Linux users what do you still need windows for?

_TubbZ_ · 13 Feb 2010 at 01:08

Hello,

I am thinking about moving to linux for a while as i need to improve my knowledge of linux for work and i was just wondering what people here who use linux still needs/use windows for?

I personally have a decent gaming rig but just don't play games much so i guess that won't be a mayor concern but the likes of photoshop i think i will miss after 4 years of use near constant use (and to be fair gimp just sucks and is != to PS) and for Development Visual studio with c# as its just nice and comes with an amazing forms developer and debugger.

But other than that why the hell not?

UncertainGod · 13 Feb 2010 at 01:18

You just listed all the reasons, there might be a couple of other programs you will miss but on the whole I've often preferred the OSS software I've found to replace things.

tntcoder · 13 Feb 2010 at 01:22

The one and only thing I use Windows for is gaming, easy to do on a dual boot.

Bit of a lie, I use MS Office & Visual Studio in a Windows virtual machine under Linux. For any non-gaming applications, a VM is a perfect way to use Windows apps from inside your Linux OS.

BigglesPiP · 13 Feb 2010 at 02:33

To play games properly, to use the occasional piece of software Uni uses.

steve-h · 13 Feb 2010 at 09:12

Gaming and visual studio, sony vegas

FirebarUK · 13 Feb 2010 at 09:21

Games and that's it.

accod · 13 Feb 2010 at 10:18

Games. A bit of video editing too - I've found the linux video editors aren't quite there yet.

Edward78 · 13 Feb 2010 at 16:21

FirebarUK said:
Games and that's it.

Roland0 · 13 Feb 2010 at 16:31

Games, thats the only reason. Any other windows stuff can go in a VM.

masterluke · 13 Feb 2010 at 16:42

skype - i just cant get decent audio cancellation out of it on linux for video calls, i get constant echo. Only reason I have a windows partition now.

.walls · 13 Feb 2010 at 21:08

work, unfortunately as it's Wintel on the desktop/laptop. Trying to get a corporate build VM so that I can run my laptop on "insert distro of the month here" and run the Wintel apps that I need (Outlook, bespoke Wintel apps, etc) seamlessly in virtualbox. Not been getting very far though

psd99 · 13 Feb 2010 at 21:11

games, decent TV software that will actually work and

Football Manager (good enough to be another reason)

JonJ678 · 13 Feb 2010 at 22:24

Solid edge, ansys, autocad. Skype until recently. but the beta seems to be behaving itself at last.

I also put ms office in a virtual machine occasionally, though openoffice / gedit are often good enough really.

accod · 15 Feb 2010 at 12:06

psd99 said:
games, decent TV software that will actually work

Have you tried mythtv? It needs a bit of time configuring but does work very well.

UncleBensSauce · 15 Feb 2010 at 15:24

Visual Studio for c# + Games

Blender and Gimp are fine for me on Linux - and Linux is a very good dev platform (if your not .net dependent)

craptakular · 15 Feb 2010 at 15:43

games, thats it.

3dcandy · 15 Feb 2010 at 15:51

games, audio stuff (vsti's and Ableton Live Suite), Adobe CS4 (doesn't seem to work very well emulated for me!) and video editing/photo editing as Lightroom is my fave at moment...

Got a Linux server which just sits under the stairs, like Harry Potter (without owl etc.) and has a real old moose and keyboard connected for occasions when nothing else works...

Ohh and forgot, my laptop has to have Windows on it, because when we go out and about, the wife and son can't complain!!!

PermaBanned · 15 Feb 2010 at 15:56

I asked myself that a few months ago, then i realised that i hadn't used Windows 7 for about an hour since it was released so i uninstalled it. I'm happy gaming with TF2 in Wine, Nexuiz, Warsow a few others and of course my 360

Dj_Jestar · 15 Feb 2010 at 16:03

I might as well leave this in my Copy/Paste..

Games, iTunes and developing for Windows.

MotherMayI · 15 Feb 2010 at 16:34

Games.

Also, OpenOffice doesnt cut it compared to MS Office yet.