So I have a situation. I really want to switch to Linux as my main gaming/production OS but need the Adobe suite as I am a graphic designer. Adobe is the golden standard for this industry (and likely to always be) so while Gimp and Inkscape might work, they are not feasible for my career. I also know that there will be situations where games just don’t run well or at all on Linux.
Dualbooting works but is not really worth it for me as I would have to stop what I’m doing and restart my PC. I heard that you can set up a single GPU passthrough for games and software but it seems complicated. How difficult would that be to set up for a new user to Linux? I would consider myself a tech savvy person but I know very little about the ins and outs of Linux. I have a massive GPU (XFX RX 6900 XT) with a big support bracket that covers the second PCIE slot so buying another GPU isn’t really feasible either.
I do have an Unraid server with decent specs that I use for a hosting Minecraft servers and Jellyfin so setting up a VM on that might be a good option.
What would you guys recommend me to do?
Adobe suite is one thing that is still an immense pain to get running on Linux, if you can even get it running at all. There aren’t a whole lot of good alternatives depending on your workflow, either. GIMP can be a good Photoshop substitute, but there isn’t really a good Illustrator substitute (Inkscape doesn’t support CMYK, for example), and it gets worse for the other tools in the suite, so your mileage may vary with that approach.
As others have said, a VM is an option. But, how about a KVM? Maybe it sounds old school, but you could have a Linux box for home / fun / gaming that just shares peripherals with a Windows box that is just for work. Then you get a few advantages:
Linux PC as normal with no fancy setup needed
Windows work PC has Adobe as usual, and you just do your non-work stuff on the Linux box. Network them together for easy file sharing.
You don’t need to reboot to go between one or the other; simply switch your KVM over. Let Windows do its update nonsense or other data processing while gaming on the Linux box.
Obviously this does mean you need two physical machines, which might be a dealbreaker for you unless you have parts sitting around.
Edit: something else I just thought of: it is also possible to dual boot but get fancy with hibernation (not sleep, but hibernate = write all RAM contents to disk). You hibernate either installation to switch to the other, so while technically a reboot, all of your apps / windows etc come back up as if you hadn’t rebooted.