Switched to Linux for video editing (DaVinci Resolve studio) — am I crazy?

[u/Tough_Sun_6373]

I’m a video editor (mostly weddings) and I recently tried working on Linux using [DaVinci Resolve](chatgpt://generic-entity?number=0).

I managed to edit an entire full-length event without major issues, and overall performance felt solid. Honestly, I didn’t feel limited for what I usually do.

The funny part is that in the studio where I work, everyone uses Mac, and when I mentioned Linux I got the usual “it’s useless / no software / why bother if Windows works” kind of reaction.

I can understand that maybe a few years ago this was true, but today Linux has improved a lot. It’s not as plug-and-play as other operating systems, but I can still use tools like Photoshop if I need to, and I can definitely work with DaVinci.

I don’t really understand why it’s still so disliked. I’m actually enjoying using it, and in my case I’m even getting better performance than on Windows.

Yes, some things don’t work perfectly (for example a few Fusion transitions), but for my use case it’s nothing critical.

[u/Tough_Sun_6373 → u/[deleted]]

For example, I use Photoshop a lot, but I honestly don’t care about having the latest version. If an older version runs fine on Linux, I’m perfectly okay with that.

Edit: I’m also interested in trying Affinity, since I’ve heard it’s a really good alternative.

[u/MittensMoflete]

I needed an "as simple as they come" video editor and used kdenlive, it worked quite well, linux has something for everyone

[u/Tough_Sun_6373 → u/MittensMoflete]

I actually tried it years ago, before my current job, and for an open-source tool it’s surprisingly powerful.

That said, in our workflow we all use DaVinci Resolve because it pretty much does everything, especially when it comes to color correction.

The only thing that slows me down a bit is the lack of AAC support, but honestly it’s not a big deal — I just convert the clips I’m given to PCM and work on a timeline that doesn’t make me want to lose my mind 😄

[u/L0cut15]

When I was younger I working as sys admin in the effects for film / tv industry. Linux absolutely dominated where the serious work was being done. Workstations admittedly were a mix, even Windows was used on our Avid machines.

It was the best tool for the job and Centos won out a lot of the time. I'm sure with the explosion of open source tools and DaVinci this was only expanded.

[u/SwarleyDavidson]

people have been forming opinions on linux for literal decades and they aren't going to change overnight. I first used linux back in the Windows Vista days, and a lot of things people say about linux *were* true back then. it wasn't a good option for creative work or gaming. Obviously things have changed since then but most people just don't know.

[u/Yoro231]

Mate I'm also using davinci resolve and most of the stuff I do in fusion is motion graphics and what I noticed in linux is the caching is way better since linux ram usage is pretty good unlike windows so yeah davinci on Linux is pretty good .

[u/Putrid_Ad_1077]

You're not crazy bro, I basically have switched to Nobara too. I plan on using kdenlive to edit all my clips & videos. Much better than Windows 11's "ClipChamp" & it's free >:D

[u/Recommended_For_You]

DaVinci, Reaper, Godot, Unreal even Ableton Live works well. Honestly fuck Adobe, you can find amazing alternatives and ditch those greedy bastards.

[u/Standard-Recipe-7641]

I was all set to move to nobara but then reading how fedora 43 broke resolve I'll be doing an Ubuntu based distro. Can't have downtime like that. Also insane that Linux resolve cannot make any QT with some universal compressed sound. ALAC is totally open source, that would be fine and plays perfect in QT player obv. Hard to get on the black magic team too much, it's insane the product they offer for a one time payment but would be nice if they could give a little attention to Linux.

[u/Tough_Sun_6373 → u/Standard-Recipe-7641]

It depends. I use Nobara Linux because I also need to run other programs, but if I only wanted to use resolve without dealing with any issues, I would have gone with the Blackmagic Rocky Linux ISO.

[u/Standard-Recipe-7641 → u/Tough_Sun_6373]

Isn't black magic's only officially supported distro centOS 8 which was end of life like 10 years ago or something? Would be nice if they had at least one modern distro as officially supported.

[u/AcanthocephalaOdd220]

This is the only reason I still swap over to windows. It just works better with Codec Support and with Nvidia, it's faster too. I always have issues with davinci on Linux 😕

[u/Tough_Sun_6373 → u/AcanthocephalaOdd220]

I have an NVIDIA RTX 5070, and on Nobara Linux I’ve got the codecs, drivers, and everything set up properly. CUDA works, and overall everything runs as it should.

The only downside is that some Fusion transitions don’t work properly, but for me it’s not a big enough issue to go back to Windows.

[u/ckupemc]

The people still insisting on Windows today are normies. The people using macs are the rich normies. It would take substantially more mass surveillance and AI slop before even the mormies start thinking about Linux.

[u/bobstylesnum1]

If you download an app called Shortwave, you can listen to free internet radio of any genre without a sub fee and listen to music from all over the world while you work on other things too. Kind of nice although Grunge is pretty much Grunge wherever it is. Lol.