I’m still debating which distro. PopOS has an nVidia distro that has worked well for me in the past. Manjaro is my favorite (I’m using it right now on a Dell XPS 13) but I’m thinking stability might be more important on desktop, so maybe not a rolling distro.
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I went from Pop_OS! (by your recommendation), which was excellent, to Fedora since it’s supposed to be most up to date and pure GNOME distribution. However, that turned out to be surprisingly bloated and slow on my machines. A couple of months ago, I moved over to Debian and have a good feeling about how light, quick, and well supported and documented the system feels. While the distro itself feels very conservative, there seems to be nothing holding you back to update or replace those components you’d need newer versions of.
Pop is probably still very much at the top in terms of great-performance-out-of-the-box, but maybe moving a bit up stream to Debian for the sake of less decorum and a lighter system (at least it feels that way) sounds like a good idea.
The only thing it takes after install is to boot to the console and manually install Nvidia’s driver version 460 (the one including the RTX 30xx class cards). It’s just that I tried two other tutorials online (working with Debian repositories) which did not work out for me. Had I simply taken that route, the system would have been ready in 5 minutes.
I went with SUSE last year, when I experimented. But it never worked properly with my hardware (Ryzen 7, 32GB RAM, nVidia GTX1050ti, SATA 3 SSDs). If I was watching a YouTube video, opening Thunderbird would cause the browser to stop playing for around 5 - 6 seconds, whilst the email program opened - could have been any other program, but the whole desktop just froze for 5 - 10 seconds when opening another application, there were also some pauses switching between open windows.
In the end, after 3 weeks of trying to get things working (the worst was the keyboard, I had a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and SUSE would only enable Bluetooth after I had logged on. Not being able to type in the username and password makes that a little difficult! After many hours of research and testing, I did get that working), I put Windows back on the PC.
Next time, I’ll build the rig from scratch with Linux. But I just didn’t have the time to run around spending hours getting an 8 core, 16 thread processor with 32GB RAM to not freeze up for several seconds when opening an application!
I did try Ubuntu, Mint and Debian, I set them all up in HyperV virtual machines to start with, to try and get my drives partitioned correctly - I had 3 SSDs and an HDD and I wanted to use LVM to get the 4 drives into 1 logical drive for the SSDs, with the HDD as a backup, only SUSE had the flexibility to do that during the initial set-up, the others had me jumping through too many hoops to get it working as I wanted it. I am also a long-time SUSE user, having used it as my main OS from 2002 through 2007, where I switched to OS X for a while, then Windows.
The main reason for going back to Windows was compatibility with work. But due to Privacy Shield issues and Microsoft’s refusal to make Windows 10 fully GDPR compliant and fully document what data it collects and what it does with it, makes me want to switch to Linux full time. I also use it for Capture One and Affinity Photo, and I haven’t found a Linux equivalent that provides the functionality and ease of use I need.
Maybe @ant_pruitt could dedicate an episode, or a mini-series, of HoP to comparing the different tools available and the different platforms (Windows, macOS and Linux). There are some really good OSS tools, but finding the right one is difficult.
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Ant is all Windows all the time. But there are excellent photography tools on Linux, including Darktable, Raw Therapee, and Digikam (my faves) and of course the classics the GIMP and Krita. Really there are better tools (if lesser known) on FOSS than anywhere else.
I use Debian on my server, precisely due to its stability.
I usually stay away from “commercial” distros like Fedora and Suse and prefer community driven projects like Debian and Arch. Those two communities are active and amazing.
I use PopOS (a Debian derivative via Ubuntu) and Manjaro (an arch derivative) mostly because I’m lazy and I just want them to work out of the box. I’m looking for good AMD CPU and Nvidia GPU support so it’s going to take some fussing no matter what.
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I was a tester for the SuSE community edition from 2002 through 2006, which is why I probably have a short spot for it.
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Yeah. Raw Therapee continues to be the only one I’d consider. Darktable was ok. But also, Im on Win10 so that probably made a difference. 
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I tried Darktable, but wasn’t very impressed, compared to Capture One. I’ll take a look at Raw Therapee. Thanks for the tip.
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I’m really liking Linux Mint on my Lenovo - Cimnamon is a great UI
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Yes I use Mint on my old (2010) Sony Vaio.
Do any of these support CR3 raw files yet? I tried these on Windows, but none would load in CR3 files. I haven’t tried looking for any apps on the M1 Mac yet. Have been using Luminar 4, which works okay under emulation, but I think it’s a dead-end product.
I have numerous System76 machines including a Meercat, Oryx, and Darter. But with one exception they outsource their hardware, so it’s nothing special.
Linux runs great on almost all PCs so I generally choose a Windows machine then put Linux on it. The Alienware Aurora I bought is a very highly rated gaming PC and gives me access to a CPU and GPU that are hard to source otherwise.
Its still almost impossible to buy an OEM rtx 3080, or at least here in the UK it is.
3090s are a bit more common but it’s annoying how they will gladly sell you a new PC with a 3080 but you still can’t buy one on its own.
I would at least wait until the next round of Macs come out. You will sick if they have what you want. You can still use the monitor. I think a 55" monitor would hurt my neck. I love Lisa’s.
Can you even get a 3080 Nvidia? I thought the bitcoin miners were snapping them all up.
I just finished watching Sunday’s Twit yesterday. Did Owen talk you into a higher refresh monitor? He made a good argument in his rant! 
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You are only a fool if you don’t use it enough to get the value out of it. If you replace it in 6 months with something else then yes you would be a fool, but if you use it x number of hours a week for years and get the value out of it then you aren’t a fool for doing this.
I got the monitor yesterday, and holy shiznet is it big (and beautiful). I connected it to a NUC just to make sure it works an I think it’s going to be perfect. In fact, I’m going to move it closer because I like looking up to use emacs.
I only wish the PC were coming sooner. Another month.
As for the 120hz TV, I couldn’t cancel the TCL, and the kid isn’t happy he can’t go to 120, only 60, but I don’t know of any games that can do 4K at 120hz - they step down to 1080p at 120k - possibly because the PS5 can’t handle both. So I’ m not sure it’s really worth it. At least that’s what I told him.
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I’ve got a 32" monitor on my desk. When I bought it, I had the same reaction. I can’t imagine a 55".
Tell him, he’s free to save up for his own ideal monitor! 
I think you’re right about PS5 not being able to do both 4K and 120hz. Does the new Xbox? …for any games?
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Xbox Series X supports it, but I don’t know how many games offer 4K/120. I imagine many devs will optimize for either resolution or frame rate. But agree, the kid can buy his own if he’s unhappy. That said, come on Leo you’re The Tech Guy! How do you not get a 120Hz TV for gaming? 
But that’s just between us. 
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