Yes, My first post; where does one begin, really??

How does one go about picking hardware/software parts for a new Linux machine?

I've got to tell you, I'm very overwhelmed; maybe too many choices... And from past experience once you start with a certain software/OS it's difficult to change and go back to another. Learning curves! And I have two degreesI do like to tinker and customize, I know how to get into the BIOS, I have a little experience with a command line.. but it all stops there.
So many distro's out there! which one? As a newbe should I just pic ....what? OK maybe I've heard of Mint.

I'm a professional photographer who stacks and stitches, plus other work station needs, some video and music. I'm not a gamer who needs distracting RGB lights as I edit ok? But maybe these popular gaming mobos are better than good for photography? I need a robust, feature rich mother board. Again I don't know; Asus ROG VII x470?
I'm leaning towards the newer AMD processors, will an AMD build go smooth compared to Intel?

I'd like to have at least two HD's with an OS on each... mint/windows10?

I most definitely like the philosophy of open source community so I ask, just what am I getting my self into and how do I do it?

A big thanks for any replies!

Welcome to the forum!

For a distro, you might be interested in this one, particularly if you make music as well as listening to it:
https://ubuntustudio.org/
They currently recommend 2GB RAM and any 64-bit processor! Users of the graphics editor GIMP have recommended 2-4GB. Video editing, of course, is another matter. I've seen an Intel i-3 recommended for Photoshop on Windows, and Gimp on Linux would be less demanding. I suspect an AMD A6 would be fine, so any Ryzen processor would give you some future-proofing. High-end computers these days are definitely driven by the needs of the gaming market. But you need advice from someone actually doing this stuff.

Mint is also a good choice, with good guides available:
https://linuxmint.com/documentation.php

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I think a Dell Precision Workstation might be a great choice for you. You can choose Ubuntu Linux factory preinstalled (for a savings of about $100 vs. Windows) and the hardware is perfect for a multimedia professional such as yourself, for example they offer Quadro GPU's (for 3D/rendering/CAD) as opposed to gaming GPU's.

Only problem with the Precisions is they tend to be on the more expensive end of computers. Though for what it sounds like you want to do, a Precision would be perfect if you can afford the premium they charge for it. It would likely be more cost effective to look at eBay and get one used that is a generation or two old. They tend to fall in price pretty quick when the new generation machines come out. Get a used one and throw Ubuntu/Mint/Fedora on it and have fun. In my experience, Fedora might be the way to go since it is a bit more workstation oriented than Ubuntu or Linux Mint is.

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As far as buying any hardware is concerned: before I buy any hardware, the first thing I do is a Google search. It's never failed me either, and whatever I've ended up buying has worked no problem with Linux. Google is going to be your best friend in terms of reviewing whether a piece of hardware and particularly a complete system is going to be compatible with Linux or not.

You should also remember that as far as *most* hardware drivers are concerned; they are more often than not kernel-drivers meaning that it's the same drivers regardless of the distribution of Linux as far as kernel-drivers are concerned. For some types of hardware like printers being a good example, it's a separate sub-system that manages them and therefore it's that particular sub-system that their written for - in the case of printers that would be CUPS. But it does depend on the type hardware you're talking about for *some* types of hardware.

As far as Linux distributions are concerned; if you ask 10 different Linux users which distribution is the best for you, you're going to get 20 different answers - so it's a complete waste of time even asking that question. Make up you're OWN mind, don't let people dictate to you and have a look at this. As what's best for someone else might not be best for you.

A couple of great suggestions there! If the OP is comfortable buying used/refurbished, Dell Outlet is having a 10% off sale right now (including several options under $1k). And regarding Fedora, yup, I purchased my Precision with Ubuntu preinstalled (to avoid paying "the Windows tax") and then immediately replaced it with Fedora, my favorite distro of choice these days.

Thank YOU!

My intent is to build, Custom. Hardware and software that is easily up-gradable... that rules out Mac

Pro Photography editing, as in working for a newspaper has to be state of the art fast - That may rule out GIMP. The industry standard is Intel, Windows or Mac; Lightroom, Photoshop etc. That's why I was thinking dual HD's, I may have to temporarily fall back on Adobe but would prefer to go Linux; Darktable, Shotwell, Raw Therapee for the future.
I've tried Darktable on an Apple machine.

Video editing likes new generation hardware, pls. NO i5's or 8G RAM.

I've spent some time with google, but it's slow going on my own, many of the posts are Old, so I ask here. There must be some pro photographers who use Linux?... Am I in new territory here? which desktop environments and Distros work best? Am I really going to get 20 Different answers by the nature of the beast?

One thing learned on google; Hardware matters for Linux, and Mac.

Yikes .... keep em coming!

My subject title is New Linux Build. I could be wrong but for what Dell charges don't you think we could do better with a build? Be a good learning experience?

"I'd like to have at least two HD's with an OS on each... mint/windows10?"

This is the way I tend to do it. I install one hard drive and install one OS. Then I switch to new hard drive and load new OS. No room for errors usually. Each boot loader knows only one OS. (that may change if loaders update but we are more concerned about dedicated OS's and loaders)


Mint is a popular choice. Might concentrate on the Base of the OS. Mint is Debian. For the most part software for Debian will work in Mint and Ubuntu and so forth.

Your hardware should be almost anything bought in 2018 will work with a current major distro. It would tend to work with all the distro's based on those main choices.

You should look at any special programs that you may need. Gimp may be close to photoshop and there may be a trick to get photoshop on linux. Hover you may find that some unique program will mandate that you select it's chosen distro.

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So, what you can do is this: Find a system you like from a manufacturer with good Linux support, like Dell or System76. Make a list of which components they include in their Linux systems. Buy those same components and use them for your build.

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I built my own machine, so yes, it's a very good learning experience. Once again, if you google the hardware you're looking at, you'll soon see if others have had problems with it under Linux. I google whatever particular hardware I'm looking at beforehand. That's how I knew the hardware I bought to build my machine with, was compatible with Linux - before I payed anything for it.

Check out this beforehand if you plan on buying a TV card/tuner for it.

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That is what I did. I have a Precision M4800 that I got used on eBay for around $600 ($800 after adding a couple upgrades myself, larger SSD and second SSHD). It was upgraded to Windows 10 Pro through the upgrade program they had for Windows 7 and 8.1 before I even got it, so the Windows tax wasnt even there. I ran it that way for a while, then got tired of Windows and its issues, so I switched over to Linux. Tried a few different distros: Red Hat (through their no cost dev program), CentOS (a pain in the rear to do some things, but worked well overall), OpenSUSE (had some issues, cant remember right off hand what exactly at the moment), and Oracle Linux (same reason as CentOS) before I decided on the Cinnamon spin of Fedora. Who knows, I may change my mind again, for now however its Fedora. It just seems to be easier to set up and maintain than the others, and better suited to an actual workstation and my purposes.

Point is, a user may go through several distros before they settle on one that works well for them. There are so many out there that all do their own thing the best. This is why if you ask 10 different Linux users which is the best, you would get 20 (or more) answers to that question. Ive stuck with RPM/YUM based distros so far because I am more accustomed to working with YUM rather than DEB/APT.

LQ has a hardware compatibility list; it's maintained by volunteers and cannot be considered infallible, but it's a good start: https://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/

If you can't find the device are interested in there, you could move on the a web search for "[device] linux."

Generally, you won't go wrong with Intel inside. Based on what I've seen here, Broadcom and Realtek wireless can often be problematical, as can NVidia graphics. That doesn't mean they won't work, but they may take some extra steps to get working.

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The point I was making, although not clearly enough, is that a Linux system is less demanding than a Windows one because of the differences in the operating systems. Basically, I'd say design a computer that you think would be adequate for your work using Windows, check on-line that the components work well with Linux, and that will do the job.

Since you mention video editing, I'd say that's a definite pointer in the direction of Ubuntu Studio. As a professional, you do not want a fast-changing, experimental distro like Fedora. If you are using very up-to-date hardware, you don't want a conservative office/server oriented system like my CentOS.

You asked are there any photographers using Linux? Well, here's one using it happily 6 years ago — things have no doubt come on since then.
https://www.rileybrandt.com/2012/07/31/linux-photo-1/

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I'm a pro photog, barely. I don't make nearly a living off it. But I get paid every so often. Linux and Windows have their strengths and weaknesses. Top linux photo editors use state-of-the-art, bleeding-edge algorithms. But the UIs are generally not as well thought out as top Windows programs. If you've got some time to invest, I'd say Linux will give you the better end product when it comes to photo and video.

The goto editor for Hollywood is Cinelerra, which has no Windows version. It's in such a class by itself that it usually isn't even mentioned in video-editor reviews. No Windows or Mac program can do what cinelerra can. If you had to render 1.5 hours of video on a Mac or Windows, movies from the year 2000 would just be released around now. It would take literally almost decades to do with Windows programs what Linux cinelerra does in a only days.

If you're going to edit video with any frequency, you'd probably want an Intel Xeon E7 v4 series processor.Those will give you the best bang for the buck. The ASUS Z10PE‑D8 is a good board in that socket configuration. You'd need to look which type of ram it uses. I think 32-64GB of ram is great plenty, with 32GB going for around 200.00USD presently. Some say you really need 128GB.

I think you could put together a mobo, cpu and ram for about 1,700.00USD. The rest is pretty easy. But you'll require a big cpu cooler for the E7s. They're all over 100W.

For distros, just pick one of the major ones. Fedora is a continuous upgrade nightmare and pretty buggy. But I used it on certain machines. Debian has the longest lifespan (5 years for each stable version) and I use it too. OpenSuSE is quite a bit different than anything else, but it's fun.

CentOS is really really stable, but it might not run the latest versions of certain software. It's mostly worth it unless you get bored when your operating system doesn't break. Then there's the hundreds of Debian forks, which I generally avoid except Mint and Ubuntu. Gentoo and Slackware are super-custom distros that are built from source. They can be extremely stable if you have 70 or so hours to do the install.

The best distro overall might be Slackware, although it isn't recognized as much as it should be. My goto OS for every-day use is Debian.

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