What is the best Linux Distro for creatives?

[Iamgeese]

I have tried Linux Mint, but it appears to not Like Davinch Reslove very much which I need to editing. I have used a number of Distros and have been distro hopping for around a year. Pop Os is Ok but seems to have some bugs, some of the developments in the US have put me off the idea of Using Pop.

Some have said Alma Linux or Rocky. Recently I have been told its Ubuntu and some VFX studios in London use it. I use photo editing apps. Lots of 3D modelling, 3D printing, video editing and occasionally VR.

Have any creatives here use Ubuntu? What do you use with it?

 

[Brickwizard]

Not my thing but have you seen......

Install DaVinci Resolve in Any Linux Distro Using DavinciBox (2025) - TechHut

Install DaVinci Resolve on any Linux distro using DavinciBox with Distrobox and Podman, including GPU setup and troubleshooting tips.

techhut.tv

 

[MikeWalsh]

DaVinci Resolve is a bit of a "dog's dinner" in many ways.

Older releases were quite forgiving to work with, and it was much easier to install and use generally.

Since being bought out by the Australian company BlackMagicDesign, things have changed. The company develop, build & sell an entire range of top-end studio-quality audio/video products, and have seen DaVinci Resolve as a way to 'tie' all their hyper-expensive equipment together, software-wise.

It's nowadays built to run in a very specific environment. Current releases insist on a powerful, discrete GPU which MUST be running up-to-date official drivers. 'Nouveau' (for Nvidia) or 'radeon' (for AMD) will NOT 'cut it' any longer. It also expects to find a good chunk of the company's studio gear attached to the device running it, and complains like a good'un if it doesn't find them.

It's no longer really an app for the home user, since it's pretty much semi-commercial in nature now....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Personally, I use Openshot for day-to-day editing, Avidemux and LosslessCut for simple chopping and/or concatenation, while for more 'prestige' projects I go with Lightworks. I've built all of these into Puppy-portable packages. I DID have a single build of DaVinci Resolve in portable format, but was never able to repeat this feat (later discovering this was around the time of the BlackMagic buy-out, so I probably downloaded the very last build immediately prior to the extensive re-write BlackMagic subjected it to).

Can't even get it to run now, much less re-packaging it into a different package format!


Mike.