Linux

I, like many I'm sure, am taking Microsoft's discontinuation of Windows 10 support as an opportunity so switch over to Linux.

Welcome on board!

Does the distro I pick matter?

In short: Yes.

There seems to be a lot of debate around which distro is best

TL;DR: There's no distro that is best for everyone. Each individual has their own best. You just gotta find what suits you best.

but a lot of the discussion I've seen breaks down to what each distro comes packaged with

This is a thing of the past. With the excellent Distrobox, you can install any package from any distro on whatever distro you're running.

This confuses me as if a distro doesn't come prepackaged with something can you not just install it?

Even if we would disregard Distrobox, you should be able to install software that's not packaged. So, you're intuition is right.

Or is there some advantage to preinstalled packages other than mild convenience? Are some components difficult to integrate into your local environment?

Exactly. Managing software that's not packaged in any way comes with its own set of jank. So, new users are definitely discouraged. However, as mentioned previously, this whole issue is solved with Distrobox. And if you don't like CLI, BoxBuddy provides an excellent GUI and more. Again, this is mostly a solved problem.

One of the more salient differences I've seen between distros has been what the various companies and teams include aside from installed packages (such as snap and rolling out amazon search as a defult search), and the data they choose to retain/sell. Part of the reason I'm switching is due to Microsoft's forcing in of unwanted features and advertising. Is the company that owns whatever distro I choose likely to be a problem in the future? Are there particular ones to avoid/ones to keep an eye on?

So, what you're referring to is mostly a Ubuntu problem. They've made a couple of bad decisions in the past. Other than them, this is mostly non-existent.

Some peeps got question marks regarding distros like deepin, but I don't know if there's anything conclusive on this.

Lastly, some distros and/or (so-called) desktop environments might collect telemetry to improve themselves. But this is done in a way that suits free and open source software. Thankfully, if you've got problems with this, you can always turn it off.

I am the sort of person who does like to tinker with things from time to time but I do also want to use my computer most of the time so I'd like to end up using a mature distro.

So, all distros allow you to tinker. My question is: What is it you're tinkering with?

• If you just want to have complete control on how your desktop environment behaves without going into (unofficial) extensions or editing text files, then you should at least take a look at the KDE Plasma desktop environment; which is literally found on all distros and very well supported.
• If, instead, your definition of tinkering is more broad or otherwise different than what I suggested, then please feel free to elaborate.

I have identified a few frontrunners in my search but I have seen conflicting information on which of them is "mature" (sufficiently stable so I spend less time fighting my computer than I do using it as well as having a large enough community and resources to help me remedy issues I might come across). Do any of these seem like they wouldn't fit that bill? The frontrunners are: fedora, kubuntu, mint, pop and tuxedo.

• Fedora is a good pick. Though, I've been daily-driving (a) Fedora(-derivative) for almost three years now. So I might be biased :P .
• Regarding Kubuntu, let's just say that it's at least a controversial pick; problem being the Ubuntu part of the equation. I'd personally discourage you from going that route, but it's ultimately your choice.
• Linux Mint is cool. I'd argue it does more hand-holding than Fedora, which is great to have as a beginner.
• Pop!_OS is interesting. It has garnered a great fanbase for a good reason: System76 sells hardware with their software (i.e. Pop!_OS), so they obviously care. However, Pop!_OS has definitely seen better days. It's currently in limbo; the ambitious COSMIC desktop environment is just around the corner. But how smooth will the transition be? How much longer will Pop!_OS users have to endure with the relative lack of work put to the system they actually daily-drive? A lot of questions, but not a lot of answers. I'd personally discourage this as well.
• Tuxedo OS is similar to Pop!_OS. But where Pop!_OS first went to champion the GNOME desktop environment to later 'abandon' it for their own COSMIC. Tuxedo OS, instead, turned their eyes towards KDE Plasma. From what I've heard, it's a good pick. As TUXEDO makes hardware just like System76 does, it's unsurprising for them to care as well.

Does linux have issues interfacing with multiple monitors?

Unfortunately, I'm not very familiar with multiple monitors. The few times I did need it, which was on Fedora with GNOME, it did work well. I suppose it should be fine.

Does it handle HDR okay?

On KDE Plasma, yes. On GNOME, from what I could gather, it should work starting from GNOME 48. Which is a couple of months away. Though, IIRC, some 'GNOME-powered' distros may have tried to support HDR in its experimental stage already. On Cinnamon, what we find on Linux Mint's flagship distro, AFAIK it's not great (yet) 😅.

In terms of UI and workflow I really don't mind putting in some time tinkering with the DE, exploring it and getting it how I like. It seems Plasma KDE might be good for this? Please let me know if this is an incorrect assessment. If it is, does it matter what DE I choose? If so, is there something you could recommend for my use case.

You hit the nail on the coffin. KDE Plasma would probably serve you best, yes. Eventually, you may want to explore Window Managers for how they could further enhance your workflow. But, let's take it easy :P . One step at a time. Start with KDE Plasma. Get comfortable with Linux and the whole ecosystem. And if it so happens that you're not satiated with KDE Plasma's workflow options and you'd like to explore other possibilities, then looking into WMs is definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

I have a Nvidea build (RTX 2080). I have heard this can be an issue with Linux.

Yup. It has been better lately, but thank you for bringing this up.

I also have intermediate experience with linux through university and my job (with servers) as well as tinkering with SteamOS.

Things I use/do on my PC (roughly ordered in terms of priority):

• Gaming including emulation

Have you considered Bazzite?

Photoshop cs6

Out of everything, this could be a slight concern. You could make it work through Wine, and it seems to have decent results. If you're not opposed to using Photoshop CC 2021, there's this GitHub repo worth looking at as well.

davinci resolve

This is notoriously difficult to install. Thankfully, the excellent davincibox comes to the rescue. Furthermore, it's also found in the AUR and nixpkgs. Note that the Nix package manager can be installed on (almost) any distro, though it's relatively advanced.

Misc "Tinkering" (Handbrake, dvd burners/rippers, Really any weird thing I come across that I want to tinker with)

Assuming this "Tinkering" is the same as the one I asked you to elaborate/clarify before, then I can inform you that most distros handle it pretty well.

Alrighty, I think you've clearly demonstrated to have done your research. Thank you for that!

FWIW, assuming that KDE Plasma is your DE of choice (at least for now) for both its (relatively mature) HDR support and tinker-friendliness, then -out of your selected distros- only Fedora and Tuxedo OS remain to be considered.

re: Distros. Tuxedo is a strange one. I'm not saying it's bad or anything, it just doesn't normally feature in these discussions. I don't know much about it, so I couldn't say if it's a good option or not, but I'm curious what drew you to it?

If you had asked me Q1 a month ago, I would have said yes (and in general, it is a yes, with enough effort). But i run endeavour (arch) and my partner runs mint (which ships with the Cinnamon WM), and a few weeks ago I recommended that she try out KDE Plasma for its wayland support. Turns out, this is not something the mint community supports, you can't just install it through their software manager, and the mint forums will all tell you to switch to another distro that supports KDE. Meanwhile, on arch, I expect to be able to install it through pacman, choose it from SDDM, and I'm done. Maybe tweak something in my .config, but it's all downhill from there.

Just a datapoint. Some distros (and their communities) seem to be more receptive to experimentation than others, which can make trying new things easier/harder.

I would recommend fedora, debian, or endeavour + KDE/gnome. Good luck!

None of that matters.

You need experience, not recommendations.

Install anything and play with it to learn.

If you will not go forward without a recommendation, Debian is fine and anything you learn will generally transfer to other distributions.

If you do not want your distro to force changes down your throat like Microsoft, maybe avoid Ubuntu.

“Stability” on Linux means two things. “Stable” distros like Debian or RHEL change their software infrequently. This is indeed stable. However, you will likely be unhappy with the old software and want to install newer stuff. Many of the ways this is done will cause actual instability (bugs and crashes). Also, old software may be missing features or hardware support. If you are a gamer for example, this could be a big deal—especially if you use NVIDIA.

Things are a bit better than they used to be with tech like Distrobox and Flatpak.

The frequently updated distros can actually be “more stable” for the same reasons as above. However, every once in a while some package is going to have a bug that may hit you before it is found. Arch or EOS are examples of such distros. They have massive software repositories that probably contain everything you will ever need. If you use one of these, check out the AUR (user contributed software repo).

Distros that fall in the middle, like Mint or Fedora, are what I would recommend for a new user. Compared to Windows, you will find them very tinker friendly and tweakable. Fedora is more Wayland ready (see below).

HDR is very, very new and is part of a change in core graphics tech from something called X11 to something called Wayland. From this point forward, Wayland is the better bet but, today, the quality of your experience is going to be very dependent of the “age of your software” issue above. For NVIDIA on Wayland, you want very up-to-date versions.

KDE Plasma is the most mature Wayland environment today, in my assessment. Others are coming along quickly. That does not yet help you now though.

Photoshop is going to be a problem for you. The most often recommended replacement for PS is GIMP. Unfortunately, GIMP has been on the verge of a major update for years. GIMP 3 has not shipped yet and most distros ship a far older version (2.10). Version 3 is a massive upgrade. However, you may still find it an unsatisfactory PS replacement. Some people use Photopea online.

Gaming on Linux works really well now. However, multi-player anti-cheat systems are Windows kernel only and so these games are going to be a problem. So, your experience will depend on what you play.

The other stuff on your list will work well. Linux of course has a lot more to offer, especially if you are a dev.

Good luck!

Distros matter. Maybe less than you think.

For the most part, they all run the same software, including the desktop environment (user experience).

So, in many ways, choosing your distro is mostly choosing how it comes out of the box and how much work it will be to configure it how you want after the fact. Some distros will be closer to what you want out of the box. But you can basically turn any distro into any other distro with a little effort.

That said, some choices do run a bit deeper and are a lot harder to change. Package manager, init system, C library, and others are pretty baked in.

try a bunch in live usbs and see for yourself

I'll answer point by point, but the short answer is pick one and use it, if you have issues with it or want to try something different, switch, otherwise stick with it.

1. Your understanding is mostly correct. There's the difference that each distro has a family tree which determines which package manager they use, Red hat based distros like Fedora use rpm, Debian based distros like Mint, Pop or Kubuntu use apt, etc. So it would be easier to switch from Mint to Kubuntu than from Fedora to Pop although not by much. The main difference between distros is philosophy, which honestly you shouldn't care too much currently as long as you aim at something beginner friendly.
2. Probably not something to worry about, and if it comes to that you can just jump to another distro, trust me once you're familiar with Linux the distro matters less and less.
3. Any of them (except for tuxedo which might be a good option but I don't know it) would be a good option. Personally I would recommend Mint, or at least a Debian based one since 3 of the ones you suggested are Debian based it would give you more options to switch easily if needed.
4. It should, but your mileage might vary
5. Any of them should be good for that, KDE/Plasma is a bit similar to Windows while also being very eye candy, so it's a good choice. Also it's the one used on the Steam Deck so you might be somewhat familiar with it already.

Extra: Nvidia should be fine as long as you use the official proprietary drivers (named nvidia, NOT nouveau). Photoshop doesn't work on Linux, so you might need to jump through hoops there, if it's not a hard requirement I suggest looking at Gimp for photo manipulation or Krista for drawing, good luck either way since it's uphill battle either way, one against Adobe anti-piracy measures and the other against an unfamiliar software.

Okay, people have said many good things so far, so I won't add much. Simply one thing: take one problem at a time.

By this I rather mean, make your life easier, and only progressively deal with more complicated things. When it comes to distro choice, this would mean picking something with plenty of default installed packages (since you won't necessarily know what to install yourself) — this rules out my beloved openSUSE Tumbleweed as well as the popular Fedora and Debian — something that will play nice with NVidia (Desktop Environments use display managers/servers, the two most common being Wayland and X11; Wayland is better, but unfortunately will really mess up NVidia gaming, so try to stick to X11 for now — you can always switch later!), and, lastly, something with a large community (and by extension a large help forum and wiki).

I never thought I'd hear myself (see myself?) saying this (typing this!?), but Mint checks all those boxes.

I wouldn't recommend staying with Mint for long (though some people claim to enjoy it...), but as a first distro to introduce you to Linux, it really may be the easiest. Using a different DE is already difficult, don't overwhelm yourself from the get-go!

Alright, that ended up being longer than expected. I wish you the best of luck, and a lot of fun on your approaching Journey!

So you like tinkering? Just install Arch and go wild /s

For a distro, I recommend Fedora KDE Spin. Fedora is beginner friendly, is widely supported, frequent updates (so less outdated packages), rock solid stable, works with gaming or anything else.

People recommend Linux Mint often, but I am just not a fan of how outdated the system is and its reliance on X11 (deprecated and insecure display server). I've daily driven mint before for like a year and it was good but I'm not a fan of cinnamon DE.

When you mention Visual Studio, do you mean VSCode or Visual Studio. Cus VSCode is supported on Linux but Visual Studio is not. Confusing right?

So I don't really have experience with the gaming aspect as I pretty much get what I want from a steamdeck. I think its likely you would want to go with one of those (a gaming setup someone else suggests) or dual boot to have your gaming system and your doing other things setup. Just in case I will mention the one I use called zorin. It is based on ubuntu with gnome and its main claim to fame is its an out of the box distro that tries to emulate windows (other systems to but the paid for version unlocks that. its default is a general windows type experience). Out of the box means it has foss office, video file viewing, audio file listening, image file viewer, browser of course, rdp client, mail client, calendar, contacts, also image,video,audio file creation and editing, optical disk copier/image creator, wine with play on linux so that you can right click a windows executable and run it and such. It does non free software things like nvidia drivers right off the bat. Its great for an install and get going right away type of thing. Its always a bit out of date because its emphasis is stable, just works, get going type of thing. I have a few complaints. Mainly it does not have the windows key, right arrow thing to half screen by default. It could be a stability thing that they don't want to mess with the compiz or whatnot. Then the other thing is I find the software gui interface it have an aweful search for getting more software so either just use apt at the command line or download the .deb installation file which things like various browsers have as a linux option for download and then its really just like adding one to windows or mac. download and run the installation.

Distros packaging software means that it is available to install with the package manager from their repositories. No distro provides every piece of software out there. This can be mitigated with Flatpak, Snap, GUIX, AppImage or, in a pinch, by compiling the required program yourself.

Sounds like you've already done most of the work. From what you've said, Fedora with Plasma sounds great for your use case. Good luck on your journey and glad to have you aboard!

You already have great answers, so I'll just drop my recommendations. LMDE if you want something more stable, and Endeavour OS if you want to go a bit more in the weeds with a rolling release.

In the end, don't be afraid to try some for a few weeks and find one you like. One of the strength of Linux is that if you mess up, you can always reinstall,and it's not scary since you did it once already.

1. Does the distro I pick matter?
   Packages
   When you install a distro it will have repositories of apps that you can easily install and easily keep updated using either the GUI (GNOME Software for GNOME, Discover for KDE) or the package manager in terminal (dnf in Fedora, apt in kubuntu and mint). It's similar to how you install apps on a smartphone.
   The good thing about the apps from the default repository is that they're (in theory) tested to work well with the distro.
   You can also install applications from other sources when necessary.
   Update Frequency and new tech
   Another difference is how new kernel and software you get from the repos.
   The latest Debian Stable runs kernel 6.1 while Fedora just updated to 6.12 and arch has been running 6.12 since december.
   If you're running the newest hardware then the chance of having drivers available automatically increases with a newer kernel.

2. Company-run distros and alternatives:
   In my opinion Ubuntu is the ones doing the most forcing as of now, and even they are angels compared to Microsoft.
   Fedora had discussions about including opt-out Telemetry to aid them getting data to improve the distro. They listened to community feedback and backpedaled that into opt-in metrics:
   https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Telemetry
   https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Metrics
   Debian and Arch are both examples of distros without enterprise involvement and that have no upstream distro that can affect their releases.
   Map of distros here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg

3. Stability of the distro:
   Of your frontrunners I've only run Fedora but that has been stable and been working well for me for my primary PC. So has Debian which I run on my servers (I have a Debian VM running Portainer for dockers, one for running Jellyfin and a third for Forgejo).

4. Monitor support
   Multi monitor support
   I don't have the desktop space for double monitors personally, but I've heard that KDE 6 (Plasma) handles multi monitor support well.
   HDR
   Should be working since November

• https://9to5linux.com/kde-plasma-6-2-4-re-enables-hdr-mode-for-users-on-nvidia-565-and-linux-6-11

5. Both KDE and GNOME are customizable. KDE is more similar to Windows and I realized that most of my GNOME customizations was to make it more similar to Windows and KDE. I've since switched to KDE and must say I really enjoy having a proper file browser as default. Nautilus (default GNOME file browser) has been simplified to death and caused me to create a script to replace it with nemo.

Nvidia is a whole lot simpler to use than people make it sound like, though I'll stay team red:
https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA#Current_GeForce.2FQuadro.2FTesla
Fedora guide for Nvidia drivers unless you're running a really old card:

sudo dnf update -y # Update your machine and reboot
sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia # Installs the driver
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda #optional for cuda/nvdec/nvenc support (required for Davinci Resolve)  

• Gaming including emulation
  First person shooters with kernel intrusive Anticheat won't work in Linux as they expect to spy on a Windows OS.
  Other than that gaming on Linux is really getting there as I'm sure you've realized when using a Steamdeck.
  Outside of Steam you have Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris and Bottles for running windows games on Linux.
  I'm mostly using Lutris but I think Heroic Games launcher is the more popular one.
• Firefox
  Default browser in most distros
• VLC
  Available in most default distro repositories.
• Spotify
  Available as a Flatpak on Flathub, haven't used it myself.
• Discord
  I know people has had some trouble with screen sharing but that the DiscordCanary (think Beta version) solves it.
  https://github.com/flathub/com.discordapp.Discord/issues/380
• Godot
  Can be downloaded as a simple bin file from their own site: https://godotengine.org/download/linux/
  Also available as a Flatpak on Flathub
• Visual Studio
  The closest you get is VSCode.
• Git
  Not a problem.
• Photoshop cs6, audacity, davinci resolve
  Photoshop might be trouble, Audacity and Davinci Resolve should work.
• Misc “Tinkering” (Handbrake, dvd burners/rippers, Really any weird thing I come across that I want to tinker with)
  Handbrake is available as a Flatpak on Flathub, there's dvd burner applications available too.

1. By and large, distros package the same software so which one you pick is a matter of taste. As a beginner, you won't have the knowledge to take advantage of documentation/instructions that are not written for your specific distro, so pick one of the more popular ones.

2. No, distro owners won't be a problem in the same way that Microsoft or Apple are. Don't worry about that: the moment they do something unsavory (even remotely) their projects will be forked, and switching to a different distro is not that big of a deal anyway.

3. If you like to tinker you will break your system, not because linux is fragile (it is not) but because knowledge of low-level stuff is widespread and the temptation to thinker with it is too great. I recommend you look into system snapshots and how they integrate with boot options (eg. opensuse tumbleweed automatically snapshosts your system when you update it and during boot you can choose to boot into a previous state - surely other distros do the same and, if yours doesn't, you can set it up yourself).

4. The short answer is "use KDE" :)

5. KDE is great and seems to suit you. The DE you choose matters (IMHO) more that the distro, because once you are familiar with a DE and its shortcuts it's a pain to switch, and also because once you are used to some feature it's enormously frustrating to switch to a DE that doesn't have it :)

From what I hear (I switched to AMD years ago), it's not hard to make the Nvidia cards work properly, but it's a recurring hassle and there are lots of things that are more fun to thinker with. Unless specific reasons you need an Nvidia card, I'd suggest selling it off and replacing it with a second-hand AMD/Intel one.

Others have already answered your questions, so I'll just drop in my anecdotal experience to moving over my desktop to Linux last year. I tried a few different distros but settled with Fedora KDE edition. It works with everything exotic in my laptop out of the box, except for the gyro that doesn't work with anybody else either. The desktop feels familiar and is easy to customize. I tried to like Gnome and variants but it is really settled on The Gnome Way of doing everything. Fedora is a fresh experience from previous attempts of going full Linux desktop with Ubuntu and even Mint. The GUI for software and package management is neat and includes native packages, flatpak both the fedora builds and mainline. Some minor things are not quite there but I believe that will be the Linux experience forever and I'm okay with it. I recommend to try it.

1. the distro matters, but as a general rule, start with mint cinnamon because it's easy and super stable. different distros use different components and they are configured differently, so if you face issues and incompatibility on mint, fedora may work better for example. for me it's the other way around. also on debian or ubuntu based distros you have the biggest selection of programs available. not sure what packages you are referring to..just applications in general? it's as easy as just installing or uninstalling them from your package manager / software center or whatever.

2. ubuntu is owned by canonical, I'd say avoid that. mint is derived from ubuntu, but it has a debian edition so it's not threatened if ubuntu gets further enshittified.

3. I recently used kububtu for a week, something to note: it's running very far behind, using plasma 5.27. in my experience, kde in general seems to have lots of customization but a lot of it is just broken. all the themes you can find, most won't install, animations are laggy (I suspect nvidia issue). downvotes incoming, but that's just my experience. it may work for you though idk. fedora official and pop use gnome, which I have very limited experience with, but I remember it not giving too much control to the user with customization if that's what you're after, also what's with the full screen app launcher? in cinnamon you will find a lot of customization and it all works. it's also very familiar to use if you're coming from windows.

4. do your monitors have different refresh rates? that was an issue, I think that got fixed in wayland. x11 will not be your friend. someone correct me on this one if I'm wrong.

5. I stand by what I said in 3, but go ahead and try them in usb live environment and see if you find it okay to use. btw you can install KDE plasma in mint too, you're not married to the DE that your distro ships with.

you are probably going to need to set up a virtualbox and use photoshop in windows, I hear it doesn't work well in wine.

I don’t have anything to say that everyone else hasn’t so I’ll just wish you good luck and hope you have an enjoyable experience

Shameless self promotion: https://lemm.ee/post/37682729

It won't answer all of your answers, but it should at least give you a good primer on what distros are and what are the main key takeaways.

1). It matters a little bit, but not a ton. A big difference will come down to what package manager comes with a distro, and whether it is a "rolling" distro that gets updates as soon as they come out, or one which withholds updates until after they have some time for bug testing, etc. Given that gaming is one of your primary use cases, I would recommend a rolling distro. If your distro does not come prepackaged with something you can usually install it. Minimalist distros like Arch come with almost nothing pre-installed, not even a desktop environment, so you can be very granular about what gets installed and keep you system lean.

2). Most distros will not have as much in the way of corporate control/privacy concerns. A few like Ubuntu or Fedora are more closely linked with a single company, but most are more community driven and this is not a concern.

3). The advice I always give to people first trying Linux is to go into it with the mindset that you are learning a new skill, as many things are simply done differently to Windows. Most things work fine, but every once in a while, especially when setting something up for the first time, it may require additional configuration steps. Very popular distros like Mint will usually have the most community resources, and you can often find posts or guides of people who have already solved some issue you run into. I would also throw one of the Arch-based distros onto your list: Endeavour OS, which is essentially a pre-configured Arch installation. The Arch wiki is one of the most highly regarded resources in the entire linux community, and even if you are not using an Arch distro, many of the guides on it can be helpful.

4). Generally speaking, my multi-monitor usage with KDE has been seamless. No issues that I can think of. HDR support has only very recently been added, so I am not sure how well it works, but it is improving rapidly.

5). I think Plasma would be a good fit for what you are trying to do. Honestly, it is very customizable, but perfectly usable right out of the box even if you do not want to do anything to it. The layout is very familiar for a Windows user.

There is no right answer. There are many distros to choose from and each has its pros and cons. My suggestion would be to try a few things in VMs before fully making the jump. Personally I use Mint. It just works and takes a minimal amount of hassle to install and run. If that's a priority to you, I'd suggest checking it out.

When you like to tinker with the DE, e.g. customising to your liking, then there would be no way around KDE as it is imho the most customizable DE. Gnome is rock solid and its UI is very concise and coherent but also not that customizable (out of the box).

When it comes to the Amazon and Snap Scandals, you might want to steer clear from everything that is Ubuntu based since it was Canonical who did those two things. Ubuntu based is for example Mint (unless you go Linux Mint Debian Edition which skips the ubuntu middle man) and Kubuntu.

HDR is afaik still maturing in Wayland: https://arewewaylandyet.com/

But Multi Screen support is not a big issue anymore.

nVidia used to be a problem since their opensource and also proprietary drivers were quite lacking. But this was afaik remedied last year.

Regarding the packages: yes in essence you could just install it afterwards, but there are three/four/five package formats that are only compatible with each other after some repackging has been done, one of those package formats only exists on one branch of Linux (snap), twos are universal (AppImage which is similiar to portable Apps in Windows, Flatpak) and three that are fundamental (DEB for debian based systems, RPM for IBM red hat (fedora), ZST for Arch based systems)

With your software list, you may run into issues regarding Photoshop CS6 as it is not supported in Linux and you would need alternatives (which includes relearning workflows) e.g. Krita and GIMP (both you can already run in windows to check them out and learn a bit)

Gaming is simple: check protondb.com to see if a given game runs in linux; steam exists, lutris exists for non-steam games.