I’d prefer not to dual boo, but it might be the safest way to start? If I dual boot, get used to Linux and (hopefully) get everything I need working, can I then go from dual boot to erasing the Windows partition and recombining so I then only have Linux installed and can keep the work and programs I already installed on Linux?

My personal experience says: try dualbooting first, because it will make you to have a working machine continuously. Taking into account that all Linux-based OS behave vastly differently from MS Windows, it is possible to break things, when learning a new way of doing things.

The drives for my server are NTFS. Does anyone have experience with this format on Linux (I use Emby)?

I've been using an external NTFS drive for compatibility and big files storage: works as charm. The worst case scenario is you will need to install an ntfs-3g driver, although it is usually included with the distro.

As for production: I don't have much experience with that, although I can recommend you looking around tooling that solves the problem. You will need quite a bit of patience and trying things, because switching platform will definitely require you to make some shifts in usual processes you have now. Don't expect things to be obvious 100% replacement: unfortunately lots of people have this expectation, and get frustrated.

As for hardware, just looking the model up on the internet with adding "linux", or "ubuntu", or "fedora" should do the trick of figuring out if it will work.

Quick response:

1. Yes, what you suggest is possible, but just be careful to backup your data. Burn the Gparted ISO onto a USB and then boot from it. You will then be able to use this tool to delete the Win partition and resize the Linux one.
   For complete peace of mind in case something goes wrong, I suggest using CloneZilla to create an image of the drive for backup purposes before messing around with the partition. Of course, you will then need a spare internal or external drive of the same size, or larger, onto which you will save the image...
   Grub will easily cope when the Windows partition is removed, but I also suggest installing Refind, which provides a nice interface at boot-time to choose which system to use and also recognizes any changes when partitions are added or removed. You should find the package in the repositories of most distros.
2. I cannot help with this.
3. Linux can handle NTFS. On my Linux server I used Samba to share files on NTFS drives over the network because those drives were removed from my Windows PC at the time . Most Linux distros will handle Samba shares through the CIFS-utils package.
   I read that there is no great performance loss between sharing Linux's EXT file system over a NFS network share from a Linux box , and NTFS over a Samba network share from a Linux box, but there is one potential issue as I see it: Linux distros do not have the tools to check NTFS drives for errors. Therefore, if a powercut was to happen, then you may then have to remove the NTFS drives from your Linux machine and go find a Windows machine to check the disks and correct any errors. I coped with this for a few years before deciding to create new EXT4 partitions and copy the data across from the NTFS partitions. I recommend that you employ a similar migration strategy.
4. I cannot help with this.

Good luck! The learning curve is steep and somewhat mindblowing, but very satisfying too - and you'll maybe catch the Linux server admin bug (disease?) and want to go deeper into that rabbit hole....

1. Dual boot should be ok. If and when you decide to fully switch, I'd say it's better to do a reinstall. Messing with partitions always comes with disclaimers. A bit advanced topic if you are interested: when you resize partition usually data needs to be moved, depending what you do with it, so it will wear your ssd; also you should be aware that you must install windows first, Linux second because windows doesn't really play well with others and be sure NOT to format EFI partition when installing Linux.

You have alternatives to dual boot: VMs. Run Linux on bare metal, then boot up a VM if you need something only windows can provide. Gnome has a new VM tool incoming.

1. No idea for audio, but Photoshop has alternative, gimp. Wether you like it or not, it's another story (people I know really really hate that one). For digital art there is a tool called Krita that runs on kde. People really enjoy using it.
2. NTFS has one thing that Linux doesn't really like - it is case insensitive. Linux normally works with case sensitive filesystems. There was recently a rant by the Linux overlord about case insensitive filesystems, so you might want to stay clear of it. It's ok to use it on a thumb drive though.

Edit: minor typing fixes

I would dual boot first. I'm doing that myself at the moment with Pop OS. I disconnected my existing drives leaving just the drive I'd install Linux to. Ran the installer, then reconnected. I hit f12 at boot to select startup. I did this to avoid dealing with grub or messing with the windows bootloader. I haven't had good experiences with it in the past.

My biggest problem with trying Linux at the moment is I have a USB audio mixer that Linux refuses to enable. I can tell it sees it, it just won't list it as a selectable audio device or send audio through to it. So I have no sound.

There is software for all your uses on linux, but I would start by using those apps on your current setup to get used to the workflow.

Changing from windows to linux can be really tough but it can be made a lot easier if you are already using programs that work on linux before you switch.

1. Definitely dual boot, especially if you're new to linux, and double-especially if this is what you use for work. You are likely to run into situations where shit just doesn't work and you need a fallback environment to operate in while you figure out what that's about and how to fix it. Likewise, you will run into software that runs badly on linux or just doesn't run at all even under wine/VM, and it will be nice to have that fallback for when you don't have time to fuck around and figure out what the problem is and need to just get shit done. If things go well you will find very quickly that you don't need it and can probably go ahead and delete it after a little bit, but at first you want that lifeboat. Mine stuck around for 2 weeks, but I only even used it the first couple days and the rest was 'maybe I'll run into some weird situation...' and just not needing it. As for merging the partitions and such, I believe that's possible, but you definitely want to make sure you have backups before you try it just in case. There are many good cloud backup services that have linux native clients (I use filen.io myself.)
2. I've never even touched music software so I have no idea what's out there. I do however know about a great website called alternativeto.net that lets you find alternatives to existing software, and you can select your platform to limit it only to linux software. For example, here's the entry for linux-native replacements for Cubase (it was the obscure one from my perspective, wanted to see if they actually had anything, turns out they do.)
3. Yes, NTFS generally works mostly fine on linux, though there are a couple of weird cases where it causes problems (one I ran into was adding games I had installed on an NTFS drive for windows to Steam on linux, it was very wonky.) After nuking my windows boot drive I went through and copied all the stuff off my NTFS drives and reformatted them to btrfs before putting the data back on them to ensure that everything would work smoothly, but if you're just using it for regular file access you should be fine. The one caveat I would add is I would probably not recommend editing large projects in files on NTFS drives in linux if you can avoid it, but poke around google and see if you can find people reporting issues with your specific software/use-case to see if there are any problems with it.
4. Drivers for weird hardware are potentially an issue. Looks like there is a FOSS driver for the Scarlett, didn't see anything at first glance for the Behringer, but also again I have no idea what I'm looking at here so this is something you're going to have to do some research on. I have had some weirdness with audio in general on linux, things cutting out unexpectedly, stuff like that, but that's strictly games/discord/that sort of thing, so it might be worth looking for stuff other people have posted about doing heavy audio work on linux to get an idea for what to expect. I'm sure it can be made to work, but it might require more fiddling than you expect.

Either way, welcome to the party. 😀

Support for Focusrite Scarlett audio interfaces on Linux

If you’re into music creation, chances are you’ve heard of Focusrite Scarletts—they’re practically a staple in the industry. But here’s the kicker: while they’re adored by many, official support from Focusrite is limited to Windows and Mac users.

^{Raffael Rehberger (🤬 blog.rtrace.io)}

Actually the safest thing is probably to choose a main system and run the other in a VM like with VirtualBox. For you, you could just install VirtualBox on Windows then Linux inside of a VirtualBox VM. Windows does have a builtin Virtualization solution too you may be able to use, but I have personally never done that. Keep in mind too that VMs are not as performant as bare metal. For video probably NO, for images fine, for audio maybe but you'll have to see if you get the real-time timing you need in a VM. Good way to play in any case. 2nd best if you have a workstation, not a laptop, you could put in a hot mount SATA drive enclosure, and just swap in the drive you want and get full bear metal performance. Dual boot takes some tech skill. Be sure to back everything up if you do that. Should do that anyway before fiddling. Also if you use bitlocker and secure boot make sure you have all your recovery keys and know how to work with your bios settings too.

Maybe I am missing something, not sure why you care about NTFS. If this is a separate computer you don't really care about that, just the sharing protocol (SMB for example). If it is on the main box, then you'd probably convert this to Ext4 or something similar. No reason to stick with NTFS with Linux. There are a lot of great FS options on linux plus BTRFS, LVM, or RAID to if you want redundancy.

Regarding apps. The alternativeto site is great. Linux has a bunch of audio and photo software. If your a pro, you may not find any of it sufficient. Especially a lot of people cannot do without Photoshop. The common quoted photo programs are GIMP and Darktable. There are many other photo and image programs. Common audio program is Audacity. Again, there are many others. Looks like some handle vst but I have no personal experience.

"This PC is basically my life" screams leave well enough alone. I wouldn't even set up a dual boot on a machine I depended on to make my living. If you do, make sure you've got everything backed up before you start. Nothing should go wrong, but that's a very different statement than nothing will go wrong.

If you want to start using linux I'd recommend you buy a cheap second computer and start there. You can safely experiment as much as you like without risking your professional set up.

I'm an ex-Windows user and have been using Linux for about 7-ish years now.

If you can handle some downtime, the possibility of some plugins breaking and some time getting used to your new system, you can give it a shot. Otherwise, what I'd more or less recommend is getting a spare computer and just trying Linux out on that. That way you can keep your work computer for critical work while you mess around on the spare.

I checked Cubase on WineHQ, and sadly it won't run via WINE from what I see, so you will either have to look for a different DAW (which will require extra time re-learning everything) or just going with a spare).

If you do plan on biting the bullet and going full Linux on your work machine, here's a couple observations:

The only Windows DAW i've tried on Linux is FL Studio running through WINE. I do have REAPER for aligning audio tracks (it's very good at that) but I haven't really used that enough to become proficient with it. There's also Bitwig, which I haven't used (I checked the price on that when i was kinda on the fence about getting it and oh boy is it expensive! around $800 with the annual upgrade or smth lol).

From my experience, VSTs via WINE (in my case, running through FL Studio 24.2.1), is quite good, although there are is a good bit of jank that comes with it (a few 32-bit VSTs don't work, it's a bit of a gamble honestly) and there are bound to be a couple potential breakages with WINE updates (like what happened today as I'm writing this, I updated WINE and idk if it's just a residual thing but the GUIs on GVST plugins don't render anymore, I can still access the parameters via hovering and looking at the hints panel in FL Studio, but it is a bit cumbersome trying to operate VSTs blindly, especially when they contain things such as waveforms/levels).

Other than that FL Studio's been running like a charm, very very close to (if not native), except for stuff like the Diagnostic thingy not working at all (told you there's jank).

As for replacements, you will need to learn new programs, one which may not contain all the features that you would want (muscle memory can also be a bit of a pain). I'd start out with maybe trying out Audacity and GiMP/Krita on Windows and try learning and getting used to the workflow of each on your existing Windows installation before swapping over. I was using FOSS programs like GiMP/Audacity beforehand so the transition was easy once I swapped over. FL in WINE back then was a little more finnicky but most of it still worked so it kept me going.

If you're still thinking about wiping Windows off of there and going full Linux, good luck, my friend.

I'm going to second the comment to leave well enough alone. Do NOT mess with your machine if its what makes you money.

I know you commented you don't have funds for a second computer to test with but that really is the best step for you.

This is especially regarding some of your other details. You are not in for a quick and smooth transition (sorry to say).

VSTs are "sort of" supported on Linux. Basically they're not and there are work arounds that I haven't done using wine for compatibility.

I run a virtual machine for the windows software I am reliant on. So basically my Photoshop etc I use Affinity in a windows VM and it works fine. Depending if you get intensive with your work you might need a lot of resources or experience lag. But for the most part it should be fine.
Look into virt-manager for your VM if you want to go that route.

Besides the VST issue, audio recording will probably give you additiinal problems. I haven't delved into it because he rabbit hole went too deep for me, but from what I've read there tends to be issues with audio in VMs (tremendous lag for one).

But all that being said, there should be a solution for all of your needs. It probably won't be straight forward though given your use cases. I don't want to sound negative with my warnings, I just want to make sure you don't shoot yourself in the foot with your work.

Ok so I'll just focus on dual booting since there are other thorough replys here.

I really recommend that you DO dual boot but only in a specific way.

When people say "Dual Boot", this can mean two very different things.

A common way to dual boot is to have windows and Linux exist on the same drive by partitioning the drive and installing a boot manager. I strongly advise against this. It's not worth the risk and pain.

Just install linux on a totally new drive and select it as the boot drive from bios. Leave you windows drive untouched.

Linux is much better than it ever has been. There is a very good chance it can do everything you want. But, especially as someone running a business, there will be times when you just need to get something done and will want to fall back to what you know. These times often lead to people giving up and rolling back to windows in a panic.

Just leave yourself a way to instantly and effortlessly fall back into windows as needed and eventually you will end up doing that less and less. Until you don't do it at all and the windows drive gets wiped for more Linux storage.

KDE window rules can do this natively

Hyprland window rules can also do this natively

Gnome can also do this with extensions as mentioned

Herbstluftwm. It's one of the main reasons I use it.

You can run commands on the command line to create your layouts for one or more desktop (tagged spaces), assign programs to appear on tagged spaces, and then run the programs. Put it all in a shell script and hlwm runs it when it starts.

I use xtoolwait for programs I want multiple windows on different desktops for, like terminals.

I have three monitors; one is a status window, and the other two are grouped together in 8 different tags. Mod4+9 focuses the status screen, Mod4+[1-8] switch the other two monitors in sync to the other workspaces. It's all set up when I log in, including the creation of several terminals each running tmux from sessions restored by trum-session. The only thing I have to do is enter a password to unlock my secrets so background processes can start doing their thing.

Seems like an odd place to post this but I'll bite.

Even the things I love doing involve work. If I want to do some sewing I still need to tidy up before and afterwards, for example, or spend time pinning stuff (and then taping up the numerous stab wounds). It's a bit reductive.

Instead I try to get paid for things that require minimal emotional "work" from me - that is to say, things that don't leave me sapped of energy to work on my passion projects. I don't dislike what I am paid to do but I'm not super enthused about it. That means that when I'm done working I've still got the creative juice to work on stuff I actually want to do.

If instead I have to spend my working days pushing myself through stuff then I tend to be left with nothing in the tank, even if I still have time left at the end of the day. Instead I get paid to do something I'm good at but that doesn't usually involve extended periods of advanced problem solving or frequent uphill battles of effort (there's always a bit, of course, it's not a perfect solution!). That isn't to say what I do is easy, but much of the stuff involved is stuff I've been doing for twenty years so is comparatively easy for me.

If you take the thing you love and do that for work, you’re turning what you love into a job. This is a trap that I’ve fallen into. Multiple times.

Exactly. It gets corrupted by the 10% shittiest customers, with their shitty understanding of others and the world, who end up taking 90% of your time.

I like a good fried egg on sunday morning. How would you like fried eggs every day, we will pay you for it? Oh and the egg comes with poo from the dirtiest most stinky morons we can find. Lucky you.

Ah, sorry to read - I like the idea of Bcachefs and would have been happy to have it ready for production eventually.

OTOH it seems the recent years I read more about the drama about Bcachefs commits to the kernel, than about any technical parts of Bcachefs.