Linux discussion
- Thread starter Grzesiek11
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MagicalMiku made this overview for people looking into it in another thread. As someone who has used Linux for years, I think it's pretty good:
In the same thread, Vector mentions VST compatibility:
Ardour and Waveform are other DAWs not mentioned yet that have Linux builds.
I have a correction as to this part:Except Vocaloid5, all the other Vocaloid engines work perfectly on Wine, in fact they are ranked as "Platinum" on the application database:
https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=13074
Probably Vocaloid 5 is working too (I should test it when I have some freetime), since the tests published on the appdb website are based on a very old Wine version (4.8, released about 7 years ago), and with Wine 10 and the new Wine 11, lots of improvements have been made in terms of performance and compatibility for programs and games.
Also the MMD editor and Piapro Studio NT work so well! And OpenUTAU has native Linux version.
For audio editing software, LMMS is open source, Audacity too, then FLStudio works too, while Cubase depends on the version/plugins (but my version of Cubase LE with Miku NT2 works perfect).
You can search on the appdb the software/game title you're interested about:
https://appdb.winehq.org/
If you don't find it, probably nobody has made an entry about it yet, but that doesn't mean that is not working. And when you see some results based on very old Wine versions (like the Vocaloid 5), it's still possible that now the software is working.
There is also Protondb website, which is similar, but is about Proton game compatibility layer (which is a modified Wine with some tweaks by Valve, then usually those tweaks are added on Wine too):
https://www.protondb.com/
If you're an Apple user, you might have heard of Rosetta compatibility layer for their arm-based Mac: yes, that's based on Wine too.
Anti-cheat issues, that really depends on the software house, but recently Electronic Arts said that they'll support Linux too for their anti-cheat in the next months.
The problem with Windows is that is getting worse, and worse, everyday. Linux is getting better, and I know that probably it'll never have 100% compatibility (especially with some software heavy on DRM or like Adobe), but using it just feels better. I have 1 pc with Windows 10 and 1 pc with Linux, and I use the one with Linux more and more.
I can recommend a few things: if you want to try Linux with your software, try it on a different computer. Find a cheap old one, so you can experiment anything with it, or install it on an external ssd/hdd usb. Never do a dual boot with Windows on the same drive, there are always issues.
You can try Debian, Ubuntu Studio or Fedora:
https://www.debian.org/distrib/
https://ubuntustudio.org/tour/audio/
https://fedoraproject.org/
https://fedoraproject.org/spins/
How to make a bootable/live usb pendrive to try and install Linux:
https://pendrivelinux.com/
And you can watch some videos of Distrotube and Linux Cast to learn more, they are very good nerds! hehe
https://www.youtube.com/@DistroTube
https://www.youtube.com/@TheLinuxCast
Rosetta has nothing to do with Windows software, it is a compatibility layer for x86-64 macOS software. Wine can be used for Windows software on macOS though (it works for any unix OS, not only Linux, and macOS is an unix OS), and with Rosetta for specifically x86-64 Windows software, so maybe you got it confused with that.
In the same thread, Vector mentions VST compatibility:
You can run Windows VSTs via Wine on native Linux DAWs with yabridge, but yeah, it does depend as with any Windows software. It's best to just see for yourself I guess.
Ardour and Waveform are other DAWs not mentioned yet that have Linux builds.
Thank you for making the thread, and also quoting my words, I appreciated that!
I would like to add some other suggestions:
- DistroWatch:
https://distrowatch.com/
There are many kinds of Linux distributions ("distros"), but 90% of them are based on Debian (like Ubuntu), Fedora and Arch (like SteamOS). The website Distrowatch is a very great resource to check the various distributions available, with lots of information, screenshots, reviews and much more.
- Wine:
https://www.winehq.org/
Official website of Wine, which is the translation layer for running Windows applications and games on Linux. It is even able to run programs from Windows 3.11 era. On the main page you can check both latest stable and development version of Wine. Stable is the most recommended, but you might need to download the latest development if you're having issues with some software. A new development version is released about every 2~3 weeks.
- CrossOver:
https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover
It is the paid version of Wine, made by CodeWeavers, the same team behind Wine (since 1994). Available both for Mac and Linux, it offers a slightly better interface, settings and compatibility compared to Wine. A free trial (fully-functional 14 days) is available for the download.
- Virtual Machine:
https://www.virtualbox.org/
https://www.qemu.org/
In the case a Windows software you're trying to run on Linux with Wine or CrossOver doesn't run at all (or has lots of issues), you might try to run a virtual machine on your Linux setup with VirtualBox or QEMU. After creating a virtual machine (you can choose how many CPU cores, how much RAM and HDD space), you can install Windows like a normal installation with a ISO image.
You can download official ISO of Windows 10 and Windows 11 from Microsoft website:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
If you need to run Windows XP in the virtual machine, you can download the XP 2009 evaluation ISO (120 days) from Microsoft website:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11196
- ReactOS Project:
https://reactos.org/
ReactOS is a reverse engineered operative system that aims to be a free, open-source alternative to Windows. Currently, its kernel is reporting NT 5.2 (which is for Windows XP applications and games), but in development there is a new kernel for support of Windows 7+ software. You need to run it into a virtual machine, and is good for trying to run some software made during Windows XP, like Vocaloid 2.
Here is a video demonstration about ReactOS (from the video channel ExplainingComputers, which I recommend):
I would like to add some other suggestions:
- DistroWatch:
https://distrowatch.com/
There are many kinds of Linux distributions ("distros"), but 90% of them are based on Debian (like Ubuntu), Fedora and Arch (like SteamOS). The website Distrowatch is a very great resource to check the various distributions available, with lots of information, screenshots, reviews and much more.
- Wine:
https://www.winehq.org/
Official website of Wine, which is the translation layer for running Windows applications and games on Linux. It is even able to run programs from Windows 3.11 era. On the main page you can check both latest stable and development version of Wine. Stable is the most recommended, but you might need to download the latest development if you're having issues with some software. A new development version is released about every 2~3 weeks.
- CrossOver:
https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover
It is the paid version of Wine, made by CodeWeavers, the same team behind Wine (since 1994). Available both for Mac and Linux, it offers a slightly better interface, settings and compatibility compared to Wine. A free trial (fully-functional 14 days) is available for the download.
- Virtual Machine:
https://www.virtualbox.org/
https://www.qemu.org/
In the case a Windows software you're trying to run on Linux with Wine or CrossOver doesn't run at all (or has lots of issues), you might try to run a virtual machine on your Linux setup with VirtualBox or QEMU. After creating a virtual machine (you can choose how many CPU cores, how much RAM and HDD space), you can install Windows like a normal installation with a ISO image.
You can download official ISO of Windows 10 and Windows 11 from Microsoft website:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
If you need to run Windows XP in the virtual machine, you can download the XP 2009 evaluation ISO (120 days) from Microsoft website:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11196
- ReactOS Project:
https://reactos.org/
ReactOS is a reverse engineered operative system that aims to be a free, open-source alternative to Windows. Currently, its kernel is reporting NT 5.2 (which is for Windows XP applications and games), but in development there is a new kernel for support of Windows 7+ software. You need to run it into a virtual machine, and is good for trying to run some software made during Windows XP, like Vocaloid 2.
Here is a video demonstration about ReactOS (from the video channel ExplainingComputers, which I recommend):
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i want to give a shoutout to winboat. it allows you to run windows software using a virtual machine with remote desktop, making the apps appear native. it's still beta software and a little janky, but theoretically, it should work as a worst-case-scenario when wine doesn't work. so far i've used it with voisona, and it works just fine. you'll want to share your home directory (or a specific directory) to transfer files back and forth from winboat.
brief tutorial on sharing directories:
if you share your home directory this isn't necessary, but i *strongly* recommend sharing a specific directory for security reasons. if you share your home directory, then windows malware can access all of your files.
go into ~/.winboat and open docker-compose.yml with a text editor. scroll down to find the "volumes:" section (not the one at the top!). and write in
then, stop the winboat vm if you haven't already, and go into terminal. type this:
then restart winboat, go to "windows desktop" and there should be a "Shared" shortcut, you should find your files in there
also, sometimes software needs dxvk and/or fsync to run (specifically juce software), which are parts of proton and not included in wine by default. you need a special version of wine like winetkg, or alternatively, just get bottles from flathub and try that.
brief tutorial on sharing directories:
if you share your home directory this isn't necessary, but i *strongly* recommend sharing a specific directory for security reasons. if you share your home directory, then windows malware can access all of your files.
go into ~/.winboat and open docker-compose.yml with a text editor. scroll down to find the "volumes:" section (not the one at the top!). and write in
- /home/myhome/path/to/shared:/shared. replace myhome with your user, and /path/to/shared with whatever directory you want to share. then tack on :/shared at the end.then, stop the winboat vm if you haven't already, and go into terminal. type this:
Code:
cd ~/.winboat
docker compose up && docker compose down -dalso, sometimes software needs dxvk and/or fsync to run (specifically juce software), which are parts of proton and not included in wine by default. you need a special version of wine like winetkg, or alternatively, just get bottles from flathub and try that.
- Application Compatibility:
https://appdb.winehq.org/
https://www.protondb.com/
AppDB and ProtonDB are the main database websites for checking the applications and games compatibility on Linux, using Wine and Proton (which is a modified version of Wine by Valve, with some additional tweaks). The database is made by user-submission, so you can register your entry too. If you don't find the software in the compatibility list, doesn't mean that it doesn't run on Linux. Most likely, there isn't still an entry for it. It's always worth to try with the latest version installed of Wine and Proton.
(Proton is made mostly for games, and you need to install Steam first, then you choose from the menu to add a non-Steam game, and you'll be able to select the setup .exe and the version of Proton compatibility)
My recommendation is, if you're still using Windows, start using open source software for your everyday tasks: use Firefox for browsing the net, GIMP for photo editing, Kdenlive for video editing, VLC for media player. These are just examples, but it's much easier to already know these open source programs before changing operative system, since there are native versions for Linux too, so you don't need any compatibility layer.
For games and proprietary software, you'll need Wine and Proton, and 80-90% of them will work without any issue, sometimes even better. To make some examples, both Vocaloid 2, Vocaloid 4, Piapro NT and MMD Editor work perfectly with Wine, and with the latest development version, also Vocaloid 6 is working well. About the commercial DAW software, it depends on the version. I recommend to try to install first a free trial of the DAW, for example Cubase.
https://www.steinberg.net/cubase/trial/
- Open Gaming Platforms:
https://lutris.net/
- Emulators:
https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page
There are emulators available for basically any system, and almost all of them are available on Linux as native version.
- Desktop Environments:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_environment
https://www.gnome.org/
https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/
http://www.lxde.org/
https://lxqt-project.org/
https://mate-desktop.org/
https://xfce.org/
- Editing the Windows ISO image:
https://ntlite.com/
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/nlite.html
If you need to run Windows in a virtual machine with VirtualBox or QEMU, then it's better to make a custom ISO image first. Why? Because the default installation of Windows has too many pre-installed apps and services that you don't need. The tools I recommend are NTlite (for editing ISO images of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11) and nLite (for editing Windows XP image).
The free version of NTlite is more than enough to make a custom ISO image of Windows that will run much better on the virtual machine, compared to the default one. To make an example, my custom made Windows 10 ISO image size is only 2.6 GB (the default ISO is about 5 GB), its RAM usage is only about 1 GB and the HDD space needed after the installation is less than 8 GB. When you run a virtual machine, you need a custom ISO image for the best performance. Simple and clean.
video demonstration of NTlite (from the channel Tech YES City):
https://appdb.winehq.org/
https://www.protondb.com/
AppDB and ProtonDB are the main database websites for checking the applications and games compatibility on Linux, using Wine and Proton (which is a modified version of Wine by Valve, with some additional tweaks). The database is made by user-submission, so you can register your entry too. If you don't find the software in the compatibility list, doesn't mean that it doesn't run on Linux. Most likely, there isn't still an entry for it. It's always worth to try with the latest version installed of Wine and Proton.
(Proton is made mostly for games, and you need to install Steam first, then you choose from the menu to add a non-Steam game, and you'll be able to select the setup .exe and the version of Proton compatibility)
My recommendation is, if you're still using Windows, start using open source software for your everyday tasks: use Firefox for browsing the net, GIMP for photo editing, Kdenlive for video editing, VLC for media player. These are just examples, but it's much easier to already know these open source programs before changing operative system, since there are native versions for Linux too, so you don't need any compatibility layer.
For games and proprietary software, you'll need Wine and Proton, and 80-90% of them will work without any issue, sometimes even better. To make some examples, both Vocaloid 2, Vocaloid 4, Piapro NT and MMD Editor work perfectly with Wine, and with the latest development version, also Vocaloid 6 is working well. About the commercial DAW software, it depends on the version. I recommend to try to install first a free trial of the DAW, for example Cubase.
https://www.steinberg.net/cubase/trial/
- Open Gaming Platforms:
https://lutris.net/
https://usebottles.com/
video demonstration of how to use Bottles (from The Linux Cast):
- Emulators:
https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page
There are emulators available for basically any system, and almost all of them are available on Linux as native version.
- Desktop Environments:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_environment
from the ArchWiki:
The most common used Desktop Environments:
https://www.gnome.org/
https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/
http://www.lxde.org/
https://lxqt-project.org/
https://mate-desktop.org/
https://xfce.org/
- Editing the Windows ISO image:
https://ntlite.com/
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/nlite.html
If you need to run Windows in a virtual machine with VirtualBox or QEMU, then it's better to make a custom ISO image first. Why? Because the default installation of Windows has too many pre-installed apps and services that you don't need. The tools I recommend are NTlite (for editing ISO images of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11) and nLite (for editing Windows XP image).
The free version of NTlite is more than enough to make a custom ISO image of Windows that will run much better on the virtual machine, compared to the default one. To make an example, my custom made Windows 10 ISO image size is only 2.6 GB (the default ISO is about 5 GB), its RAM usage is only about 1 GB and the HDD space needed after the installation is less than 8 GB. When you run a virtual machine, you need a custom ISO image for the best performance. Simple and clean.
video demonstration of NTlite (from the channel Tech YES City):