After Windows introduces sub system for Linux, I was the under the impression that with support libraries, I would be able to run Windows programs without any hassle. Judging from the replies by the people who have prior experience with Linux, apparently, it's not as straight forward as it seems. Just wanna give Linux a try and if doesn't come through, Windows will always be the last resort.

Thank you for the reply and kind suggestion. Your input is highly appreciated.

 

It's 512 GB SSD. But to the best of my knowledge Linux uses some other file system. NTFS is propriety Microsoft. But it's still doable with either virtual machines or shell wrappers that Windows could be installed into.

Will look into this option too and report back. Thank you for tip. Grateful for your time too.

 

"Works" is a bit ambiguous. "Works for whom?" is the essential question. Certainly the later versions of Windows can be considered to work very well, but not necessarily for the end user. Windows works very well for Microsoft however in that it collects and transfers massive amounts of data on the end users habits and preferences. One could say that Microsoft is no longer in the Operating System business. Their primary source of income comes not from selling software, but from selling the private information of those who use their operating system and other software .... in other words they sell you. You are the product. If you're ok with that then by all means continue using microsoft software. If you are not comfortable using an operating system and other software that betrays you every day then you will want to explore other options.

 

An extremely sound advice. I talked to some people and their casual reaction was that you can run windows programs on Linux via Wine and Winwtricks. I wasn't aware that it's this much complicated and there are numerous compatibility issues. Some distros like Wubuntu promise to facilitate this operation. How far can I go with it will only be answered once its taken for a ride.

Thank you again for taking interest in my thread and providing sound tips. Your contribution is highly appreciated.

 

Zorin OS looks promising. I know where to find the pro version. Thank you

So the only way to install the softwares on Linux is through command line online installations? Can't I do it like I do on Windows, double cliking the exe from the Softwares folder?

It would suck, if that's the only way. Gonna have to find more about this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

 

Isn't Pipewire default audio engine on Latest Ubuntu too?

 

I would just diskpart the new SSD, I'm sure there's some Linux equivalent for it. Currently, trying Linux distros in VMware but would also have to live boot on the target hardware to check for compatibility and availability of drivers.

Thank you for the suggestion, highly appreciated.

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2025 at 10:22 AM

That settles the debate and I just want to move away from Windows. Seems unlikely though. Will report how it went. Thank you for the input and your interest. Will update the thread with whatever resolution it comes down to.

 

If you're intention in switching to Linux is to use it to run Windows programs then I'd say you are barking up the wrong tree. Linux has a huge amount of software you can use that isn't available on Windows. I've been running Linux for about 10 years and there are only a couple Windows programs that I use regularly (Irfanview, ABBYY Finereader and a digital audio workstation) Everything else I run is native to Linux and I'm using them because they offer me a better option and superior functionality. When I do use windows software I can often run it from within Linux using a windows emulator called WINE or a related program called PlayOnLinux. These will often work perfectly for simpler programs but if you want to run complex windows programs you will find it easier to get them running if you install Virtualbox and create a virtual machine upon which you install Windows. I continue to use the latest version of Virtualbox to run a Windows 10 virtual machine. It operates for all intents and purposes like a real windows Desktop.... all of the hardware associated with the virtual machine is also virtual, but functionality is the same as you would see in Windows. The existence of Virtualbox is one of the reasons I felt ok switching over the Linux. Any functionality I could not find in Linux was easy to install in a virtual machine running windows. Over the years I have been finding the functionality I require in Linux and gradually fazing out Windows software.

FYI, I've tried fixes suggested by AI and they have NEVER worked for me. Not once. IMHO, AI is still a long way from being able to provide good advice for Linux questions.

 

Dual boot is a very option in my case to get familiar with the new OS first while keep things moving on the Windows OS but I'm still unsure about this given the file system differences. I'm currently testing in virtual machine. Will only install permanently when I'm sure.

Thank you @clone @DirtyRoots for your sound council. Your help is highly appreciated.

 

I absolutely loved 8.1, back on my desktop PC I had drives with 7, 8.1, 10 and Linux Mint, people seem to hate 8, but it's the best experience I got with Windows ever, maybe it was combo of particular hardware, but it was so solid. Also love Linux Mint Cinnamon, managed to get most of my plugins and setup working there, it reminds me on mixture of macOS and Windows, really solid everyday OS.

Definitely try yabridge, had good experience with most plugins.

In all fairness, my setup is fairly Linux supported, Bitwig and UHe being heavy lifters, so I didn't had much issues bringing Valhalla and few other bits to work on Linux, so essentially I got my setup working on Windows, macOS and Linux. For everyday OS I absolutely love Mint, for music production macOS definitely, having small and powerful laptop as M1 and zero issues really made me appreciate it more.

Happy exploring.

 

I switched from Windows over to Linux about 10 years ago. I can tell you that doing so hurt for a couple years. There is a steep learning curve. Some things that are easy in Windows are very difficult in Linux ... which things will vary depending upon which Linux distribution you are using. Printing was nearly impossible in Debian but works like a charm in Linux Mint .... some programs for Windows (Irfanview, Abbyy Finereader) that I found essential aren't made for Linux so I installed Virtualbox and created a windows virtual machine running Windows 7 and later Windows 10. Creating and using the virtual machine was easy to do despite my desktop being over a decade old. In the past I have used Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora and other distributions of Linux. Currently my primary desktop is running Linux Mint but I am shopping around for a form of linux that does not use systemd or dbus. I won't go into what the terms mean because the subject is a big one and probably too deep for someone just getting into linux.

One tip I can give you regarding Linux Mint is that you need to familiarize yourself with the the numerous ways one can authenticate (log in that is). Some processes that run by default can be used to login to the OS under your profile without any need to provide your login and password to do so. The programs I am referring to are:
gpgagent
sshagent
When you boot your linux mint os the first thing you should do is open up System Monitor, locate and kill those two processes. Unless you have a need to be logging in to your linux mint machine from a remote location, you won't be needing to run them. Killing these two processes will go a long way to securing your machine. I know this from personal experience. You being behind a router with a firewall? Doesn't matter. You running a good firewall in Linux? Doesn't matter. Some process is calling out, I don't know which one or to whom the call goes to. Counterintuitively dbus allows connections from and communication with processes outside of your computer, even outside of your local network. Some folks will say this is nuts. It is a crazy concept. That doesn't mean it's not true. Those who would dispute this claim are welcome to use their favorite search engine to search for "connect to dbus from external ip" (without the quotes) and then STFU.

Another essential step you must take is to familiarize yourself with the default policy settings. You'll find those settings within the .policy files within the folder at:
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/
The policy files are fairly self explanatory but what you'll find within them will defy any explanation. Why any OS would contain policies allowing anybody to run processes on your computer without requiring them to even log in first I can't tell you. I can tell you that changing these policies is easy to do and there are many websites that will show you how to do so.

This post is way too long already so I'll end it here by saying ... the only way to be secure is to know what you are doing. In linux the learning curve is very steep and never ending. If you learn enough you can make your OS secure. It is difficult but it can be done. In Windows this cannot be done. Windows cannot be secured under any circumstances. All of the popups and interruptions thrown up into your face all day are put there to give you the idea that the OS is secure or at least trying to become so. This is all rubbish. It's all fluff trying to inspire you to believe Windows is a secure OS. It is not, nor will it ever be secure. No matter what you do to secure Windows there will still be a gaping hole in Windows security large enough to fly a 747 through. I would tell you the story but as I said this post is too long already. Maybe some other time.

 

That's interesting. It still has some way to go before it can be relied upon. It feels a bit like those driverless cars, where they shouldn't be anywhere near the public, but they're probably perfectly capable on paper... But my experience has sorted out my Linux issues when I've had them. It sometimes takes asking the question again. I also probably have a rapport with it at this point after long conversations - I don't know if that makes any difference but I tend to get there pretty quickly when it doesn't understand me, or its my mistakes (which I often make).

I use GPT. I've been doing a project trying to 'build a pyramid', entirely theoretical and GPT wrote some working code for me, for Arduino. The massive learning curve I would have had to endure to get to the same place, we might be talking years, was done in a few seconds (whilst it calculated). It even drew some blueprints (not very easy to follow, because I'm outside of my field in electronics, but it looked a lot like the other diagrams I've seen, that equally don't make sense to me)... It seems very hit and miss at the moment, but GPT in my experience seems very capable. Grok not so much. Gemini and Facebook are laughable in my experience, but it was a few months ago.

I've had the same experience with the official Linux threads. I can't read any of them, because they can't give a straightforward answer. In my experience GPT gets straight to the point. Sometimes its solutions are based on old versions, so the pages have changed, which can be a headache, but that's exactly the same in the Linux forums, probably where AI quotes from so AI probably isn't at fault if that's where its getting info from... I wish they'd stop messing with menus etc... Another option is to see the quotes that the likes of Grok take info from. I believe you can click on those to see them directly and figure out for yourself where it messed up

Yeah exactly. I think it comes down to rapport... Glad it was useful.

 

I don't consider myself a Linux expert but I can tell you that I found VMware to be difficult .... almost unusable. I admit I didnt really try very hard to make it work because I've been using virtualbox for years and it is easy to use, stable and reliable. I wouldn't bother trying out linux in a virtual box though .... Install Linux Mint as your primary OS, then install Virtualbox in Linux, use it to create a virtual machine and install Windows onto the virtual machine. The windows virtual machine will be virtually indistinguishable from any windows desktop you've ever used. Any functionality you can't find in Linux can easily be created by installing your old favorite windows programs on the windows virtual machine.

 

How viable Linux can be as your daily driver depends on your own ability and willingness to (re)learn, adapt and compromise as much as technical aspects. People who put in thousands of hours praise Linux not (just) because they're affected by sunk cost fallacy or the need to evangelise, but because there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow -> unrivalled customisability, flexibility, privacy and performance.

Don't underestimate how much you will need to learn and re-learn.

If nothing but exactly that one commercial reverb will do for you, then there's no point in exploring Linux further.

 

FYI, I know this post is off topic, but I am compelled to post it anyway.
Reziduchamp I found your reply fascinating though I can't claim that I understood all of it. Clearly I lack the background for the references to programming or engineering. When you mentioned "grok" I immediately assumed you were referring to the original meaning of the word. I'd never heard about a grok AI so I didn't even know that alternative meanings existed. The term originated from a book by Robert Heinlein entitled "Stranger in a Strange Land." To "grok" something was to understand it in it's fullness, to comprehend it in it's entirety. The book was of the Science Fiction genre. It was very popular and had a long lasting cultural impact. An ex girlfriend of mine once met Ram Dass (look him up) and they once met for a chat ... she recalled that after he'd finished a thought he had asked her if she could "grok that." She and I were both pleased to find that we shared an interest with Ram Dass whom we both admired.
Anyway I know I am dating myself in this post. Only someone truly ancient (I am 55) would talk about books they've read. I just wanted to let you know why the grok AI was named as it was. I assumed you probably would have no idea why that name was chosen. It is a clever choice and it is a fitting name for an AI conveying both the ambition of the AI's creators as well as the infinite potential AI is considered to have to "grok" the universe. Some people in the not so distant future will probably assume the term "grok" originated with the AI. That will only happen however, if the AI lives up to it's name.
Ciao for now.

 

I agree entirely. Linux gave me many headaches for the first couple of years I was using it. A lot of the instructions I found purporting to tell you how to do this or do that seemed incomprehensible to me. From my point of view they seemed to be written for those who already knew how to do what I was trying to do. Not knowing how to do what I was trying to do, I found the instructions to be insufficiently instructive. Looking back on the period it's clear that the instructions weren't the problem, I was the problem. The writers of the instructions had assumed the reader possessed a minimal understanding of Linux .... not much at all really, but evidently I was falling short of their assumption. Eventually I managed to acquire the minimal understanding necessary to follow the directions and complete the process successfully. I remember when this happened for the first time. I was elated and understood that I had just passed a milestone and things would only get better for me in the future and it has.... it really has.
So, by all means migrate over to Linux. Don't hesitate, you can do it. Just don't expect it to be easy. It is going to hurt at first. I can't say how long. The difficult period wouldn't have lasted a 10th of the time it did if I had had someone around who could answer my questions. Someone like me now would have been a godsend to the person I was when I first started to use linux. I have offered to help people who were considering going over to linux. Nobody has ever taken me up on my offer. I don't think they had even the slightest idea of the magnitude of what I was offering to them.

 

ᑕ⊕ֆᗰIᑢ I have been looking for a distribution that doesn't use systemd or dbus ... Alpine conforms to those restrictions. Have you used it and if so, did you find it easy to use? I would be interested in any thoughts you had on the subject.

 

That is funny. You've got a remarkable sense of humor. I was chatting on craigslist long ago when someone posted "If you can't trust Microsoft who can you trust?" I replied simply that the ignorance implied in their post was beyond my ability to remedy. In reply to your statement I can only say that one cannot "stick with Windows and avoid problems" because some of the problems one encounters are not bugs. They are features put in place to restrict your choices. Microsoft is slowly restricting what you can do with your computer. They are encroaching upon functionality that you have every right to control yourself. It's YOUR computer. You should be free to do WHAT YOU WANT with it. Microsoft is slowly encroaching upon your right to use your computer as you want. They are asserting ownership rights and it's only going to get worse in the future. Not long from now you won't be able to reinstall an operating system without getting Microsoft's permission. Would this not be a problem for you?

 

That's interesting. I wasn't aware that's where Musk has nicked it from.

I generally agree with the MS stalking thing posted below. I separate my OS'es for this reason, keeping music offline and Linux online. Trusting people with power is lunacy. There's a level we have to endure, but giving them more than that makes no sense. Eventually they'll take it all if the world never pushes back.