1. If you buy a used office desktop, it can be worth it to just put in a GPU. You have to know what you’re looking at though. Some prebuilds include stuff like custom motherboards or PSUs that are very hard to upgrade or make it impossible to install a GPU. Otherwise DIY is cheapest.

2. Debian is very stable, good for professional use.

3. She already uses some software and she probably would like something similar. Maybe look for alternatives or ways to run her choice of software on Linux?

• GIMP isn’t the most user friendly software and I don’t think it’s the best choice for graphic design.
• Inkscape is good for vector graphics, but it’s still lackluster compared to Adobe Illustrator.
• Krita is awesome for illustrations and digital art, but doesn’t have too many graphic design features that I found.

Overall if she’s going to use it in professional capacity, switching to Linux could be a risk.

Anime games maybe? Stuff like Hyperdimension Neptunia isn’t hentai, but I could definitely see someone getting bullied over it