For context im a graphic designer / video editor (tho im using davinci for video editing) and for the past 10 years i've been switching from windows to linux on an off. now i want to migrate to linux for good but im not sure if its a smart choice.

here's my device spec:

Win 11

Processor AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core Processor (3.70 GHz)

Installed RAM 32.0 GB

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Adobe software will not work in Linux unless you use a VM. Me? I dual boot.

I tried. You’ll have poor performance and some plugins are just impossible to run.

Dual boot it will make your life easier.

Well that's what OP is asking, if VMs was good enough. I am not sure you gave much insight.

VMs adds overhead that might cause big problems is the projects are demanding. So the question for OP is, what are you trying to do? If the load is too heavy, dual boot.

I don't use Adobe, but I'm a sys admin in a creative space.

It's pretty much Windows or MacOS for you. Never installed Adobe in a VM, but we have some Windows and Mac Haters, and even them prefer to run Adobe in either of those.

I'm not saying it's not possible, but VM take up RAM and you will miss that RAM when editing videos.

You can try qemu + kvm VM

it is very low level and almost talks to hardware

most professionals that rely on adobe products to make a living are doing it on windows (bare metal) and either not using linux at all, dual booting, or using linux in a VM on windows.

running windows products in a VM with linux as the host is likely not going to be sufficient for professional needs... at the very least you would need a dual GPU setup so you could devote an entire GPU to the windows VM.