you don’t like the CLI or aren’t comfortable using it.
Wine is great though! You shouldn’t have any problems. Though honestly if you’re using an old-ass copy of CS6 you’re probably not married to photoshop…
I’m quite aware it doesn’t, as I’ve tried to use GIMP in the past. It doesn’t have even close to the amount of functionality or support for images that Photoshop does, which is why its functionality is so important.
CS6 might be outdated, but it’s far better than needing some eternal subscription, and it’s far better than any other image-editing software I’ve seen. I need its functionality @Felix and just want to know it’ll work (particularly in the case of PSB files, which seem to have problems from what I’ve seen on WINE).
I don’t dislike CLIs, but it’s more that I just haven’t used one in a long time (about the most I do with a CLI now is sometimes write batch scripts). I mostly want this as a traveler laptop, one that’s portable, can do stuff with Google Docs / Calendar, etc., a nice email program of some kind, and Discord / Slack etc. support, and maybe some light games or emulation. From what I’ve seen Linux probably has support for this, but again, the questionable support of CS6 makes me weary. A lot of this move is motivated by utter hatred of Windows 10 (it’s just… so bad).
I dunno… should I try a Mac in this situation? Haven’t used a Mac in an equally long amount of time, thinking on it.
Note that you can run Linux apps on ChromeOS nowadays, and also install the Android version of Photoshop on it. That’s a common choice for “secondary laptop” and not obviously less of a compromise than a Linux laptop, depending on your reasons
I would not use baremetal Linux unless you like the CLI or are cash strapped, as much better as it’s gotten. Windows 10 and macOS are both fine for most things.
I really enjoy saying this in earshot of people who are chuffed to find out I use arch, but it’s true.
Honestly I’d be happy using Windows 7 but near as I can tell there’s no support for it on any modern laptop. Lack of backwards compatibility is a pretty shitty thing.
Crashes (I have had just an absurd amount of BSODs on my Win10 systems), updates not telling you when they’re changing things (or what they’re changing - and interrupting other things the computer is doing), the UI (sort of handled by PowerShell), all the subscription-based stuff rather than on-the-box solutions, the amount of extra power and system resources it consumes… there’s probably a more comprehensive list but those are my main gripes.
just wanted to point out that if you aren’t comfortable using the CLI, it depends on how much travelling you’ll be doing with that laptop, and whether you have a (working? ) built-in LTE-module, or exclusively going to use WiFi (again, working?)… if you need to google CLI commands on the get-go, without internet access,… that’d be not-so-much fun then.
otoh, if you plan on just doin google docs/things, mailing, using discord/slack and having a few emus on that machine, i’d say you could be fine with using e. g. ubuntu and stick with the UI for most of the time.
I’d expect that the emus might pose most of the problems/necessitate most CLI work, but maybe I am too careless about CLI-work induced by WINE, I haven’t used it for a while now (as in: 2012/2013?)
in any case, if you have a USB stick, you can just dl a ubuntu or mint image, both flavours are signifcant enough that you can find a lot of help if you encounter little niggles, put the OS on that stick, boot and take a look whether you like the look&feel of the distro - and without installing it, which i highly recommend if you have been out of the loop for a few years.
I mean, I assume it would be relatively easy to simply get a phone working as a hotspot for a Linux system in the case of not having Wifi? I do always have a phone with me.
Most of the emulators I’d be using have Linux distros so I don’t think that would really be an issue.
eh honestly the only thing missing there from most deployments is adding a hook to rune powertop --autotune at startup (and the fact that a lot of apps don’t wire up hardware acceleration out of the box because “stability”) but you can get effective parity with Windows with like half an hour of fussing if you know what you’re doing
I do not, however, recommend knowing what you’re doing
If you’re wondering why Dell, it’s because I know someone who can get me 20% off on the laptop. If people have other suggestions that would be helpful. Am trying to figure out a good solution atm.