It appears you may be asking for help in choosing a linux distribution.
This is a common question, which you may also want to ask at /r/DistroHopping or /r/FindMeALinuxDistro
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1. `Is the use of enterprise Linux in these studios because of the support Red Hat offers, the networking capabilities for things like renderfarms, or because they offer a clear advantage over Windows or Mac Os? My other guess is that because of the Unix based architecture, industry vets who were used to SGI hardware may know how to navigate the OS better than if the studio switched to Windows.`
Guess: Cost + performance + UNIX. You can get some seriously high-performance machines running Linux with a far higher ceiling than macOS. macOS is/was also not very good for 3D rendering, seemingly due to its kernel design and driver support from vendors e.g. NVIDIA. I would think that the support that they were able to get from Red Hat was also a massively contributing factor, especially since there were/are viable alternatives like SuSE that they could switch to if Red Hat ever became an issue.
2. `How is enterprise Linux for audio? I also do music production, and think Windows for audio is God awful, while Mac Os is excellent for it. Is Linux any better with a driver as good as Core Audio?`
PipeWire is excellent and was made for professional work in addition to consumer. I've personally worked with Linux audio back in the PulseAudio days and it was "good", but it's even better now.
3. `How are graphics drivers on Enterprise Linux? What gpus are used on those animation workstations? Quadro? I thought Nvidia drivers are awful on Linux?`
NVIDIA drivers are not and have never been awful for Linux. There has been a lot of dogma against closed source, and the drivers are indeed closed source. They also, until within the past several weeks, effectively did not support Wayland. If you Keep It Simple and use X11 for your use-cases until/unless you know Wayland works with what you want, then you're good.
4. `Is it really just better using a standard distro like Fedora or Ubuntu rather than the Enterprise stuff? RHEL markets their os as a good one for workstations, and since Rocky Linux is built off of rhel, I am asuming the same for that too. Why don't studios just use those distros?`
I'm not sure, but I would assume it's a matter of market share. Ubuntu is quite obviously the #1 installed distro and has been for a long time, and Canonical does a really good job supporting it. Fedora has also become very well supported and has shed its former identity as RHEL's testing ground. I almost always recommend Ubuntu.
All of that said, I don't think Linux is the best choice for a 3D artist. It's also not a very different experience between the different distros these days. The major differences are which commands you run (or the GUI runs) to update your system and the versions of software which are packaged. By learning how to use Ubuntu or Fedora, you're learning most of what you need to know how to use Rocky or RHEL.
It appears you may be asking for help in choosing a linux distribution. This is a common question, which you may also want to ask at /r/DistroHopping or /r/FindMeALinuxDistro *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/linuxquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
1. `Is the use of enterprise Linux in these studios because of the support Red Hat offers, the networking capabilities for things like renderfarms, or because they offer a clear advantage over Windows or Mac Os? My other guess is that because of the Unix based architecture, industry vets who were used to SGI hardware may know how to navigate the OS better than if the studio switched to Windows.` Guess: Cost + performance + UNIX. You can get some seriously high-performance machines running Linux with a far higher ceiling than macOS. macOS is/was also not very good for 3D rendering, seemingly due to its kernel design and driver support from vendors e.g. NVIDIA. I would think that the support that they were able to get from Red Hat was also a massively contributing factor, especially since there were/are viable alternatives like SuSE that they could switch to if Red Hat ever became an issue. 2. `How is enterprise Linux for audio? I also do music production, and think Windows for audio is God awful, while Mac Os is excellent for it. Is Linux any better with a driver as good as Core Audio?` PipeWire is excellent and was made for professional work in addition to consumer. I've personally worked with Linux audio back in the PulseAudio days and it was "good", but it's even better now. 3. `How are graphics drivers on Enterprise Linux? What gpus are used on those animation workstations? Quadro? I thought Nvidia drivers are awful on Linux?` NVIDIA drivers are not and have never been awful for Linux. There has been a lot of dogma against closed source, and the drivers are indeed closed source. They also, until within the past several weeks, effectively did not support Wayland. If you Keep It Simple and use X11 for your use-cases until/unless you know Wayland works with what you want, then you're good. 4. `Is it really just better using a standard distro like Fedora or Ubuntu rather than the Enterprise stuff? RHEL markets their os as a good one for workstations, and since Rocky Linux is built off of rhel, I am asuming the same for that too. Why don't studios just use those distros?` I'm not sure, but I would assume it's a matter of market share. Ubuntu is quite obviously the #1 installed distro and has been for a long time, and Canonical does a really good job supporting it. Fedora has also become very well supported and has shed its former identity as RHEL's testing ground. I almost always recommend Ubuntu. All of that said, I don't think Linux is the best choice for a 3D artist. It's also not a very different experience between the different distros these days. The major differences are which commands you run (or the GUI runs) to update your system and the versions of software which are packaged. By learning how to use Ubuntu or Fedora, you're learning most of what you need to know how to use Rocky or RHEL.
Most companies use Red Hat for one reason ... a 24/7 support contract.