Thats really usefull @paperdigits
Thanks Jetze
Check out Thunderbird for email and LibreOffice for replacements for Word and Excel.
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I see you have haze removal among your tools. That module has been the source of many problems (e.g. exports looking very different from darkroom view, or colours changing because you crop(!) the image), so I’d steer clear of it. Experiment with diffuse or sharpen, it has presets for haze removal to get you started (I hope you have a GPU, though).
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you can use the web-based variants of MS Office. Not bad at all. But I prefer LibreOffice
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@thehatterman : Installed Ubuntu under WSL - as I’m not really knowing what I am doing will have to investigate further before doing more. Will for now keep Windows but today changed to non MS app’s for mail, text an calculus… Nothing irreversible.
@TonyBarrett : Watched the vid and like it as he more or less works as I was used to in LR 
@kofa : thanks for the information. I will manage with the filters quite well I think. And i will use ‘diffuse or sharpen’ a lot as I like the endless possibilities there. Maybe I touched ‘haze removal’ don’t know, will use the diffuse side of the sliders in diffuse or sharpen.
@difrkaguilar : agree very much, it is handy to know why and whatfor a module did get created. Would be nice for beginners to have a page accessing this info. I have started yesterday to add masks to my skills. Used luminosity masks in PS. Had actions for that… will have to learn again in darktable…
@elGordo installed Thunderbird and LibreOffice today - all well - thanks!
@Olli and LibreOffice it will be, thanks for the hint!
Kind Regards,
Jetze
Unix was the grandfather of Linux. Twenty-plus years ago, I used to earn my living from knowing a little bit (and I do mean that!) about Unix. It was a long time after retirement that I broke free from the desktop inertia of MS, although I never liked it, and became an every-day Linux user.
The main thing, though, is that the software that you want to use is available on the platform that you use. And whilst I’d hate to go back to MS, I’d have to agree that, if you can have both, that really is the best of both worlds.
I came to computing quite late in life, and Unix and I was love at first sight. On the other hand, my first encounter with MS-DOS was the exact opposite, made only worse by MS Windows. I don’t want to go back. But there is quite a lot of stuff that us not available for Linux that I would like to try. But installing Windows on a machine that is already Linux and only Linux would be a major headache. So do think twice before you dump your Windows OS 
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@Jetze - second ssd is IMHO very good solution for Linux.
A month ago I installed Linux on my second ssd and it turned out that darktable under Linux is twice as fast.
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WSL is a subsystem, it is not a full desktop experience. I use WSL quite a bit in work, with an Ubuntu and an OpenSUSE subsystem. As good as it is, it isn’t what you need in this instance.
I agree (and repeat) that there is no need to ditch Windows. Nothing at all wrong with Windows, don’t fall into the trap of becoming a die hard OS fanboy.
With Hyper-V, you make a virtual computer. So a virtual SSD, virtual monitor, virtual CDROM, virtual memory etc. Then when you run it, you will get a window on your screen and you will see all the BIOS boot messages etc, just like being at a real PC. Good thing is, you can make all the mistakes that you like in the virtual computer and it will never affect your actual real computer. You can destroy the SSD, but it’s virtual, the actual Windows OS is safe.
That saves you the cost of a new SSD, and any changes to your physical setup. In the months ahead, when you are happy with your Linux of choice, have installed it and broke it multiple times, installed programs, backed them up, restored them, updated them and so on and so on, you can buy an SSD and do a real bare metal install.
I have got lot’s of virtual machines that I use to test updates, backup and restore strategies, and system migration and all sorts of tinkering before I make changes for real on my actual Ubuntu OS. I would not be without them.
I’ve heard of people using linux graphical apps via WSL, but it uses wayland and some sort of remote desktop protocol, so there is no way that it’ll be color managed and you won’t have any way to ensure color accuracy. I’d assume its quite a similar story for hyper-v in this regard.
At any rate I’ll spare you the “windows gets worse every day” bit. 
Agreed that a virtual machine will not be colour managed ( I have never looked into it tk be honest ) but I just mean it as a non intrusive, zero cost way to learn how to use Linux.
If you run an X server on windows, and ssh into the WSL while forwarding X, is one way to run graphical apps. To be honest, I only use WSL for command line administration of remote machines.
If @Jetze has a few spare shekels, a cheap HDD or SSD is probably best.
You can run xrdp on the Linux VM, and just connect to it using the built-in Windows remote desktop client.
@kofa Yep, another good way. Linux is just full of possibilities. In fact, in Ubuntu 22.04 onwards, RDP is the default way to screen share and VNC is listed as the legacy way ( I think ! ).
the best way to fail ist to do too much changes at the same time if you don’t know, why you want or need to change something.
So better start getting comfortable with darktable on your existing system - then you’ll have at least one tool that won’t cause headaches when switching over to Linux later
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@Thad_E_Ginathom : That’s is a lot of good advise there. I learned DOS on 3.30, got in touch with unix somewhere around 1993 I believe. I think I’m not going to do anything linux before I have darktable up and running. I think that might be next week. Than I’m going to take some time to do my homework. I wilI surely see into Hyper-V and - in the end - will probably land on a second linux bootable SSD besides my first Windows bootable SSD. I also believe I will fase out most but not all of Windows programs, only boot on Windows when needed. I might change my mind of course…
@DarekK : I will follow your advise! Appreciated!
@paperdigits : Not having a color managed monitor will be a show stopper! I will search for experiences on this!
@thehatterman : sorry live in Euroland advise taken though.
@MStraeten : and that will be the first advise to follow. You’re very right. So first darktable, in may end of Adobe, the a new SSD for linux. In the meanwhile I will play a bit with linux in Hyper-V and WSL to get used.
As of today I finished cleaning my Lightroom Catalog, cleaned up my darktable mess, removed all lists, styles etc. reimported a fresh keyword hierachy from Lightroom and imported all raws from 2024.
The next questions will be about - how to’s in darktable.
Thanks everyone for welcoming me here and for all good advise. It is heard and will be used well in de coming month.
KInd regards!
Jetze
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I am going through a similar journey to you. Thanks for the writeup!
I switched to KDE Linux beginning of the year after freeing myself from the requirement of running Lightroom. Frankly lots of things are more clumsy but I have not regretted it one bit. Don’t know your use case for solid works but for simple project sketchup might also fit the bill. I use it for planning my woodworking projects and there is a) a free online version and b) the older Sketchup Make which runs very well through WINE.
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That is at least partly due to less “help” from the system. It allows you to do many things, including shooting yourself in the foot. One serious issue is device/driver support, you better check what will work under linux before investing in extra hardware (that’ mostly due to manufacturers, not so much linux, but still…).
As for the 3D modelling, like in a lot of other domains, there are alternatives available (Blender, FreeCAD, librecad, …) but that is not really a good subject for this forum.
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Is it, still? Granted, I do not have anything fancy, but Nvidia video cards, webcam, Watcom tablet, Logitech wireless mouse/keyboard combo, simple ‘brother’ network laser printer (B&W) work fine. In fact, they work better than on Windows, with no ‘installing driver’ etc. windows popping up for every single device. I’m sure there is stuff which does not work so well (I was unable to fully configure the LED decorations on my son’s ‘gaming’ mouse and keyboard…), but most ‘standard’ hardware with ‘standard’ interfaces work without a hassle, at least for me.
The common hardware works well out of the box, but afaik, printers/scanners can still be tricky (for more advanced functionality), and I’ve had issues with e.g. WIFI and TV receivers. (And just look around here for non-NVIDIA graphics 
)
Also, MIDI HIDs can have issues (not the most common I admit, but e.g. the Xtouch mini is very nice with darktable, but there are some weaknesses in the drivers).
And what about tethering support?
In short, most hardware categories are available for Linux, but not all brands/models are well supported (makers have to cooperate, or someone has to figure out a driver, and open source doesn’t play well with NDAs)
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I have pretty much given up on using printers/scanners with Linux. With a lot of effort, they can sometimes be made to work, but I just bypass the hassle and transfer stuff to/from my iPhone.
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