What would be the best solution (Performance wise) if one is only after running Photoshop + Office? Looking for a solution which is easy to install and configure.
If you want easy, this is not for you. Setting up LG first requires setting up a VFIO Virtual Machine.
As for how viable it is, very... we have many members in our community that are using LG for productivity applications. For performance, very close to bare metal. In applications like Photoshop and Office you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
I used to use looking glass (still sponsoring the project) but since my hardware is ancient I tried running the windows VM of a DVI to my monitor instead, and it's been so incredibly smooth along with Barrier ever since, with more horsepower I would probably go back to LG because of the convenience of being a regular window I can manage however I want.
Is the key feature clipboard sharing? Otherwise I don't know why I wouldn't redirect events with zero additional software. As-is, I press both ctrl keys and my keyboard and mouse switch to the virtual machine. The big nuisance is that I need to switch monitor inputs. That appears to be something I can automate, but simply haven't yet.
No, it's not. evdev forces you to have your keyboard/mouse either fully captured or not, which is a pain if you're just working with a productivity suite. With LG's SPICE client input is sent to the VM via the same channel that evdev does, but also gives greater control allowing us to keep the cursor in sync with the local cursor, making the VM feel as if it's just another application on your desktop.
You can also pass through more than just a GPU. I pass through an NVMe disk and a USB controller, effectively giving me a full second computer within my workstation. It's honestly fantastic.
Not PS/Office (more of a dev workflow - VS, Intellij, DB admin tools), but I've personally found that straight KVM with the default virtual hardware is good enough. The last big adjustment I made was getting a dedicated SSD for the Windows VM and using it instead of the native file images.
Totally stable - 8hrs per day over the last 16 months with 1 hiccup - and no performance complaints. I'm not doing anything graphically intensive though so virtual display hardware isn't a bottleneck.
Most of my gaming is just Proton on the host system these days.
As for how viable it is, very... we have many members in our community that are using LG for productivity applications. For performance, very close to bare metal. In applications like Photoshop and Office you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.