I am tired of windows slowing down my laptop, and I tought I'd give linux a chance. So I learn, that there are many linuxes, and I wonder if it really matters. which one to choose. Can all linux apps be run on all distributions? Is it just a matter of the 'app store' supporting them or not?
I am producing media art for theatre plays. So I have to rely on a stable system as well as the following tools:
Blender 3d
a DAW
Design Software (adobe alternatives)
Video Editing & compositing
Projection mapping (I fear, there is just mapmap under linux)
audio cuing (linux show player)
maybe also light show programming (artnet / dmx)
The machine would be a Gigabyte Aero 15x with a dedicated nvidia gfx card, and 8 gigs of ram.
Most mainstream distros will work with pretty much all of the software suggestions. I tend to avoid recommending Ubuntu these days as Canonical have some stubborn ideas regarding things (snaps should have been shelved long ago in favour of flatpack), that said, PoP-Os is an excellent choice for buntu based without the snaps.
Video,editing: shotcut is pretty good alongside Kdenlive. For anyone working with audio, Audacity is a definite must have for track/sample editing and effects. Whilst Ardour is an extremely capable DAW, there are others you might want to check out, LMMS is a nice sequencer (fruity loops) DAW for example. On the professional side there is Bitwig (never used it but heard good things about it) and my personal favourite Reaper.