DeMystifying Linux For Digital Artists

[@Ali.F]

Excellent video! Though quick correction, AMD GPU drivers (and in addition, Intel) are in the upstream Linux kernel, so they’re available out of the box on every modern distro, though there’s a proprietary driver (amdgpu-pro) that has some components than are used by certain programs like DaVinci Resolve (CORRECTION: you only need the ROCm driver, not amdgpu-pro), no distro ships this out of the box so it’ll be something the user has to manually install anyways. Otherwise, I hope this guide reaches more fellow artists, I personally use Fedora KDE myself :)

[@mosscharmly]

Thank you Ali.F. We really want to reach other Artists who are thinking of using Linux. Your corrections are the best examples that the linux community is just that, a community. Linux can be so confusing and it doesn't really need to be. Linux and open source could be an asset to artists especially with the direction of other programs and operating systems are going. We use Pop OS and Nobara Kde for daily drivers. Want to try out Chirema os for gaming too.

[@leucome]

Davinci Resolve also work with directly installing ROCm package no need for the whole GPU-Pro driver. This usually work fine for all other compute software like AI generation Blender rendering ect...

[@Ali.F]

@@leucome ah, that’s good to note, thank you for correcting me

[@Clanps]

@@mosscharmlyThere's really no reason to use another distro specifically for gaming unless you just want to try out Chimera OS. It just installs a bunch of apps and dependencies that you could install yourself. Plus if you're already using Nobara there is no reason to use Chimera (unless again, if you just want to try it out) As Nobara is supposed to be really beginner friendly for content creation and gaming. I personally use arch linux + hyprland for everything from content creation to gaming and messing with AI chat bots.

[@3ckortreat]

i am not even an artist, i use Linux (Fedora hyperland) for programming purposes only the reasons i am using are customization options (in macbook you can't even set radius for application corners) and tile managers, glad to see Linux reaches to artist as well, user profile getting wider

[@marenjones6665]

Thank you so much. I've gotten so mad at Microsoft and Adobe lately, and I've made the jump to Linux Mint. I'm trying to learn more as fast as I can, and this was a good start.

[@mosscharmly]

Hi marenjones6665, We are very happy that we could help set you off with a good start. Linux for artist is a really option. Have a great day of arting ad thank you for you're kind words.

[@speakersr-lyefaudio6830]

Also an artist. Been using Linux for a bit now, you got questions?

[@IoanEugenStan]

open source is not public domain. There is a license that empowers users.

[@mosscharmly]

Thank you for the correction..

[@hammerheadcorvette4]

4:12 I am a Huion Kamvas Pro 16 owner, The driver support from Huion was not good. I purchased this device in January 2023, I literally had to box it up after a month. I still own the device but at the time, they did not even have Calibration tools. The Pen would drift from center less than a few centimeters away, Drawing lines became a pain. I hope this has changed since then.

[@mosscharmly]

Hello hammerheadcorvette4 , Sorry to hear that the drivers have bin updated , Maybe give it one more try?

[@lvutodeath]

There is a debian/ubuntu driver for it. The last updated driver on their own website is 2024 July 05.

[@hammerheadcorvette4]

@@lvutodeath Thanks for that, I stopped using it abouot 1 month and a half ago. I was using it with Inkscape and RNote. I'll update it soon.

[@hewpow]

What's bad about Linux is you can't get thumbnails to work in the file managers except for dolphin in kde. So no .kra krita thumbnails or any other for that matter in nautilus, Nemo, thunar etc, so you're stuck with just kde if you want the best art experience

[@RenderingUser]

another reason why kde is the best distro. dolpin lieterally even shows the thumbnails for save files of blender 3d. oh and one small thing, you dont have to install the entire kde desktop just to use dolphin. you can just install whatever app at any point in time

[@hewpow]

@@RenderingUser Its okay, I prefer kde anyway because it looks good, stable, and I like the wobbly windows and lamp minimize effect and I use fedora with default Wayland, x11 has screen tearing. I suppose one could install dolphin under a gnome, xfce, cinnamon etc desktop, doing so would install all of dolphins dependencies. I remember there being an option to choose which file manager to use.

[@brunombardi]

Hello there. I'm thinking seriously to migrate my workflow from Windows to Linux for some months now. Today I work with the Affinity software programs on a Windows PC and Ipad (when I need to travel or just want to work in other place than my home). They had a huge improvement in my finances as a freelance graphic designer since they weren't a subscription service. I was afraid that Linux doesn't have alternative professional softwares, but your video just makes me realize that Linux is really an option! Thank you so much for this great content. I hope to join the open source creative community soon. Greetings from Brazil!

[@mosscharmly]

Hi brunombardi, It makes us very happy that we could give a little hope for linux as an alternative to windows. We use the Affinity iPad apps they are really great for on the go work.there are whisperings that Affinity can work on Linux through Wine but it may be hit or miss right now, the future will only tell. Gip 3.0m is ggoing to come out soon so that will be great as well. Hope every thing is going good for you and will only get better, have a great day.

[@atlas_19]

Whatever you might have on Windows, you can almost always use Wine to run it on Linux, besides things like online games due to anti-cheat and sometimes online services that have dumb DRMs. That's only because they think virtual machines are the devil, ans that you could CHEAT and PIRATE.

[@borremoonkey]

@@atlas_19 I’ve tried running Affinity software and Clip Studio Paint with Wine (on Arch, EndeavourOS, Fedora, Void, and Tumbleweed) but I guess I must be doing something wrong because it never starts up. If I could get the Affinty suite and Clip Studio Paint, as I’m already accustomed to my workflow on those applications, to work I’d be 100% on Linux. Perhaps I can at least give Krita another try. 🧐

[@wriel1312]

Great video! what's your prefered distro as artists and content creators? I am a programmer and a debian enjoyer , but must admit distro hopping is fun!

[@mosscharmly]

Thank you wriel1312. Right now Nobara is our new favorite. Pop OS has always been our go to. Our first distro was Mint with cinnamon over 10 years ago we duel booted on a 2009 imac. Then Ubuntu when it was unity, and a peppering of Kubuntu until the snappack snafu.

[@blingmoney]

I've been using garuda linux as my main os for like 4 years now, i love it and there's nothing I haven't been able to run lately. I do have to dual boot windows for work though (i have to use current adobe products)

[@mosscharmly]

Great to hear!

[@v3nom0us_v1per]

I really appreciate this video! It helped clear up alot of my concerns. I've been considering switching to Linux for awhile now, but I'm still on the fence about it. My main issue is that I personally am not a fan of the art programs suggested, I've tried them out before but they just weren't for me. I'm a loyal paint tool sai user, and the other programs I've tried just don't compare to me personally. If there's anyway I could still use paint tool sai, then that would be amazing!

[@mosscharmly]

Hello v3nom0us_v1per. it wold be great is windows or mac apps like SAi could work on Linux. Someday they probably will ,we are all crossing our fingers. Have great Day and have fun Arting.

[@PremierPrep]

Great video you guys! As someone on the video side of the creative industry, it's great to see someone talking about the digital art side.

[@mosscharmly]

Thank you very much PremierPrep. We really feel Linux is over looked for Digital artists and it shouldn't be. Have a great day , and thank you agin.

[@halarkin]

This was incredibly helpful for a linux newbie arty type. Thank you so much for taking the time to make it! 2 notes: The word about being distrustful or watchful towards a thing is Wary, not weary. It comes from Beware!! which means 'watch out'! Pandora's box released all the evils into the world, and at the bottom of it all, there was hope. That's probably not what you were meaning, or at least dear zod, i hope that's not what you're meaning! I will have a short run with Linux if it is! T_T

[@mosscharmly]

Glad it helped! Thank you for the clarification.

[@MrSerghei1981]

I'm graphic design student, I bought a used Lenovo w540 workstation, such amazing and capable machine. Unfortunately Microsoft decided to stop supporting win10 , I have no other choice than to buy a very expensive machine... which is not an option right now 😕 So I try to make the switch to Ubuntu, as I have used it like 10 years ago and I'm kinda worried that if I'll make the switch and after some time Ubuntu will stop supporting the distro, how could I migrate everything again?

[@mosscharmly]

Hello MrSerghei1981, I wouldn't worry about Ubuntu not supporting the distro they are going to be around for a long time. You might want to try Pop os on the thinkpad it is great for laptops . we definitely recommend having an external backup of your work just in case . If any thing goes sidewise with the Os you can reinstall super fast . Drop box is good or even a NAS is an option for external storage but in our opinion a external ssd is the best a T7 or newer. We hope this helps you out.

[@mardiverse]

Nice video you guys ✌️

[@mosscharmly]

Thank you mardiverse

[@skarlok1]

There are some other benefit on Linux like when you are using two different brands of tablets like wacom with xp-pen(Windows kinda fail here). Also system customization. Main best software's that work on Linux for me are Blender, Krita and Davinci Resolve. When it comes for distro i would recommend something stable. Mint is very stable and similar with windows beside that Pop(but after they release cosmic environment). Wayland is still under work so x11 for all ppl using nvidia cards but i assume 1 year and Wayland will be good to go. Beside that i still cant figure out which is more performance wise. I have heard that rocky Linux could be good for studios wanting to bail windows. Will test updated version of Mint maybe next week.

[@fxarts9755]

if u get the drivers to work in the first place ...

[@solomonramsa]

There's nothing like Cubase for Linux, I tried with Ardour (which is not free) and was a headache even in Windows. For illustration I use Krita but my ugee monitor never worked on Mint. I use a lot Photoshop (Camera Raw) for photo editing. And for video I use Premiere but it's matter of time to change to Resolve.

[@mosscharmly]

DaVinci is really great with Nvidia cards on linux or use Nobara with an AMD gpu they have some great fix ups for Resolve .

[@oliviadrinkwine1411]

Awesome video but 1 small correction Linux is not in the public domain or any other open source project (except for stuff under the MIT license) as with public domain you can usually use all parts including the name with open source the name usually gets reserved so you can't use the name but your free to modify the code, make your own version of it and release it to the world (has to be open source though as per the license the Linux kernel is under in this case.)

[@mosscharmly]

Yes, you are right and thank you for the corrections.

[@Unndeadcat]

What if i use a gaomon tablet and clip studio paint, Would i still be able to ise those?

[@mosscharmly]

Hello Unndeadcat , CSP doesn't have a Linux os version so it really wont work, sadly , as for the tablet we do know it will work with krita using the open tablet drivers on lInux.

[@Unndeadcat]

@@mosscharmly awwww, ok, thank you :)

[@gelbphoenix]

For the wayland point: Yeah this is one point but wayland will also become the standard because of other reasons. X11 (also called XOrg) is really old and poorly written and doesn't support newer features. It also is less secure because it (X11) doesn't standardly isolate programs.

[@mosscharmly]

KDE 6.2 Great upgrades and considerations for Digital artists. Lets cross our fingers . You are so right about wayland being the future.

[@thechileanreawakening581]

thank you so much!

[@mosscharmly]

No worries!

[@Creative_dissident]

W tron refrence🌐

[@mosscharmly]

Flynn Lives.

[@thiesenf]

Linux is NOT an operating system... Linux is a kernal used in a complete operating system... That operating system is called GNU/Linux...

[@AMurderOfLobs]

You guys don't know what you're talking about. I would stick to content about the specific things that you are knowledgeable about, such as the programs you use to do digital art within Linux. For example, when she says "there are four things that make up the operating system", and then references the 4 parts of the diagram from wikipedia, that is incorrect. You are misunderstanding the diagram, which intends to show where an operating system fits with respect to those other 3 things (user, applications, hardware). So when she says "the user is part of the operating system, that's you Flynn!", that's wrong. The user talks to the operating system. The operating system talks to the applications, the applications talk to the hardware. That is the what that diagram intends to convey. Not the 4 components of an operating system.

[@mosscharmly]

We are so sorry that this video was confusing for you. We are always striving to get the info correct and to make it easier for people to learn about Linux and digital art. We appreciate your feedback.

[@AMurderOfLobs]

@@mosscharmly No, I was never confused. It was you that was confused. I am sorry that my comment was confusing for you.

[@moussaadem7933]

These are random boundaries between categories. There's no issue with extending the understanding of an OS to include the user. the user is after all part of the control flow. correct more important issues, don't dabble in arbitrary details

[@moussaadem7933]

​@@mosscharmlyyou guys are doing a great job

[@AMurderOfLobs]

@@moussaadem7933 No, you are fundamentally misunderstanding the point of the diagram. The diagram intends to convey the order of communications sent through the entire system. The user communicates with the applications, the applications communicate with the OS, the OS communicates with the kernel. This is not some grey area that is up for subjective interpretation or me quibbling over semantics. If you don't understand that, you just don't know dick about computers.

[@cyanmargh]

Linux can be considered "acceptable for artists" only if videos and music are not count as art.

[@deadpianist7494]

Windows has better AV drivers than linux, BUT you can still do stuff like pipewire which windows cant do

[@cyanmargh]

@@deadpianist7494 I'm not saying that audio and video doesn't work on Linux (which is anyway mostly true). The point is that there is not a single normal video or audio editor on Linux.

[@deadpianist7494]

You're right. Linux has the potential to be better than Windows, but it's not there yet. The community is constantly pushing Linux to keep functioning. It might "just work," but you won't get the same quality as you do on Windows.

[@Adrian-bn5tj]

no music? Bitwig, Reaper, Renoise, and LMMS don't count? Windows VSTs can be run inside of linux most of the time, and there are plenty of VSTs specifically made for linux. generally I've had a much better time with pipewire than ASIO

[@deadpianist7494]

@@Adrian-bn5tj sound is the only thing is better than windows video playback sucks even with nvidia i hope this wayland thing will improve it in future

[@DetectiveSquarepants]

Poop