Migrating from Windows to Linux

[malch]

My primary desktop currently runs Windows 7 Pro and hosts several TB of data (including 70,000 hi-res images).

I plan to switch this to Linux (most likely Manjaro) and setup a Win 7 VirtualBox guest to continue running some Windows-only apps (notably Photoshop CS6).

I am totally struggling to decide how to organize my data so that the bulk of it is available from the Linux host or the Windows guest.

It seems to me the decisions come down to:

1. What file system to use for the shared data? NTFS would probably make for the simplest migration by a long shot. But perhaps I should consider making the move to a more resilient system like btrfs?

2. How to implement the sharing (VirtualBox shared folders, NFS, Samba, CIFS etc.) for best performance?

3. Or whether to bite the bullet and shift all of the shared data to a NAS with Gigabit Ethernet? This will of course cost significant $$$ for the NAS, disk drives, UPS etc.

I'm guessing that a few folks have made a similar migration and would love to hear about your choices, reasoning, experiences and lessons learned.

[stefan.becker]

I think using DualBoot Windows / Linux is a better final Solution.

Photoshop needs 3 D Power.

A virtual machine does not have the same capabilties compared to the host.

Better try first another solution: Install VBOX on Windows, in VBOX a Linux. And then first check the functions of Linux and see, if Windows is needed anymore.