Welcome Toshi to Zorin OS, you've just taken your first step, towards improving you life, and you didn't even know it hehe. Why Linux is so great? Cause it provides you many choices. Why is Zorin OS so great? Cause its made very well, by two guys, who put a lot of love in it. And its just beautiful!
When you find the time, could you update your profile to reflect which version of Zorin you are running, helps greatly in support requests.
The only VM I would have recommended was Virtual Box, but thats only cause I don't use VM's, and so I only know of that one. Appears you have been given better recommendations already on that front.
I am glad you found a awesome photo editor, I never heard of that one yet, and I been using Linux for years. The super popular photo editor that I use, is Gimp. Its not a complete replacement for Photoshop, but it does do most functionality that Photoshop has.
As far as video editors, I love Kdenlive, there really isn't a better FREE video editor for Linux then Kdenlive. And the new version that got released, well, its the best, and it just works.
I really hope you enjoy your stay, not just with the forum mind you, but with Zorin OS, and Linux in general. Glad to have you hear. 