this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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I had to test/fix something at work and I set up a Windows VM because it was a bug specific to Windows users. Once I was done, I thought, “Maybe I should keep this VM for something.” but I couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t a game (which probably wouldn’t work well in a VM anyway) or some super specific enterprise software I don’t really use.

I also am more familiar with the Apple ecosystem than the Microsoft one so maybe I’m just oblivious to what’s out there. Does anyone out there dual boot or use a VM for a non-game, non-niche industry Windows exclusive program?

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

Foobar2000.

By far the best, most customizable local music player app ever. Plus it's ~~open source~~ free.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Plus it's open source.

no it's not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar2000

The core is closed source, whereas the SDK is licensed under the Three-Clause BSD license.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

My bad, thanks for the correction.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I loved Foobar2000 back in the day. I’m glad it lives on.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Yep. A couple of years ago they released the 2.0 version, which supports 64-bit architecture and allows for dark mode support as well.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

This is the one Windows app I just cannot find a good alternative to. Deadbeef comes the closest, but even it is laggy when searching my library, sometimes crashes when I add too many files, and has a mediocre search function.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Oops, I just commented about Foobar2k before seeing this comment.

Just want to mention that it does run on Linux as a Snap (though then you have to have a Snap installed, lol). I'm sure it runs fine with regular Wine too.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Lol, Snap.

Wish Canonical would just kill it already

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (3 children)

The only thing I need on Windows is the Adobe suite for my uni graphic design stuff. I could use GIMP, darktable, Krita, etc, but my lectures teach us how things work on the Adobe suite. I use FOSS when it is for personal stuff though.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

Adobe CS is the industry standard in some fields. You should absolutely learn them if you’re in school for that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The FOSS equivalents sadly aren't quite up to par with Adobe for professional work yet.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

https://github.com/Gictorbit/photoshopCClinux

I have been using this on linux during my studies. But there are also newer versions "packaged" by other people on github.

I'm sure the rest of the adobe suit can be installed in the same way with some tinkering.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I wonder what the state of wsl on wine is

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

... wine on wsl on wine

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

confused noises

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

Anymore, Wine can run anything I care to run.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (4 children)

SolidWorks, fusion360, codesys (plc programming) and many other enterprise grade software sadly only really work on Windows. They do however work okay through a VM but annoying to deal with.

Games now work surprisingly well on Linux so i have no problems there except Sims4 that my girlfriend plays seems to be windows only when bought through origin gamestore

And dont suggest frecad for cad work. Sadly It's seriously not even close to being competitive.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (9 children)

Sadly, a few. I'd love to know if anyone knows any excellent Linux-equivalents for these:

  • MakeMKV^1^: For ripping DVDs & Blurays
  • Bulk Rename UtilityFor bulk-renaming files
  • Exact Audio CopyFor accurately ripping audio CDs
  • Logitech G Hub^2^: *For controlling peripherals' LED profiles & DPI presets
  • Mp3tag^3^: The best fucking metadata editor ever made, that's what!
  • Paint.NET: For raster image editing (more feature-complete than MS Paint but less complex than GIMP).
  • Playnite^4^: Platform-agnostic game launcher/manager
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic: Star Wars MMO that was better pre-7.0.
  • Mod Organizer 2: A mod management software that is open-source but not available on Linux? Heresy, I say!

 

 


^1^ Technically, it does have a Linux version, but you have to compile it yourself, and I don't know shit about that kind of stuff. Lol.

^2^ I know OpenRGB exists, and it's good enough for my needs when it comes to LED management, but it doesn't seem to be able to control DPI presets like G Hub.

^3^ I tried it back in like 2016 in Ubuntu 4.x and it worked just fine in Wine, but I'm unsure if it still does as I haven't tried it since then really. Still, any Linux-native software that can do shit just as good is something I'd love to know about. :)

^4^ Yes, I know there are alternatives like GameHub, Lutris, etc. but frankly none of them seem to come close to Playnite in terms of UI, UX, and sheer functionality.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

MakeMKV: For ripping DVDs & Blurays

MakeMKV is available on Linux as Flatpak and works out of the box: https://flathub.org/apps/com.makemkv.MakeMKV

Bulk Rename Utility

Probably a tough one since most people will use the command line to bulk rename files. I do use ChatGPT sometimes to create rename commands for me that are more complicated.

Exact Audio Copy

I use Sound Juicer now, used fre:ac before.

https://flathub.org/apps/org.gnome.SoundJuicer

https://flathub.org/apps/org.freac.freac

Logitech G Hub I know OpenRGB exists, and it’s good enough for my needs when it comes to LED management, but it doesn’t seem to be able to control DPI presets like G Hub.

Piper can do DPI presets: https://flathub.org/apps/org.freedesktop.Piper

Mp3tag

I used Mp3tag on Windows and switched to Picard, I like it even more than Mp3tag now: https://flathub.org/apps/org.musicbrainz.Picard

Paint.NET

Is GIMP really that complex for this use case? I use GIMP to do simple stuff like paint, rescale images, blur things, fill things, ... https://flathub.org/apps/org.gimp.GIMP

Playnite

I don't use anything out of Steam often but If you don't like Lutris, maybe Heroic for GOG and Epic? https://flathub.org/apps/com.heroicgameslauncher.hgl

Mod Organizer 2

r2modman has native support for Linux: https://github.com/ebkr/r2modmanPlus

There's also support for one-click installation of Mod Organizer 2 with steamtinkerlaunch: https://github.com/sonic2kk/steamtinkerlaunch/wiki/Mod-Organizer-2

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

MakeMKV is available on Linux as Flatpak and works out of the box: https://flathub.org/apps/com.makemkv.MakeMKV

I was not aware of this. Thank you! :)

Probably a tough one since most people will use the command line to bulk rename files. I do use ChatGPT sometimes to create rename commands for me that are more complicated.

I'm still very much a Linux newbie so although I am familiar with some things on the terminal, I never even knew you could bulk-rename files with it. I knew you could rename them, but not bulk-rename them, I mean.

I use Sound Juicer now, used fre:ac before.

https://flathub.org/apps/org.gnome.SoundJuicer

https://flathub.org/apps/org.freac.freac

Thanks, I'll check that out!

I used Mp3tag on Windows and switched to Picard, I like it even more than Mp3tag now: https://flathub.org/apps/org.musicbrainz.Picard

Thank you!

Is GIMP really that complex for this use case? I use GIMP to do simple stuff like paint, rescale images, blur things, fill things, … https://flathub.org/apps/org.gimp.GIMP

Yes, it takes a bit longer, even on higher-end PCs, to load up, than Paint.NET. Pinta used to be a good equivalent, but I think that's long since been abandoned, though I could be wrong. It also has way more functions than I need, frankly, and that leads to a cluttered UI. I've tried to use it before, and that always ends up being the case.

I don’t use anything out of Steam often but If you don’t like Lutris, maybe Heroic for GOG and Epic? https://flathub.org/apps/com.heroicgameslauncher.hgl

I've heard about it, but from what I've seen it doesn't seem to be very close to a 1:1 comparison. Though admittedly I've only read about it, but it seems to not be as good. Again, I'd be willing to try it out, but there doesn't seem to be many Linux equivalents as good.

Also, it's not that I don't like Lutris, but compared to Playnite, it's very bare-bones.

r2modman has native support for Linux: https://github.com/ebkr/r2modmanPlus

There’s also support for one-click installation of Mod Organizer 2 with steamtinkerlaunch: https://github.com/sonic2kk/steamtinkerlaunch/wiki/Mod-Organizer-2

Nice! Thank you again!

 


Edit: Fixed quote markup.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I’m old and don’t really sail the high seas these days but does Handbrake not rip DVDs and BluRays?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Handbrake will rip DVDs, but not Blu Rays. That's were good ol' MakeMKV comes in.

I rip with MakeMKV (which will do DVDs as well) and then convert/encode the MKVs with Handbrake.

I do the conversion/encoding because the ripped files can be 35-50 GBs for regular Blu Rays (UHD Blu Rays are even bigger!) and I can get them down to 3-8 GBs with minimal quality loss.

I then toss the smaller MKVs on my jellyfin server.

EDIT: Handbrake CAN rip Blu Rays but only if they arent copy protected. MakeMKV is able to rip protected Blu Rays and DVDs.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's a requirement for my Business Comms course to use Word, to the point where the prof will walk around to ensure you have Word open. The online version is awful and often drops sentences when I type so I dont use it. I could never get the darn thing working over WINE or Cassowary, so I have a VM that basically just runs that.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Lots of firmware and driver updater programs seem to require Windows or Mac and I can't get them to run with wine. For example, I need Win to update the firmware on my car stereo and my 8bitdo game controllers. I also need it to run the tax software my CPA uses.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

I don't know about car stereos, but at least for 8bitdo controllers, you can update the firmware via fwupd. And if the firmware isn't available on LVFS, you can download the blob install it manually using fwupd: https://ladis.cloud/blog/posts/firmware-update-8bitdo.html

I did this for my 8bitdo Ultimate Bluetooth controller, and it worked great.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I use Foobar2000 for music. It is feature packed and so customizable. It's available as a snap using Wine (I think it's the only snap I have installed, in fact).

I really wish there were a Linux binary available but it has been Windows-only forever. The closest Linux player I've seen is Deadbeef, but Deadbeef's library plugin does not work at all like Foobar's (the later stays updated by monitoring the music folder and shows things by tags, not folder structure). Apparently the Deadbeef plugin is being updated to be more Foobar-like, but it isn't there yet.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I did try running foobar under wine but it just sucked, I have also tried deadbeef but its really lacking features and the GUI sucks. I ended up using musicbee through wine, it was a hassle to setup but now it just works for me and I like it better than foobar.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

For work I heavily rely on the Adobe creative suite (Photoshop and Premiere Pro specifically). I maintain Linux servers (and develop for them) and maintain Linux desktops at both home and for work, but the lack of any alternatives to Photoshop specifically has resulted in me still daily driving Windows (VMs really hamper workflow with regards to GPU passthrough and although I've successfully set up Looking Glass on my workstation in the past, running 2 gpus isn't practical). Yes I've tried the alternatives and while Premiere Pro has usable alternatives, Photoshop does not. GIMP is incredible given that it is FOSS but the UI and feature set is almost unusable (for me at least).

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

yes, but I don't use VMs or dual boot. I've been able to get everything I need working in Wine, which is a lot more seamless

[–] mikyopii 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I have a copy of Microsoft Office 2013 on a Windows 11 VM.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Games work quite well in a VM, with GPU passthrough. I use a Windows VM for VR games. The non-game program here being the drivers for my VR headset, which only work on Windows. The games themselves would probably work fine on Linux, so that's not the issue, but without drivers it's a no go.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

The only reason I have windows is to test apps that I write.

The apps are cross platform. I use it in Linux. But I also have users in Windows, so I just fire up a windows VM for testing releases. Thats it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Except for video games, all software I use daily is open source and cross platform by now, but when college demanded for me to use Adobe software, I would boot my Win 10 VM. I also boot that VM to test if the software im developing works well on Windows. I also run my Logitech mouse software in a VM with USB passthrough.

Besides games, I think the only Windows program I run with wine is a tool to extract the BGM from the official Touhou games.

Before I had a 3DS, I would use a Windows tool on my VM to decrypt my totally legally acquired ROMs

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

I use LTspice and some ham radio software. Everything runs on wine, so I don't bother with a VM.

I used to dual boot for some games back before wine worked well.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Only for very specific terrible chip vendor software which I hate but have no choice but to use because certification reasons.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Xbox app for game pass. But i would cancel that if i didnt also needed windows for Sunshine streaming. Linux REFUSES with everything its got, to make hardware acceleration work.

Oh and geforce now, which is still since release broken on linux when using hardware acceleration since colors close to black are just black. So darker games do not work.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Some industry hardware stuff sadly ...

Datalogic DL.Code, Siemens TIA, etc.

If someone has a solution I'm all up for it.
Was some time ago, that I tried with wine, so maybe something has changed

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Current releases of AutoCAD, Revit and Solidworks.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (5 children)
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