Depends on the program.

• Games: Proton works well 99% of the time.
• Office: I use LibreOffice as much as possible. At work, I use the Web version of MS Office; it doesn't have all features of the desktop version but it's good enough for my use case.
• Media editing (music, image, video): GIMP, Krita, Kdenlive and Ardour are more than enough for my personal use.

In general, I would recommend trying the Linux alternative, and if it's not good enough, use a Windows VM or dual-boot. If you spend 90% of your time in Photoshop or any other professional software without a Linux version or feature-complete alternative, you should stay on Windows, and maybe use Linux only when you're not working.

Unless you have very specialized requirements (and quite possibly you do) the solution is usually to unhook yourself from thinking of needing specific programs and to instead focus on needing to perform specific tasks. (Then finding the Linux way to perform that task.)

Barring that, the codeweavers suggestion is a good one. I used it in my early days when I thought I couldn't live without particular pieces of Windows software and although that was several years ago, even then it was pretty good about being able to easily run arbitrary Windows software. IMO it's cheap enough to be worth the investment.

If you truly have bespoke requirements that just can't be satisfied by either of the above, staying on Windows may legitimately be your best option.

More generally - if you decide to take this step, expect to have to learn to use a computer substantially differently than you have in the past. It's not harder; in many ways it's easier. But if you are very experienced and comfortable with Windows, a lot of concepts are going to feel foreign to you. Tackle one task at a time and your experiences will build upon each other. Go into it expecting to have to learn, and you'll do fine. Bizarrely I find the least tech-savvy folks sometimes have the easiest time transitioning.

Use an alternative, or

Use Wine/Proton, or

Use a web app if it exists, or

Run Windows in a VM.

For me, the first 3 options covers 99.9% of my usage. It's been a long time since I had to worry about installing Windows in a VM.

But to be fair, my requirements to use Windows software are very limited and non-critical. If:

A lot of programs I work with very often are Windows-exclusive

...then I would certainly consider keeping a Windows laptop around. Right tool for the job and all that.

Well you can't really use something not useful to you. Yes Linux is very nice but at the end of the day you gotta use the thing that gets the job done.

You're no more stuck with Windows than a Mac user is stuck on a Mac.

If they are Windows exclusive then your best bet is to simply run Windows in a virtual machine inside Linux and run the applications from there.

Can you give us specific examples of the programs you use, and what you use them for?

I switched to Linux from Windows 3.11 because Microsoft software didn't do what it was supposed to.

My method is that I don't even know what's available for Windows, so I don't miss it at all. The opposite isn't true though, and time spent in a Microsoft environment can quickly become painful.

My only regular contact with Windows is the Steam partition which hasn't been used for quite some time. I have a laptop that has a small win11 partition that I boot every now and then to see what they're up to these days.

However, in the end, the only real answer is that if you really need a piece of software, you just run whatever system that supports it. It's not a religion, you use whatever is convenient for you at a given time.

When I needed Windows for a piece of software, I ran Windows on another computer. Later I got into a position where I didn't need to use that software. 😁

My approach has been to slowly learn how to play to the strengths of Linux and not pine after anything on Windows because ultimately I've gained a lot more than I've lost.

The one piece of software I haven't been able to avoid keeping around is Sigma Studio, so I have a 10 year old shit top for running it, but it also runs in a VM if I need it. Thankfully I only need to use it once or twice a year.

If you rely on multiple pieces of software for important everyday activities and they aren't usable in wine or a VM, you probably have no choice but to use the operating system that is the best vehicle for those tools. Doesn't stop you from also using linux for other stuff, but I can understand how that's not the same as going all in.

Any company that doesn't support Linux doesn't deserve my patronage.

Libre Office completely takes care of my Office needs.

1. Use alternative that is FLOSS
2. Use alternative in the browser
3. Try WINE/Proton
4. Use Windows VM
5. Use dedicated Windows machine

We ignore them, mostly. You cannot miss what you don't know.

There are plenty of options however to access software not available natively. Both VMs and Remote Desktop solution work for a wide range applications. Web-based solution can be as good as desktop programs.

So many casual applications are now either web-based or on your (not FOSS) phone, so for my personal use the thought of using Windows has never crossed my mind. Professionally, I resort to remote Windows or a Mac.

I'd say make a wholehearted attempt to try open alternatives even if you stay on Windows for the time being. I had been doing so for a few years before I even considered Linux and by the time I finally did switch the transition was a lot smoother.

That being said I've been surprised by how much stuff actually does run under WINE!

It would be easier if you told us specifically what programs you need that aren't supported.

Web apps (for MS Office/Teams), Wine (mostly for games and random apps), and for everything else, an optimized Tiny11 Core VM + WinApps for seamless windows/integration with Linux. My Tiny11 only uses 0-1% CPU and 600MB RAM on idle so I've got no issues running it in the background, besides it takes only a couple of seconds to launch, if I wanted to start it on demand.

I've also got a portable SSD with a copy of Windows installed on it, just in case I need it for some firmware updates or something (although I'm on a Thinkpad so pretty much everything can be updated via LVFS, but I keep it around just in case + it's portable so there's no harm in having it around).

The same thing I’ve always done - booted another OS that works with that software. No need to artificially limit yourself.

Once upon a time I remember running Dos, windows, os2 warp, and linux on one hard drive. Those were the days…. Ya ya, I’m going back to my retirement home bedroom…

There are numerous ways to deal with it, depending on the specific application and use-case. For some, there's an open-source alternative that, while not 100% similar in every aspect imaginable, does offer basically the same functionality (LibreOffice for MS Office Suite, Thunderbird for various email clients, Firefox or just Chromium for Google Chrome). For others, you can use an emulator (WINE, for example). For games specifically, Steam offers an emulator that works for most games (Proton); in fact, all the games I've tried worked. Then, there's the very last option, which is using a virtual Windows machine within Linux. I mention it last because I honestly haven't found many cases where I absolutely needed to do this, and because the set-up is rather "involved", shall we say. But if you're using Adobe Suite stuff then, yeah, you basically got no choice there.

Would you mind listing some of the essential programs that you use so we can get a better idea what your workflow is?

It would be nice if you say in the post which apps are those that hold you. People would be able to suggest solutions.

I generally just avoid it, otherwise I use it on windows, I still use dual boot with windows and Linux, will probably stop after w10 stops getting security updates since I don't really care all that much about windows specific stuff

I either find an alternative or use it under Wine-GE

I already used open source programs on Windows. The programs I'm using to do all my work with are Krita, Blender 3D, Gimp, and Libre Office.

They either started out on Linux or support Linux natively, so switching to Linux didn't really change any of the programs I use. The biggest change is playing games, but Valve has made it very pain free.

Lots of Linux-only software too

If you must and you have the hardware maybe run Windows in a VM just for those applications. You can even suspend the vm state to resume from where you were.

Native>wine>pwa>VM

My win11 VM sits on my disk, most days it stays off. It starts in 30 seconds and I use remina to remote into it. It sucks that I lose 60gb of disk, but it's fast and everything just works.

We use Google docs at work so that's an easy win.

Outlook's Progressive web app is 99% awesome.

Without knowing the exact programs, you can only get general answers.

If there is no direct alternative program, you can change your workflow to use other programs. Or you can try to run those important programs in wine. Or i can run those in a terminal server, or via a windows vm. Or more lately many programs come in web versions that works for everyone.

I have used linux exclusivly on my daily driver for about 23ish years.i mostly work with the linux side of things. And the few windows things the company require i use web versions, or a windows vm.

Depends. Steam and Proton handles most games and if not, I'll check Lutris. FWIW, some games like Doom and RollerCoaster Tycoon (the Sawyer, 2D era) have open-source remakes that work on modern machines.

For regular software, I will try it in WINE and if it provides a good enough experience for daily use, I'll keep it there. If it doesn't, for any reason, I'll stick it in a Windows VM. For instance, Exact Audio Copy will work fine in WINE provided you get .NET 3.5 installed for the MusicBrainz metadata plugin, but MusicBee has severe enough problems (font redirection problems, lag when scrolling, can't drag tabs) for me that I just use it in a virtual machine or another PC. (I actually have another rig I'm considering using as a "jukebox" machine, since I have macOS on it and use it for Apple Music, so I'm compartmentalising my music to one machine if that makes sense)

Dualboot. Use windows only with the things that need windows (ie CADs) and linux for everything else.

One of my computers has windows on one of the ssds because I have to use windows for work software once every week or so for about 20-30 minutes and there are a few other windows programs that I need to use occasionally.

Basically I use Windows for a couple of hours a month and Linux the rest of the time.

I'm not sure which programs you're using so hopefully something here can help but here's some stuff I've read/done:

• For MS Office, I believe you can just use it in your web browser or use LibreOffice as an alternative.
• If you use anything Adobe-based, you'll probably have to keep a Windows partition around or find an alternative. I haven't seen anything for running Adobe in WINE or WINE-based tools and I'm not sure if Adobe functions in a virtual machine or not.
• Most gaming-related issues can be dealt with via Proton (Steam's compatibility tool). I've successfully gotten just about every game I play to run in Proton, with the only issues being EA's launcher (the game still launches though).

If you have any specific programs that you have questions about, feel free to ask. Hope this helps!

Try WINE. Raise issue with devs. Or just decide not to use it.