How do y'all deal with programs not supported on Linux?

I’ve been seeing all these posts about Linux lately, and looking at them, I can honestly see the appeal. I’d love having so much autonomy over the OS I use, and customize it however I like, even having so many options to choose from when it comes to distros. The only thing holding me back, however, is incompatibility issues. A lot of programs I work with very often are Windows-exclusive, and alternatives supporting Linux are rare. So I guess I’m stuck with Windows, since I deem those particular programs really important.

Any advice from Linux nerds here? All constructive replies are very appreciated.

sparr,

You’re no more stuck with Windows than a Mac user is stuck on a Mac.

skullgiver, (edited )
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    beirdobaggins,

    I’m a Linux admin at work and I use Linux for my main system.

    I do need to administer some Windows only things too. I got them to give me an older desktop system running windows that I leave running in my cube.

    Anytime I need to do Windows stuff I remote into that machine.

    Arthur_Leywin,

    Virtual machine or Bottles. If neither can help then I just take the L

    theRealBassist,

    What are bottles?

    Arthur_Leywin,

    It’s a thing that’s built on top of wine (Windows application compatibility thingy). Its purpose is to create environments for Windows applications in a very user-friendly manner with a GUI. I think whatever you can do in Bottles, someone could do with the terminal using wine but that’s difficult.

    Haven’t used Bottles in a while but you just get the .exe file like you would when using Windows OS, then you put it in the Bottles, and it should run. I have no clue about the details, but if you click enough buttons, it should work properly.

    TwinTusks,

    A question regarding bottles, do I have to install dependencies in the settings? My exe all installed without error but can’t open.

    Arthur_Leywin,

    Not sure. I guess it depends on the software you’re trying to use. Watcha downloading? Maybe I can try it on my end.

    TwinTusks, (edited )

    I am just testing things out, so I’m trying to install Kindle Previewer and Caesium image compressor. All install correctly, but crash upon execute.

    This is the error for Kindle Previewer

    
<span style="color:#323232;">18:13:06 (INFO) Catalog installers loaded 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">18:13:06 (INFO) Catalog dependencies loaded 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">18:13:06 (INFO) Catalog components loaded 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">18:13:09 (INFO) Launching an executable… 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">18:13:09 (WARNING) Windows path detected. Avoiding validation. 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">18:13:09 (INFO) Using Wine Starter -- run 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">wineserver: using server-side synchronization.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">wine: RLIMIT_NICE is &lt;= 20, unable to use setpriority safely
</span><span style="color:#323232;">002c:err:wineboot:process_run_key Error running cmd L"C:\windows\system32\winemenubuilder.exe -r" (2).
</span><span style="color:#323232;">0118:err:ntlm:ntlm_LsaApInitializePackage no NTLM support, expect problems
</span>
    Arthur_Leywin, (edited )

    I’m having issues too. I’d just use a VM at that point xD. With Bottles it’s usually hit or miss but with a VM, almost anything works. Sorry friend🤧

    Edit: my virtual machine manager of choice is GNOME Boxes because it’s very easy to use. If it doesn’t work it usually means KVM or SVM (one of them) is disabled in your BIOS.

    TwinTusks,

    NP, I guess I’ll just have to accept it (I only use it to convert ebooks to KFX format, it seems a bit overkill to have VM Windows just for that.)

    Thank you for trying to help.

    Tattorack,
    @Tattorack@lemmy.world avatar

    I already used open source programs on Windows. The programs I’m using to do all my work with are Krita, Blender 3D, Gimp, and Libre Office.

    They either started out on Linux or support Linux natively, so switching to Linux didn’t really change any of the programs I use. The biggest change is playing games, but Valve has made it very pain free.

    asexualchangeling,

    Oh hey, same here! I’ve always been pretty poor so open source programs were the easiest way to do a lot of things

    And can I just say, GIMP opens way faster in linux it really took me by supprise the first time

    captain_aggravated,
    @captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Can you give us specific examples of the programs you use, and what you use them for?

    Evotech,

    Certified Linux answer

    captain_aggravated,
    @captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I mean, it took me awhile to learn the names of all the software I currently use. And in some fields, it’s still “Yeah there’s not a good substitute.”

    erasebegin,

    wipe the linux partitions and get back to a life of convenience and productivity. until another 6 months have passed and I think “maybe this time…”

    phoenixz,

    I recently reinstalled Linux. 5 minutes download, 5 minutes USB write, 15 minutes install including setting up an encrypted drive, everything works out of the box. Installling the graphics driver for my RX 7800 was “hard” because it was two steps instead of one, and that added an additional 5-10 minutes. Now I’m having convenience and productivity beyond all coworkers who constantly battle with windows problems, but hey, windows is windows, it always has some issues, it’s fine.

    Over this past weekend I installed Windows 11. 1.5 times the size. Took about 7 minutes to download, 20 minutes to write to usb, fine.

    Then the nightmare started.

    First try: boot windows installer, go to install, about 3 minutes later I get an error about windows installer needing drivers. Wut? Search the internet, turns out that windows installer won’t work if Linux partitions are available on the system. WTF, can’t just ignore them? Nope, I gotta screw out the m.2 drive. Fine.

    Second try: boot windows installer, go to install, about 3 minutes later I get an error about windows installer needing drivers. Wut? Search again, find that windows installer can have driver issues if it sees a mix of m.2 drives and other devices. Fuck me. Open up the other side of the computer, disconnect the other drives. fine.

    Third try: boot windows installer, go to install, about 3 minutes later I get an error about windows installer needing drivers. Wut? Search yet again and it turns out that windows can have issues if it’s using a mix of usb 2/3 port and device. Try a various different USB ports, keep running installer until find one that is accepted. Fine!

    Thirteenth try: boot windows installer, go to install, about 3 minutes later I get a new error, turns out that you can’t use Linux ISO writers for windows installers, apparently Microsoft fucked around with why because we gotta make shit hard for non ms users, right? “Luckily” I had a virtual box install, rewrite the usb there.

    Fourteenth try and hours later: boot windows installer, go to install, about 3 minutes later I get a new error. My AMD Rhyzen 5 64GB 3000MHz system with an AMD RX 7800 XT and 1TB m.2 dedicated to windows doesn’t match the specs for windows 1, it can’t run windows 11. That’s what it actually said. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK! Search again, about an hour later I figre out that Microsoft finally started implementing the evil TPM system and it was disabled in the BIOS. Go to bios, enable it, now I can run the installer.

    The install the requires 4 reboots just for the operating system, took about another hour to do so, it asked me loads of times if Microsoft could please please please sell me more shit that I don’t want, it required me to connect it to Microsoft services even though I don’t want that and finally I had a desktop. Installing graphics drivers took about another hour and a reboot.

    Then I didn’t wanted to use Microsoft’s shit browser, at the least I prefer google to spy on me rather than Microsoft. Go download gogle Chrome, immediately get bombarded with “please no please use our shitty browser, you get the Microsoft experience ™!!!”

    Welcome to the fucking Microsoft experience! It took me over 6 fucking hours to complete. I could have installed Linux arch in LESS time, a version known to be finicky and HARD.

    Why does anyone pay money for windows? It’s insane. Their shit doesn’t work because Microsoft never cared a single shit about good software. They care about money and so their marketing department is doing the heavy lifting. Just lie to people, tell them that their shit is all superior and the “best experience”

    I run into trouble with Linux sometimes, but NEVER this level of shitty incompetence and sabotage.

    cows_are_underrated,

    I could have installed Linux arch in LESS time, a version known to be finicky and HARD.

    I recently had to install arch 3 times since. First time I fucked up, second try the system fucked up and third time worked. With me trying to fix the system this took me 2-3 hours. Most of them trying to fix the second install. The third time I used the installation script(which didn’t worked in the beginning) which made the install easy as hell taking about 10 minutes configuring the install and about 5 minutes installing everything. Later I just had to install gnome which were about 10 minutes total.

    phoenixz,

    And yet Microsoft in 2023 still is stuck with “this computer cannot run windows 11” when all that was wrong was that TPM was disabled in the bios. Just say you need TPM and that I need to enable it, why is it impossible for Microsoft to ever give a clear and concise error message?

    statist43,

    Everytime I install windows again for some reason, its always a fucked up hourlong shit. And after installing then comes the disableing of unnesessary bullshit it comea with.

    Linux just works, I use Ubuntu because Im just a normal user, and I don’t know why people even use windows.

    phoenixz,

    Same, I don’t have a clue why people actually use and PAY for that shit. It’s like buying a new car. You get into he agency, get in, want to start and drive away but right out of the gate the battery is empty. Okay, let’s charge it? But yeeaaahhh, the great 12v standard that works everywhere doesn’t work for windowagon, you need a 15.9v because that way microshit can sabotage those people that just want to get from a to b without having to deal with their bullshit.

    King4408,

    Dualboot. Use windows only with the things that need windows (ie CADs) and linux for everything else.

    interceder270,

    Downside of dualbooting is you have to manage essentially 2 computers.

    King4408,

    Thats true, but it is not that different from running windows in a VM or a separate machine like a laptop. If you only use windows for little stuff, it does not require that much maintenance. Especially W10 since it stopped getting feature drops.

    danielfgom,
    @danielfgom@lemmy.world avatar

    If they are Windows exclusive then your best bet is to simply run Windows in a virtual machine inside Linux and run the applications from there.

    Neil,
    @Neil@lemmy.ml avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    Zoidberg,

    How did you manage with video performance? I don’t game and have had a lot of experience with both vbox and kvm. Kvm performance for video is excruciatingly slow. It got to a point I said “that does it” and went back to vbox.

    OsrsNeedsF2P,

    Is there a good KVM GUI client like Virtual Box?

    ftbd,

    virt-manager

    Krause,
    @Krause@lemmygrad.ml avatar

    virt-manager.org

    apps.gnome.org/Boxes/

    danielfgom,
    @danielfgom@lemmy.world avatar

    Yea KVM is great but it’s not so easy to pass device’s through. Whereas in Virtualbox you go to the menu, select devices, the type of device (eg usb) and then select the device (eg printer) to have it show up on Windows.

    NutWrench,
    @NutWrench@lemmy.ml avatar

    Libre Office completely takes care of my Office needs.

    dvdnet89, (edited )
    @dvdnet89@lemmy.today avatar

    if the documents exchanged by others used complex macros written on VBA using excel it looks pretty bad on Libreoffice.

    theRealBassist,

    Office 365 online can be a good stopgap for those cases if you need it.

    desconectado,

    Or reference managers. I’m in academia and it’s a pain because I can’t edit anything on Linux without breaking the fine, I tried everything, LibreOffice, Only office… Nothing works.

    rar,

    I simply resorted to using a windows+office VM for work, back when I was exchanging office documents with coworkers a lot. Even subtle things like font rendering would be different, making a 2 page doc into a 3 pages, etc. (Rendering, not just support - mscorefonts was already installed)

    princessnorah,
    @princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    CrossOver is also made by CodeWeavers, but includes paid support as well. Maybe it might suit your use case?

    www.codeweavers.com/crossover

    Steamymoomilk,

    Does anyone know how well this actually works? Ive been fighting with fusion 360 to work on linux. Yes i know about bottles and it works okish but it lags alot.

    princessnorah,
    @princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    Are you looking to run games, or other software? ProtonDB has details of what games do and don’t work using it. Proton is also maintained by CodeWeavers, I think it’s basically the gaming support from CrossOver.

    maximilian,
    @maximilian@lemmy.ml avatar

    What programs do concern you?

    dvdnet89,
    @dvdnet89@lemmy.today avatar

    macros on excel

    Aatube,
    @Aatube@kbin.social avatar

    LibreOffice also has macros support

    dvdnet89,
    @dvdnet89@lemmy.today avatar

    macros created by different people on excel viewed differently on Libreoffice also Some of the excel formulas that is written on VBA does not work well on Libreoffice

    TCB13, (edited )
    @TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

    You mostly don’t because Linux desktop is kind of a “collective delusion”. You either assume you’ll be using alternatives that aren’t compatible with your current applications and potentially deal with collaboration issues with users of such apps or stick with Windows.

    If one lives in a bubble and doesn’t to collaborate with others then native Linux apps might work and might even deliver a decent workflow. Once collaboration with Windows/Mac users is required then it’s game over – the “alternatives” aren’t just up to it.

    tadeubento.com/…/linux-desktop-a-collective-delus…

    When it comes to distros I suggest you keep to Debian and use Flatpak to install software - this will give you a rock solid OS with all the latest version of the applications you might want to use. Flatpak apps can be installed from the GNOME Software “store” GUI which makes things really convenient.

    Speaking about office, LibreOffice is great, however it isn’t as good as people like to sell it. Take for instance this simple documented I created in MS Word, side-by-side, it can’t even properly display a simple document with some headings and a few bullet points:

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/1ddb19c4-f7b9-432d-a795-ced58f11e5ba.jpeg

    Things like that print screen and what is written on the article are the hard facts that people like to avoid and downvote, but it is what it is. Linux is great, but not in most desktop use case scenarios.

    indigomirage, (edited )

    The LibreOffice stuff generally has a workaround, even if frustrating. Most general use stuff on Linux is fine (again, not without pain wrt interoperability with my other systems).

    My issue with Linux is the stuff that just doesn’t run at all (software and HW). For niche stuff, you can occasionally find a halfway implemented bridge utility made by a well-meaning (and brilliant!) enthusiast, but, in my cases, it either doesn’t work or is too glitchy to be anything more than a effort to see if I can get it to run as opposed to doing the task I set out to do originally. Add to that the fact that your (paid) software and HW is explicitly unsupported and at best at a “you’re on your own” status, and it becomes a high risk proposition.

    Make no mistake - trying to get stuff to work is fun in and of itself. I use Linux. It’s fun. It’s breathed fresh life into old machines. It was my daily driver for years. Etc.

    Ultimately, I really, really wish more proprietary software and associated HW supported Linux. I’m happy to pay for stuff I need/want that is outside of the FOSS world. But until devs of commercial products recognize the value of investing in Linux, it’s a game of whackamole.

    In meantime, I still try to get my stuff to work on Linux. It’s a much better OS, but to successfully run the stuff I need I am confined to Windows (with WSL) - unfortunately.

    KISSmyOS, (edited )

    “LibreOffice and MS Office have a different paragraph spacing set as default, that’s why Linux is shit.”

    TCB13,
    @TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

    No, it is why Linux becomes an unviable alternative - you can’t open and edit a document and be sure it won’t get messed up in some way.

    KISSmyOS,

    It’s not messed up, though. It’s just set to a different value.
    If the exact amount of paragraph spacing is important to you, you can either set it before you print, share the file as PDF or use a proper layouting software. This isn’t a Linux issue, you should do the same when sharing a file with someone using MS Office.
    Because opening a Word document in a different MS Office version than the one it was created with can also mess it up, but somehow businesses deal with that.

    Your yardstick for a usable desktop system is “every detail and default setting in all software needs to be exactly the same as on the Windows equivalent”.
    So by definition only Windows can ever be a usable desktop system. No matter how good anything else may be.

    Theoriginalthon,

    The amount of times I’ve had this argument in the office is untrue. I think the default values aren’t stored in the docx file or something like that, but when you manually set a value it does store it in the docx.

    Then you have the whole proprietary blobs in a “open” standard to deal with.

    The worst offenders are people who format with tabs and spaces and wonder why it’s all messed up.

    TCB13, (edited )
    @TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

    It’s not messed up, though. It’s just set to a different value. If the exact amount of paragraph spacing is important to you, you can either set it before you print, share the file as PDF or use a proper layouting software. This isn’t a Linux issue, you should do the same when sharing a file with someone using MS Office.

    You’re missing the point, if you get a document from a MS Office user you can’t simply view it or print it and assume the result will be what the user intended it to be. Same applies in reverse if you make changes to the document. This makes LibreOffice unsuitable and not a real alternative.

    Your yardstick for a usable desktop system is “every detail and default setting in all software needs to be exactly the same as on the Windows equivalent”.

    No, the problem is that most people on this post want it both ways, want to say that LibreOffice is 100% perfect and can fit 100% of uses cases and be used for collaboration and at the same time say stuff like you said “It’s not messed up, though. It’s just set to a different value.”. Its one thing or the other, not both.

    And for what’s worth is shouldn’t be “set to a different value” because it breaks compatibility and LibreOffice say it does the best they can to ensure compatibility with MS Office formats.

    KISSmyOS, (edited )

    You’re missing the point, if you get a document from a MS Office user you can’t simply view it or print it and assume the result will be what the user intended it to be.

    You’re missing the point. You can’t assume that even if both use MS Office, either. Cause one of the users could have changed a setting, or use Office Online, or Office for OSX, or an older version, all of which aren’t fully compatible.
    MS breaks these things all the time between versions too, without even telling you they’ve updated your Office.
    Again, if layout of your end product is important, don’t share .docx files.

    TCB13,
    @TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

    Again, if layout of your end product is important, don’t share .docx files.

    I know a LOT of people who’ve been doing this since Office 97 and formatting holds across computers. And to be fair it seems to hold a lot better between older and newer versions of MS Office than with LibeOffice.

    KISSmyOS,

    And I’ve had better results opening Office files with LibreOffice than with MS Online Office.

    TCB13,
    @TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

    You guys want to have it both ways, first you’ll say that Office online is the ultimate solution for every Linux user that needs to collaborate with MS Office users and now this. lol

    Flumsy,

    Every single docx file that I opened in a recent LibreOffice version looked exactly as intended. What features specifically are you talking about that dont work?

    TCB13,
    @TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

    Look at my screenshot above. Do you call that “looked exactly as intended”?

    d3Xt3r, (edited )

    Web apps (for MS Office/Teams), Wine (mostly for games and random apps), and for everything else, an optimized Tiny11 Core VM + WinApps for seamless windows/integration with Linux. My Tiny11 only uses 0-1% CPU and 600MB RAM on idle so I’ve got no issues running it in the background, besides it takes only a couple of seconds to launch, if I wanted to start it on demand.

    I’ve also got a portable SSD with a copy of Windows installed on it, just in case I need it for some firmware updates or something (although I’m on a Thinkpad so pretty much everything can be updated via LVFS, but I keep it around just in case + it’s portable so there’s no harm in having it around).

    Steamymoomilk,

    Winapps is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing. I didnt know that existed till now.

    mateomaui,

    I’ve been looking at Tiny10 and 11, have you run into any particular problems using it?

    d3Xt3r,

    I only use it to run productivity apps inside a VM (Adobe Reader etc), so no issues here.

    I think the most problems people have with it is running it on real hardware, since it lacks drivers and stuff.

    mateomaui,

    hmmm, good to know I may have to track down drivers for a regular install, I missed that. Thanks for the feedback!

    AnUnusualRelic,
    @AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

    I switched to Linux from Windows 3.11 because Microsoft software didn’t do what it was supposed to.

    My method is that I don’t even know what’s available for Windows, so I don’t miss it at all. The opposite isn’t true though, and time spent in a Microsoft environment can quickly become painful.

    My only regular contact with Windows is the Steam partition which hasn’t been used for quite some time. I have a laptop that has a small win11 partition that I boot every now and then to see what they’re up to these days.

    However, in the end, the only real answer is that if you really need a piece of software, you just run whatever system that supports it. It’s not a religion, you use whatever is convenient for you at a given time.

    d3Xt3r, (edited )

    Ooh, Win 3.11? Which version of Linux did you switch to at the time?

    I don’t recall the kernel version, but my first was Red Hat 5.2 in the late 90s. I didn’t switch to Linux permanently though, had it on dual-boot. But eventually it was SuSE that won me over, with their YaST tool and polished KDE implementation - seemed lightyears ahead of Win 9x and ME at the time.

    AnUnusualRelic,
    @AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

    At the time, I installed slackware with a lot of floppies.

    Now, after trying quite a few, I settled on OpenSuSE Tumbleweed. It has one of the best KDE desktops, and basically just works, whatever you do with it. It’s comfortable and boring which I see as great qualities.

    AlecSadler,

    For Visual Studio Enterprise, Adobe PDF editing, native Office apps, SSMS, and RDP thin clients, I use a Windows VM.

    niisyth,

    For occasional use of a Windows specific software, how feasible is it to keep a VM handy? Not too much of a drag or a bit of a hassle.

    Been on the edge of turning the main OS to linux on the gaming rig.

    AlecSadler,

    I have a 2TB SSD and a 1TB SSD. My Windows VM is allocated 100GB, so it really isn’t bad at all. I use VirtualBox and it starts up basically instantly.

    I just realized I have an oldish laptop with Windows on it though so I’m thinking maybe I should just remote into that instead…derp

    Lettuceeatlettuce,
    @Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml avatar

    I personally only use Linux now for all my computers. I follow a philosophy for any software solutiom I need that goes like this:

    1. Use a FOSS solution or,
    2. Use a proprietary solution that has a native Linux build/browser version or,
    3. Use a cracked/pirated version in Wine/Windows VM.

    Personally, I am absolutely committed to no more Windows for my personal computing, I have been for years. That means that if I cannot do one of those three options in that order, I don’t use that software/solution.

    Unless you are doing a lot of specialized software work, those three options should have you covered. I’m curious what software you use that doesn’t work with any of those 3 categories.

    Advanced CAD/CAM stuff there isn’t much in FOSS. Same with specialized Audio production work and advanced photo-manipulation. Specialized device support can be spotty too, but that varies wildly. Those are the only software categories off the top of my head that I know don’t really have good FOSS solutions.

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