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?

  • Kabe@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Foobar2000.

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

      • Kabe@lemmy.world
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        8 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.

    • circuitfarmer@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • Kabe@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I haven’t had much luck installing via wine or bottles at all. Hasn’t ever worked properly for me. I’m not bothered enough to install the Snap either, lol.

        I have a Windows VM that I run it in instead, please deadbeef is good enough for my Linux system.

    • soratoyuki@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • Kabe@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Tell me about it.

        I also use deadbeef because of the plug-in support, although I haven’t experienced much lag myself.

        The media library management definitely doesn’t come anywhere close to FB2K, though, sadly.

        • circuitfarmer@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The media library is the ONE reason I haven’t switched to Deadbeef. Everything else seems close enough.

          Annoyingly, there is apparently an updated Medialib plugin for Deadbeef, but only on the Mac, since the dev is a Mac person.

  • owatnext@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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.

  • TDCN@feddit.dk
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch
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      8 months ago

      You can get Fusion360 to work okay-ish in Wine. Probably not good enough for professional use but for my hobby use case it works well enough (sometimes a bit laggy but usable). this does most of the heavy lifting in getting it installed.

    • Ilgaz@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Unsurprisingly it is the gigantic EA application which breaks Sims 4 most of the times. It crashes, Steam notices non zero exit and gives up.

      EA isn’t so managed so they don’t even reach MS to stop pushing alpha/beta updates to stable version of their apps via Winget. So you can guess how much they will care about Linux issues. I mean Steam guys won’t really hack their binaries to fix it so it is up to them.

  • oaklandnative@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • CubitOom@infosec.pub
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      8 months ago

      Yeah needed it for my monitor. I didn’t want to figure out USB passthrough so I just installed Windows on a > 50,000 powered on hours HDD and booted from that. Then once I was done I put it about as far away as I could from my PC.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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        8 months ago

        USB passthough is a single click for future reference. Just make sure you install virtio from the fedora project for windows VMs

  • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • TDCN@feddit.dk
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      8 months ago

      I hate to be a widows advocate but they do keep improving the online version all the time so if you have not tried it in a long while maybe try again to see if some of the issues have been fixed. I feel like it gets better and better every time I (accidentally) open documents in the browser. It’s still crap in general but that’s more of a general word thing.

  • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 months ago

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

    • MakeMKV1: For ripping DVDs & Blurays
    • Bulk Rename UtilityFor bulk-renaming files
    • Exact Audio CopyFor accurately ripping audio CDs
    • Logitech G Hub2: *For controlling peripherals’ LED profiles & DPI presets
    • Mp3tag3: 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).
    • Playnite4: 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.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • luci_tired@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.org
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        8 months ago

        Have you tried Strawberry? It’s not gonna be a foobar replacement, but I’ve found it very capable.

      • Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi
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        8 months ago

        How’s performance on MusicBee for you? Mine is slow for the components (AMD 7900XT/Ryzen 7950X), but I suspect it might be because of the high resolution album artwork (1200x1200).

        • luci_tired@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I haven’t noticed any performance issues (2070 Super/Ryzen 3600). I dont have that many plugins though.

  • andreas@lemmy.korfmann.xyz
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    8 months ago

    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).

    • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      I found photoGIMP helped a bit on the UI aspect, but it still does have a lot of weird quirks that are just easier on photoshop

      • andreas@lemmy.korfmann.xyz
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        8 months ago

        thanks, I’ll check out photoGIMP. been trying desperately to make GIMP work as I wanna ditch Windows before they stop supporting 10, sooner if I can. I made the switch on everything else already.

  • leopold@lemmy.kde.social
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    8 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

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    8 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.

  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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    8 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.

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    8 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.

  • spacebanana@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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