With Windows 10 reaching it’s end of life in October 2025, and official Windows 11 builds getting seemingly more bloated; I figured it would be nice to ask people here who use Linux as their system of choice:
What would the best distro of Linux be? for someone who wants to use Blender, Houdini, and DaVinci Resolve?
I have done some cursory research, and it seems that Pop! OS is what pops up in conversation, although I’m a bit hesitant to go down that route, as a newer distro (COSMIC) is on it’s way, and is in alpha as of March 2025.
I am a bit apprehensive as I’m new to Linux, and honestly have no idea what to do; I’m considering to just play it safe and use Ubuntu when the time comes. Installing Blender and DV should be easy enough for me (Not sure with Houdini) by then as I plan to use my current machine all the way through to the EoL date.
I’ll be honest here, I basically have no idea what I’m doing and I’ll appreciate any form of advice I get, big or small.
I’m neither a CG artist nor an IT expert but maybe my experience will help you to make a good choice…
I’ve been using Ubuntu (LTS releases) for 13 years now and, to be honest, starting from 22.04, Ubuntu gets more and more buggy (current LTS release, 24.04, is exceptionally buggy).
To start with choosing the supported OS, read the app documentation first. For example, DaVinci Resolve recommends using Rocky Linux.
I recently was trying to install DaVinci Resolve on Ubuntu 24.04 but failed. However, there is a solution: one guy wrote some script that, as far as I understand, installs Rocky Linux into your host OS, and then, installs DaVinci Resolve itself. I ended up with not enough disk space error. (I had 6 Gb remaining but, I think, you will have enough free space)
Thanks for the tip, I don’t think it would be good if I sacrifice usability for speed in the long run, when the time it takes to iron out the bugs, and updating your Linux version etc. offsets the time savings you get when using the actual faster (in this case) programs on Linux.
So maybe I should take that (your advice) into account when the time comes.
From what I have heard, Majority of big studios either uses Fedora or Red Hat, as they come with support from Red had, that isn’t available for another distro. I think I heard it from Christian Bohm. He is an FX supervisor also a Houdini instructor.
Nobody should be using Fedora in production, its purpose is bleeding edge not stability. Traditionally CentOS, which is an open version of Red Hat, was the standard. After some bullshit pulled by Red Hat that killed CentOS, Rocky is recommended as the standard per the VFX reference platform.
That said, Rocky/Centos are a rough experience for a new user and Pop Os is a great alternative which in my experience runs Houdini and Resolve without issue. It’s mostly Ubuntu with less bullshit and it takes care of Nvidia drivers which is a well known stumbling block for a lot of people.
Oh, alright then. I’ll consider that, because I always thought Nvidia drivers were a pain to get right from a programming standpoint, so it was buggy. (based on what videos I’ve seen)
But then should I just wait till COSMIC is more stable? or should I just go to Pop! OS regardless? because from what I’ve read on Reddit, it seems like System76’s fully committed to COSMIC and stopped pushing updates for Pop! OS.
There is another option, go with Windows 11 and then look into de-bloating options, limiting services that are running, disable background start-up apps, etc.
Personally I’ve always used the Windows Pro version, as that gives easy access to things like Group Policy Editor, where you can control and disable a bunch of other stuff.
I have Windows 11 running just as smooth and stable as I had Windows 10 up to the end of last year.
Now while all that may sound a little annoying/scary, etc, if you have never used Linux and expect to dive in head first using it as your main PC/OS for everything, I think you may find that far from easy also.
You only list Blender, Houdini and Resolve, but chances are you use a lot more other programs and little apps, etc as well. Do a proper audit of your current Windows 10 PC, make a list of all the software/tasks you do and then see how many have Linux versions or an Linux ‘alternative’.
The moment someone says, ‘Well you can run that in emulation or a Windows VM’, start to be concerned. You are now adding complexity on top of complexity along with having to maintain two OS’s when Windows could just do it all.
Now sure, some people love playing around with all this stuff and that’s great, but do you want to spend time managing your PC or would you rather just use it to create art?
Try it. Try a few. See what works for you. If it seems like installing an OS just to try it is too much work or takes too much time, maybe Linux is not for you anyway…
My another 5 cents: I’ve never had any major issues with Nvidia drivers on Ubuntu. Even with a 10-year-old graphics card. And, about 5 years ago, I got a notebook with a 7 or 8-year-old AMD graphics card and it didn’t work on Ubuntu. Then, I checked it on Windows and it didn’t work too (but somewhat better than on Linux). Searching for a solution on forums didn’t help. Somebody wrote that AMD doesn’t care about providing drivers for their 3+ years products. Maybe something has changed since then, I don’t know.
The Nvidia drivers are fine, and almost always have been, but they’re traditionally closed source and have a bit of configuration required to disable the unofficial open source alternative and ensure they don’t need to be reinstalled with major os updates. Pop Os’s Nvidia version does all the config for you.
You’re misunderstanding what Cosmic is. Pop OS is a distro and Cosmic is a new desktop environment that sits on top of that. Gnome is the desktop environment that Pop OS currently uses by default, and that’s what Cosmic will be replacing.
Desktop environments are interchangeable, you can have them installed in parallel and select them at the login screen.
This is such an odd misconception. The whole reason Linux is so widely used professionally is because there is no need to manage the machine. You configure it and then it gets out of the way. Setup of a linux workstation from scratch takes minutes. And in the rare event that the workstation does break, unlike other operating systems, you’re allowed to fully understand errors and fix them. Even better you can travel through time with a system restore tool that actually works because the operating system isn’t a clusterfuck.
I love how folks make linux sound as easy as a windows setup.
Chuckle, set one up. Add a hard drive… after groaning, research it and spend the next hour learning to mount drives.
If you set up ubuntu with the nvidia card installed, nvidia drivers are easier to manage.
I have a linux box I practice on for exactly these reasons. When the time comes, and software is in the right place, I will be able to move off Windows.
It’s just another os. There is no Better than Windows here. It’s all the same stuff with a different coat of care on it.
Great stuff to try out here. Pop OS, huh? So this will sit on ubuntu, huh?
Cool. A week to play.
Don’t worry too much about which distro you use, I think it’s worth trying a few !
Mint is great and likely to run houdini, resolve and blender. That’s what I used at work recently and it worked fine ! I think it’s a good one to get started.
At home I use Debian stable with MATE desktop and it works pretty well too ! The only downside is that it’s a bit more involved to make it work.
I think most distros for general use will work fine. Don’t worry too much about it as they generally just add a thin layer of convenience to install stuff like drivers or proprietary apps. Which is great in the beginning but at some point having the simplest distro without bang and whistles might be better once you know your way in.
I think it’s good to take the time to install a few different distros to see what clicks, and also to be able to experiment without pressure. If you’re only used to windows there are a few different concepts that you’ll have to get used too so expect some time to learn.
I switched to linux a very long time ago and back then it wasn’t that simple to install. But after a while I really liked it, it’s very customizable, stable and it doesn’t come in the way.
There is another option, go with Windows 11 and then look into de-bloating options, limiting services that are running, disable background start-up apps, etc.
Personally I’ve always used the Windows Pro version, as that gives easy access to things like Group Policy Editor, where you can control and disable a bunch of other stuff.
Is there a way to get rid of the Windows 11 Telemetry? Or at least minimise it? It was my main concern when Win11 came out regarding privacy and such. I don’t know much about that part.
You only list Blender, Houdini and Resolve, but chances are you use a lot more other programs and little apps, etc as well. Do a proper audit of your current Windows 10 PC, make a list of all the software/tasks you do and then see how many have Linux versions or an Linux ‘alternative’.
The moment someone says, ‘Well you can run that in emulation or a Windows VM’, start to be concerned. You are now adding complexity on top of complexity along with having to maintain two OS’s when Windows could just do it all.
Now sure, some people love playing around with all this stuff and that’s great, but do you want to spend time managing your PC or would you rather just use it to create art?
Yeah, it’s a bit annoying that other programs like the Affinity Suite don’t have official Linux support as of yet. Although workarounds are there, it’s just annoying that I have to do something as finicky as a dual boot.
Thanks for taking the time to reply anyway, much appreciated!
