I recently wiped Windows off my ThinkPad X13 Yoga and ran Ubuntu full-time for 30 days as my main creation setup.
Hardware & Power Management:
Suspend/Sleep: Moving away from Windows Modern Standby fixed my biggest mobile hardware headache. Closing the lid triggers true deep sleep, resulting in a flat battery graph overnight instead of a hot laptop in my bag.
2-in-1 UI: 1-to-1 GNOME gestures in tablet mode feel incredibly natural. Paired with extensions like Blur my Shell, the desktop environment looks modern and responsive.
FOSS Workflow Replacements:
Scripting & Notes: Logseq handled all local markdown planning effortlessly.
Graphics & Audio: GIMP and Audacity handled all thumbnail design and voiceover post-processing without friction.
Gaming: Steam Proton ran roughly 90% of my game library out-of-the-box with zero tweaking.
Friction Points:
Video Editing (Free DaVinci Resolve): Free Resolve on Linux lacks native H.264/H.265 MP4 decoding due to licensing. It requires running FFmpeg scripts to transcode footage to ProRes/DNxHR before editing.
Proprietary Standards: Expecting a 1:1 drop-in replacement for Adobe CC or native MS Office isn't realistic—you have to adapt your workflow to open tools.
Overall, desktop Linux feels ~90% ready for creator workflows. I put together a video walking through the full setup, desktop B-roll, and tests if anyone wants a visual breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ci_2rxbfwU
I don’t do any video editing, but couldn’t someone be editing sourced material (for, say, a documentary) that is MP4? That is, already produced material that wasn’t originally shot by the creator in question.
Sure. If for whatever reason you need to re-edit something that you didn’t shoot yourself and you don’t have access to the source files. I suppose that would be one reason to edit the MP4 directly. (so for example, if you’re re-editing someone’s youtube video to make a remix of it for Tiktok). But I don’t consider that to be “professional” editing.
Professional editing is getting hired by a filmmaker (or creating video yourself) that you then edit into a completed work. And in those cases, I’d question why they’re either a) filming in a format like MP4 in the first place, or b) not making the LOG or ProRes source files available to their editor.