Making the move to Linux Mint

Author	Message
Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: Australia Posts: 1126	Posted: 12:29am 04 May 2026       Interesting Grogs Reformatted so I could read it. Lines tooooo long on my browsers   Grogster said   I feel your pain, Glenn..... I had similar experiences with Linux during my testing of various versions before I settled on Mint. Basically, what it comes down to is this: If you NEED or HAVE to run a Windoze application, then stay on Windoze. Wine and PlayOnLinux are not stable, I have found, when trying to run my Windoze-only CAD software.  Running a VM Windoze inside of Linux worked fine with my CAD software, but there were - at the time anyway - issues with trying to print to the Linux printer from inside the VM.  It never worked right. So, if you absolutely have to run a Windoze-only software, Linux is not for you, despite the existence of VM's, WINE and PlayOnLinux and WinBoat apps etc.   If you have to run a VM Windoze inside Linux to run your Windoze-only software, th en why not just use Windoze. Linux is brilliant, if you are prepared to move to, and use Linux-versions of any software that exists, and many softwares do both Windoze and Linux ports of their programs - Handbrake video trans-coder, for example,  Opera and Firefox web browsers etc.  Gwenview for images, ytDownloader for downloading YT videos.   GFXterm have both Windoze and Linux ports, as do STM32CUBE programmer, MMEDIT IDE, VLC and Kodi media players. But there are still plenty of Windoze-only softwares that DON'T have Linux ports, and to run them inside Linux, you are - IMHO - asking for trouble. I speak from experience. So, how did I get around my Windoze-only CAD software problem then? I use an old Windoze-8 64-bit Pro laptop, and have all my Windoze-only CAD running on that. This Win8 machine is not connected to the internet, and it's only purpose in life, is to run the CAD software.   I use a 4x4 USB switch thing, to switch the keyboard, mouse and printer between the Win8 laptop, and the Linux Mint machine, so I can swap them between machines at the simple push of a button. This works brilliantly - for ME.  But I have tried and tried to get Windoze-only software to work inside Linux MANY time, and it generally ends up in me tearing my hair out.   YES - those softwares DO work fine in a VM inside of Linux, but if you have to setup a full Windoze in a VM under Linux to run them.... ...then why not just use a dedicated Windoze machine for those things and be done with the stress.   My Win8 Pro machine only has 4GB of RAM and a dual-core Atom CPU, so it is VERY SLOW by today's standards, but when running all my CAD, only uses about 1GB of that RAM, and is fast enough for my purposes.   The laptop was destined for the dump(cos it could not run Win10 etc - not grunty enough), so I got it for free, and it is perfect for doing my CAD stuff. That's my 2c anyway, and how I have things setup now.  I still use my Linux Mint machine with dual-LCD's for everything else though, and it just goes and goes and goes. Rant over.