Is my photo workflow feasible on Linux?

I'm trying. I really am.

I've spent a while getting my head around Darktable and digiKam. That's no small feat, honestly. What weird software. It's capable, but getting to where I was with Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, and sometimes Capture One has been elusive.

There are manuals, blog posts, and Youtube videos to consume, but, given the nature of Darktable, everyone tells me to do things differently. There are a dozen ways to accomplish every task. Which one's best? Who knows!?

Converting film negative scans it what I'm struggling with most. Lightroom has Negative Lab Pro, which is sort of de facto standard at this point. It makes quick work of conversion, adjustments, and metadata handling. Darktable has Negadoctor, which remains a mystery to me. I've used it to convert three rolls, and I'm getting the hang of the process, but I still can't get the look I want from them. Everything's a tad muddy, no matter how much I futz with the 175 available sliders.

One thing I've learned is that the Framework is much slower than the little Beelink with Darktable. That means the Beelink stays as the main desktop. I thought for a second I could use the Framework for both, but not if I'm going to be processing photos with it.

I'll give it until the end of October to see if I can forego the Mac entirely.