I'm considering moving away from Windows 11 and would like some practical advice before I commit. My system has a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32GB of DDR5-6400 memory, an NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti, and two 2TB NVMe SSDs. I know NVIDIA support has historically been less straightforward on Linux, but I recently bought this card and need CUDA, NVENC, and its video encode/decode features, so replacing it with an AMD card is not really an option.
My main applications are Affinity for photo and vector work, DaVinci Resolve 21, Elgato Stream Deck, Dolphin, PCSX2, Logitech G Hub, the NVIDIA App, OBS Studio, OnlyOffice, Veeam Agent for Windows, VLC, VS Code, and Zen Browser. DaVinci Resolve is essential to my workflow. Affinity could potentially be replaced, and Stream Deck is convenient but not critical. I also use Logitech G Hub's game detection to switch profiles automatically for Final Fantasy XIV, so I would need either a Linux-compatible solution or a reasonable alternative. I may experiment with PNGTuber software later as well.
Which of these applications work natively, and which have reliable alternatives or Wine-based solutions? Are there any important NVIDIA, CUDA, Resolve, peripheral, or backup issues I should know about? With two separate SSDs, I can dual-boot initially, but I'd like to know whether this hardware and workflow are a sensible fit for Linux and which beginner-friendly distributions would be worth considering.
5 Answers
DaVinci Resolve has a native Linux build, but there are caveats. The free edition can have limited H.264/H.265 and AAC support on Linux, so the Studio edition may be important depending on your media. Resolve can also be more reliable from an X11 session than Wayland in some setups. Since it is essential to your workflow, test your actual projects, codecs, plugins, and hardware acceleration before making Linux your only operating system.
The biggest potential problem is Logitech G Hub rather than the core applications. G Hub itself does not run normally on Linux, especially for features that communicate directly with the hardware or detect specific games. Solaar, libratbag, Piper, and ratbagctl can handle many Logitech devices, profiles, DPI settings, and button mappings, but automatic per-game switching may require scripts or storing profiles on the device. Stream Deck has community tools such as StreamController and OpenDeck, though they may not match the official application or support every plugin.
Most of the ordinary applications on your list are straightforward: OBS, OnlyOffice, VLC, VS Code, Zen, Dolphin, and PCSX2 have Linux versions. There are also plenty of backup options, including restic, rsync, filesystem snapshots, and Linux backup agents. The NVIDIA App itself is not available in the same form, but tools such as nvidia-settings or LACT cover many configuration tasks. Make sure the distribution provides a recent enough NVIDIA driver for the RTX 5070 Ti and verify that CUDA is supported before choosing it.
Your hardware is more than capable, including the NVIDIA card. Since you have two SSDs, the safest approach is to install Linux on the second drive and keep Windows intact. Use Linux as your main system for a few weeks and note every time you need to return to Windows. That will tell you much more than trying to predict compatibility from a software list. I’d avoid wiping Windows until you’re confident.
Affinity has no native Linux release, although Wine-based projects may work and could be worth testing. Krita, GIMP, Inkscape, and darktable are possible replacements, but they involve learning a different workflow. This is the general pattern with Linux: most of your list has a native application or alternative, but hardware utilities and highly specific Windows workflows are harder to reproduce exactly. Dual-booting lets you migrate gradually instead of requiring every replacement to be perfect on day one.
A different video editor may be useful as a backup, but it is not a drop-in replacement for Resolve. Since Resolve is essential, testing it directly is much more relevant than assuming another editor will cover the same workflow.