GIMP and Krita
Native Photoshop alternatives
Windows and Linux are often compared for how they handle things at the OS level. Performance, overall stability, and compatibility often dominate the conversation, but one thing that isn't compared as often is the apps they both share. Applications that are compatible with both Linux and Windows differ in experiences quite heavily in some cases, and while these 5 apps work on both operating systems, they're a lot better suited to Linux.
If you've ever used either GIMP or Krita on Linux natively, one of the things you would have noticed is just how snappy it is. These apps both tend to run a little better on Linux due to their reliance on system libraries that aren't found natively on Windows. Qt and GTK (for Krita and GIMP respectively) need to be ported over for these apps to run properly.
The resulting level of performance isn't bad on Windows, but it's certainly not as good as native Linux performance. Krita is quite smooth and won't suffer as much as GIMP, which has historically been much clunkier on Windows. Input devices like drawing tablets also tend to behave a little better, but it does depend on the specific device. This doesn't come down to processing power, either. It's almost entirely because you're running an entire toolkit that is non-native to Windows, and while most powerful systems won't notice a ton of difference, the native experience will always be a bit better.
Kdenlive
A good editor on Windows, a great one on Linux
Windows and Linux are often compared for how they handle things at the OS level. Performance, overall stability, and compatibility often dominate the conversation, but one thing that isn't compared as often is the apps they both share. Applications that are compatible with both Linux and Windows differ in experiences quite heavily in some cases, and while these 5 apps work on both operating systems, they're a lot better suited to Linux.
GIMP and Krita
Native Photoshop alternatives
If you've ever used either GIMP or Krita on Linux natively, one of the things you would have noticed is just how snappy it is. These apps both tend to run a little better on Linux due to their reliance on system libraries that aren't found natively on Windows. Qt and GTK (for Krita and GIMP respectively) need to be ported over for these apps to run properly.
The resulting level of performance isn't bad on Windows, but it's certainly not as good as native Linux performance. Krita is quite smooth and won't suffer as much as GIMP, which has historically been much clunkier on Windows. Input devices like drawing tablets also tend to behave a little better, but it does depend on the specific device. This doesn't come down to processing power, either. It's almost entirely because you're running an entire toolkit that is non-native to Windows, and while most powerful systems won't notice a ton of difference, the native experience will always be a bit better.
Kdenlive
A good editor on Windows, a great one on Linux
Kdenlive is an open-source video editing software that's built on the MLT multimedia framework, which is native to Linux. On Windows, Kdenlive isn't a horrible, broken mess, but it does crash quite a bit, and more of its features are considered experimental or in the early stages of development.
I've found through my own experiences of using Kdenlive, both on Linux and Windows, that the Linux version crashed far less. Hangups and slight freezes would sometimes still happen, especially if working on a large project file, but the Linux version could recover and continue to function, while the Windows version would just lock up and crash completely. It didn't come up during my time with it, but there are frequent reports of effects and plugins that are broken or unstable on Windows, while their Linux counterparts work as intended. On top of it all, the libraries required to run Kdenlive, such as FFmpeg, will probably already be in memory, which reduces load times significantly.
OBS Studio
Surprisingly snappy
OBS Studio provides quite a good experience on Windows. Pretty much all features work without massive issues, but the Linux version does still have the edge. As with most of the other items on this list, Linux just provides much closer access to the bare metal hardware, while Windows adds a few extra layers that introduce a bit of latency.
As far as capturing on Windows goes, most games or software require process DLL injection to hook things like DirectX or OpenGL, while on Linux, pretty much everything is exposed directly to OBS via its different capture APIs. These are pretty much universal, and will work with almost anything out of the box, and with less overhead to boot. The tangible benefit is fewer conflicts, less CPU and GPU load, and lower latency overall. While you can capture per-application audio on the Windows version of OBS now, this has been possible on Linux with less setup hassle from the beginning, due to using API-based capture.
VLC Media Player
Everything is included
VLC is another piece of software that can hook directly into the included multimedia frameworks of Linux. On Windows, VLC is pretty reliable; it bundles FFmpeg, has most of the codecs that an average user could want, and has pretty comparable performance. Out of the box on Linux, VLC has full codec support, meaning there's no extra downloads required to play things like Blu-ray or certain DVDs, if that's your thing.
Package Managers
Windows just can't compare out of the box
Linux and Windows have fundamentally different ways of managing software. On Windows, all traditional applications have their own installer and executable. Their dependencies are also separate, which is why you end up with 10 different versions of .NET runtime and the like.
Linux has centralized software distribution, which runs off of package managers. These managers are responsible for keeping track of all software installed on your system as well as their dependencies. In a few short commands, you can update everything on your system through one command prompt window. Anything from official repos are signed and verified, which means any kind of malware is extraordinarily rare.
Windows can get similar tools like Winget, but it lacks the depth and security that is built into Linux. That's not to take anything away from those tools; they're extremely useful for unattended installation of trusted applications, but it doesn't hold a candle to what Linux does out of the box.
Open-source software is great on both operating systems
Windows isn’t a bad platform for open-source software, by any stretch. They are still excellent tools, no matter where you use them. However, when you put them side by side with their Linux builds, the advantage of running on a system built around shared libraries, package managers, and native frameworks becomes hard to ignore.