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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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
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.
Visual Studio (Not VS Code), C# is fantastic these days cross-platform wise and a pretty solid general language
But the non-ms IDEs for it...are lacking...and MS just terminated MacOS support for VS (Not that it really mattered the macOS version was a bastardized version of VS anyways) so I don't think their flagship is coming (officially) to Linux anytime soon.
There are some programs I still use that are designed for Windows, but use cases are "niche" or at very least specialized:
Guitar Pro 8 - Guitar Tab software
Line 6 HX Edit - Helix Settings Editor
Line 6 Powercab Edit - Amp Settings Editoe
Line 6 Updater - Firmware Updater for Line 6 Products
Steelseries GG - Configuration Software for Steelseries Peripherals
Numerous VSTs and other Audio Plugins
These are just what I remember I use off the top of my head.
I do use Guitar Pro 8 with Wine, but the others won't work through Wine. I did try to use the others with a Windows KVM through QEMU but I ultimately gave up and left one windows workstation because of my issues with my Nvidia RTX 3090.
I have a Windows VM that runs Visual Studio and a small number of developer tools so I can test my code on Windows.
And another windows VM that runs Daz3D, Clip Studio Paint and the Epic Launcher (to download stuff from the Unreal Engine Marketplace).
Sometimes I misuse either VM by creating a snapshot and installing Garmin Connect so I can update the music library on my watch :)
I run Scrivener, which is a writing software that's only for Mac & Windows (well, there is a Linux version but it's ancient), but I just run that through Wine rather than a VM. That's about the only thing I haven't found a good equivalent for on Linux though.
Yeah. I use quite a few windows exclusive programs. I know it is a long list but can't be helped. Good support and stability beats ideology and these apps provide me that. Here is the list:
[email protected] if I am donating GPU power to science research. There is a BOINC client for Linux but packaging is a hot mess (though getting better) and compatibility with graphics drivers is hit-or-miss. So any crunching rigs I have w/ GPUs all run Windows.
Adobe Lightroom Classic. I have darktable installed on Linux, but I haven't mastered it yet. Lightroom is the software for photo edoting, unfortuntately.
I haven't been able to get Vectric Aspire to work yet, even under wine. It's used to layout tool paths for CNC operations, so it may be a little on the niche side, but it's pretty popular there.
I have a Windows 11 VM which I keep around. I was forced to use it for iTunes because I needed to sync my old photos onto the phone (fortunately a one time process).
I also played around with RemoteApp because I wanted to use Visual Studio or Office on Linux through the Windows VM, but I have not managed to get it working.
I've done it successfully so now I understand a bit better how it works. I could try to use instead https://github.com/bkerler/edl which looks even more complete and reproducible.
I use an old copy of Photoshop CS5 via VMWare and Windows 10 installed in it. Unfortunately the Gimp doesn't have adjustment layers and the Selective Color feature. I can't live without these two features, I need them on each and every scan of my paintings to fix colors.
notepad++ with textfx edit, textfx tools, and hex editor. I've tried a lot of other things and it is still my favorite.
I don't actually use it for coding, but I often have to futz with files received from customers/QA or test data that I create.
I have mac for work and have been mostly hating BBedit. I keep meaning to try Cate and I guess the folks that made Atom just released something new.
Edit: just remembered: I did try Cate but had really weird UI issues using any dark themes (menus, etc. all became unreadable) and gave up.
I've been a Linux user for a long time. I started to use a lot of open source free software alternatives because of this, and most of them had Windows binaries.
But I always had a dual boot system only for gaming purposes.
So... I can't think of any software other than games that's educated la Windows only.
I wanted to do some stress testing on a gaming laptop a while ago and many people recommended OCCT. The laptop was still running Windows at the time, so I tried it and it seems like a good tool. It tests the CPU, RAM, GPU and power supply. I wasn't able to find an equivalent in Linux.
Microsoft Word for my resume. I'm not sure what I can do to change that, I don't want to risk a(n accidentally) badly formatted resume losing me an opportunity...
Besides video games, I need no Windows software at all. So far I have successfully played every single game I wanted to play, hundreds of them, ranging from small independent titles to AAA features without resorting to Windows. While I am aware that online play can be a problem on GNU/Linux, I don't do online gaming. Sometimes, especially in the past, I may have to come up with some serious tinkering to enjoy a flawless experience, but ultimately I have never failed to run a Windows game on GNU/Linux as if it was a native title.
There are none, thankfully. Neither work or home. Last things I've had to emulate were probably done diagnostic or update sw for cars and some ide bundled compiler horror for some old and obscure microcontroller.
Apple is Apple so they impose dumb restrictions on the web client like any other streaming platform (and Cider is just a fancy frontend for this), so I have a Windows VM so I get the full experience.
And for MusicBee? Well, the Linux music player situation is... bad, to say the least. There is basically nothing like MusicBee in the Linux ecosystem right now. And every time I went to Reddit to see what people are going to, it's people who are not 100% satisfied with the alternative or Linux users gaslighting them into thinking MusicBee sucks and Their Choice is the Better One. I've tried other players and none of them scratch the itch for MusicBee for me. Quod Libet comes close with its queries, and Tauon looks gorgeous, but I had performance issues with QL for what I wanted it for, and I had issues with Tauon's playlist filtering. And as for WINE? Performance is slow, CJK characters don't show up, and tab dragging results in errors due to WINE not having implemented the functions for it to work. I'm happy to keep a Windows VM for MusicBee.