Thank you for you positive feedback.
I still use Windows as my primary OS. I do have Ubuntu installed on an older laptop (because I couldn’t find my Windows disk for it).
Personally, I would stick with Windows and use Ubuntu as an alternate OS. The reason is that despite how good I think Ubuntu is, Linux (what Ubuntu is based on) does not support as wide a range of devices as Windows. As well, hardware drivers (for things like video cards) tend not to be as good as the ones for Windows. This is because the video card makers don’t release the hardware specs for their cards, so it is hard for developers to write optimized drivers for them. If the video card makers release drivers, they are usually binary blobs (just a big chunk of executable code).
Another issue is patents. Unfortunately, many companies patent various technologies (including trivial ones) and this means the technology cannot be used without paying a licensing fee. Sometimes, this means code in Linux cannot be as efficient (or even implemented) without the patented technology.
Finally, support is an issue. There are far more Windows users and I think support for Windows is easier to find (mind you, there is lots of useless information on the Internet and many question / problems that go unanswered). While teh average Linux user is likely to be more technically savvy than the average Windows user, often times the help is quite cryptic (which is why I decided to start this site – not just Linux, but all sorts of issues – where I try to explain things clearly and simply. Note: this site has been criticized by some Linux users are being too verbose and over-complicating things: “He makes things too complicated. It’s just a one line fix: grep grok --foo --bar” <-- I made that up, but I think it accurately reflects comments made about articles here). I don't have Photoshop, so I can't write a tutorial. GIMP is the image editor I use. This video tutorial shows how to install Photoshop under Ubuntu 10 (the process should be similar under Ubuntu 12.04 - aside form the Unity interface). You will need to install WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) which allows you to run Windows programs directly under Linux. I have had mixed results with it. The applciations I tend to use don't work that well under WINE. But they claim a high level of compatibility with many, many applications. WINE can be installed from the Ubuntu Software Center. As an alternative to Photoshop, I would recommend GIMP. If you need to do graphics intensive work, I would recommend Ubuntu Studio. This is Ubuntu customized for content creation work (video, audio, images, etc).
If you want an all in one Linux, Ultimate Edition is quite awesome. It has pretty much everything you could image packaged together – including WINE. Mind you, if you want to install it in VirtualBox, it requires a minimum virtual hard disk of 20GB. The one thing I don’t like about it is that it has a bazillion dekstop effects turned on by default (I turn them off). It comes with the “traditional” mouse/menu desktop. It is also based on Ubuntu. On the plus side, it comes with VirtualBox Guest Additions preinstalled.
Thanks for your comment and feedback.