DeMystifying Linux For Digital Artists

Hello there, MossCharmly here. This video is all about Linux. We have attempted to decode the mysteries of Linux. Exploring a more simplified explanation of a seemingly complicated operating system. This video is for people who want to give Linux a try but may find it to be too overwhelming or confusing. We hope our explanations help digital artists to see Linux as an option.
Here are some inspirational artists who also use Linux and open source software.
librearts.org/categories/show...
www.davidrevoy.com/
krita-artists.org/c/artwork/f...

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@tristen_grant]

I'm also using Hyprland.

[@IoanEugenStan]

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

[@mosscharmly]

Thank you for the correction..

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!

[@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?

[@tristen_grant]

Did you try OpenTabletDriver?

[@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.

[@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 ...

[@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.

[@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