I’m trying to build a workstation for my wife who is a graphic design by trade. She has only ever used Window so I thought that this would be a great way to introduce her to Linux. I just have some questions about getting this project off the ground.

  1. Am I better off buying a cheap, prebuilt desktop and adding some extra parts like a GPU and more memory or building it from the ground up?

  2. For a distro, I was thinking about Linux Mint but would other distros be better options?

  3. Other than GIMP, what are some essential software for graphic design and digital art on Linux?

  • @[email protected]English
    27•6 months ago

    You are going to need to ask her specifically what software she uses and find out if it can run on Linux. If it can’t then she is not going to use the computer. Graphic design is not a profession where you can just easily switch software and trying to convince someone else they should do that is going to be even less likely.

    • Blackout
      6•6 months ago

      If she works with other teams they will be using Adobe software and a Linux box will slow her down. I don’t have the most up to date computer but had these requirements when buying:

      • 64gb fast RAM - large vector files with 1000s of paths will need lots of RAM not to go sluggish
      • Upper mid-range processor/GPU- you don’t need an i9 and 4080 card. Graphic software won’t tax the GPU. If she does mostly motion graphics/video editing then if could be useful but otherwise save your money.
      • Ultrawide monitor - This is a huge efficiency boost. Being able to run Photoshop and illustrator together on the same screen, without a bezel losing your mouse pointer. Big quality of life improvement for designers.
      • swayevenlyEnglish
        1•6 months ago

        Besides a possible issue importing ai/psd/indd files I don’t think any of the specs you mentioned are required. I can still design on my 2012 mac book pro without issue.

        AI files can be saved as .eps files. PSD files can be saved as .tiff files. Both are lossless and keep layers intact.