What I need is hardware drivers for linux, scanners, printers and USB-devices.
I also have a wish for better movie making/editing programs (DVD-Author) and programs to make flash animations (Ktoon, f4l).

I almost change completely to linux on my laptop, but I use a lot Dialpad to call my family and friends in another countried, so far I have heard that it doesnt work on Linux not even with wine so if some1 knows the contrary it will help finally to leave windows behind.

another software that I used is Tell Me More, a language lerned software and the same, i cant make it run with wine, i heard people that is working with wine over the wine web page that they dont explain very well how to do this, so I will appreciatte any help.

I've never had much luck running Windows apps in Linux. For this reason, I run a multiboot system with WinXP, Mandrake 10, and Fedora. I'm sure there are lots of other newbies like me who just can't quite seem to get windows apps to run properly, if at all. If I were able to get them to run, I wouldn't have the need to run a Windows system at all.

I have a T41 with the built in a\b\g wireless and I love how we ll its integrated with my WinXp Pro partition. Whether it is the f=unction keys that enable\disable the radio the quick easy set up utils etc.

I was hoping all these features would somehow be replicated with my Linux install (currently FC4), but NO Luck I have to resort to a PC Card.

IBM is so pro Linux these days I though they would have a linux version of these features or even dev drivers for the wireless card.

I develop intranet web sites for a living, and all my clients use Internet Explorer. Unfortunately CSS does not look the same in Firefox and IE, so I have to have IE to test on. That's all I need it for!

Well, occasionally I go to a lan-party and need support for the latest games. I keep a tiny windows partition around just for that, that I use about one night every other month. The trauma of the experience costs me a bundle in therapy.

I run a school's network & the students, particularly the lower-school kids, need to be able to run such Win32 classics as Reading Blaster, Mavis Beacon, etc. I don't have budget (CodeWeavers) or time to make them run in Wine, so we're back to Win2K or - gasp! - Win98.

OK, I might be encouraged to try, that is, if the latest versions of Desktop Linux seemed more practical to run at my school, but so far I've been running into hurdles.

It seems like featuritis & bloat have overshadowed functional usability. Mostly I'm talking about KDE.

I've been testing the various desktop distros for our school's use. The latest version of Xandros is a lumbering behemoth on our Dell GX 270's (512 MB RAM, 2.4 Ghz), the previous version was faster, nimbler. The latest version of PCLinuxOS, admittedly still in beta, runs slower off the CD than the prior version, and *STILL* insisted on installing to only /hda1. SuSE was long set aside as being too slow & irritated me for not offering the choice to install IceWM or xFce. I'll try CentOS & Fedora Core soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

In all my evaluations thus far, Linspire and Mandrake seem to be foremost amongst the commercial distros who are keeping mindful of total usability - speed, options, hardware detection. The Slackware variants Vector SOHO, Stux & Slax score very highly: Stux & Slax did particulary well on detecting various onboard video & sound video chipsets and setting up X properly.

I have a fleet of Dell GX-1's, upgraded to 550 Mhz PIII's. With a paltry 64 MB RAM, they run Windows 2000 ably. With 128 MB RAM, they are decent student workstations. These are well-known VLSI'd motherboards, with known chipsets, etc. But with the recent desktop Linux distros I've had weird and uneven results even getting the installs to work: They don't recognize the chipsets, they trash horridly on loading their initrd into 128 MB! So far it appears that unless I am using a Slackware variant or a distro like Feather, Puppy or Damn Small even 128 MB RAM isn't reliably enough, that 192 MB RAM is entry-level for some of the distros I've tried.

I'm really confused by the state of Desktop Linux. It appears to me that to be consistent with FLOSS contention that the distro makers (including the commercial vendors) would continue to ensure that they offer a choice to users of modest systems. That would mean, then, that the bloat has got to stop. But instaed I get the feeling that the Desktop Linux crowd sees themselves as being in a race with Apple & Micro$oft to create silly looking GUIs. Why? Is this being fueled by boys (of all ages) who want transparent X-Terms and bouncing mouse pointers (you know who you are...)?

Man, this doesn't bode well for my school adopting any free Linux distro on the desktop this year. In 1999 I ran RedHat Linux 5.x on a Compaq P-II 233 with 64 MB RAM, with some version of KDE. I ran 10 FVWM2 virtual desktop sessions on it, no problem. It was slicker than snot on a doorpost. It detected my video card, sound card and wheel mouse just fine. So now what? Do I have to go dig up some old version of RHL for my school to play? Where will that leave me with compatibility on more recent KDE apps? Oh no, I ain't headed towards RPM dependency-hell, not even on building a template system, I don't have time for *THAT*.

I don't run an OS for the experience of looking at the OS, I run an OS to run applications - useful ones that can have all the eyecandy the app vendor chooses. The OS needs to stay the heck out of the way.

> nohup flames 2>&1 > /dev/null &

/guilano

I don't need to run any win apps. But My kids do at times and we have a great time MAKING them work with wine. I make like the win app is screeming and begging not to be wined lol.. it's fun. "NO NO please don't do this to me! I'm telling Bill!!"

Right now the only thing I need linux to run, thats windows is games!

I have several Windows apps that I have to use for business compatability reasons (over which I have no control), but I really could do without Windoze. I would love to find some GPL software that woeuld replace these apps, but so far, no luck. As soon as I do find them, though, I'm leaving the 'doze behind.

No, during sometimes I needed to use Autocad, but nowadays only Linux...
I use Slackware and GoblinX only...

I've learnd to use wine and cedega for gaming and dvd copying only LXdcdrip was ok and various other shell apps but for my mom I need dvdshrink til linux gets a ferrw good gui remastering tools.. but for the most part I have the cross reference for you all on a gazzette page for finding a opensource alernative o your windows pprograms
http://www.linuxgazette.com/node/386

I need WINE to run all my 2d and 3d graphics software, the biggest ones being Paint Shop Pro 8, Bryce 5 and photoshop because WINE doesn't run PSP8.

I have tried both the GIMP and Blender, but they both suck.
If anyone has any suggestions for other 2d or 3d graphics apps, I'd like to hear them.

Yes

I need a windows interface so that my pc can be infected with viruses.

Since moving to linux, I have been having withdrawals.

There is nothing like a good trojan virus to make your day fun and exciting :)

And my BSOD's are gone. When is linux going to grow up and get a blue screen of death?

This linux stuff is too stable for me, too stable.

I never needed a win application to run in Linux because i am a newbie and i dont know much about using linux.
But i want programms like Xmms to be part of LINUX as they are similar to the program in Windows ( Winamp ).
there should be alternate programs for windows applications.

The answer to this question ultimately depends on whether there is a need for applications, primarily commercial apps, that the vendors don't make a Linux version of. Two good examples of this are Intuit's Quicken and TurboTax products (at least for US users). While there are several native Linux personal finance applications, none match the robust feature set that the Windows applications have. And to date there simply aren't any native Linux tax preparation applications. While one could use one of the web based applications, for a number of reasons many folks prefer not to.

Until vendors of popular commercial application port their products to Linux, there will continue to be a need for many Linux users to run certain applications under Windows (either through the use of a virtual machine or a real one).

I can do everything I have to do with Linux (FC3). However, I have some old Windows programs that I would like to run, one called Teach Me Piano and another called Learn to Speak Spanish. I guess these aren't real important, as I haven't even tried to get them to run with Wine; maybe some day. I do also keep an old Win 98 laptop in the garage to run an engine diagnostic program. These esoterica just aren't being done in Linux yet.

In the last 1.5 years that I have tried to dump MS-Windows but still have to dual boot. There are 2 MS-Windows applications that I have not found a Linux replacement for.

#1 DesignCad 3Dmax 15 - only $96.94 and it will do almost every thing that Autocad will do. I was able to get it to run with CrossOver Office but it had problems.

I just don't understand why Linux developers / programmers have not made a application like this. I started using DesignCad back sometime before 1985, before MS-Windows. A 20 year old 3D CAD program that would run in DOS 2.3 on a XT computer that only had 640K of ram and 20mb hard drive.

AuctionTamer - An Auction management applications for eBay, Yahoo, and other internet auctions. This type of software is a must have for anyone that sells and/or buys more that just a few items on internet auctions sites like eBay.

Millions of people could use Auction management applications like this. It is a great applications for buyers a sellers.

I use these 2 MS-Windows applications to make a living.

Mandriva Linux 10.1 Official Powerpack+ has 8100+ Software Packages. So many Software Packages that do the same thing. So much work duplicated on so many fun things games, music, multimedia, eye candy, different skins. So little work on great applications that will replace the MS-Windows applications needed to make money.

I am so angry at some chipsets with no support,
for example I got a texas intruments acx100
chipset on board a wierless pci nic; Simply Mepis
picks up the card without a problem, whliste the other
distro's it become a drama. I had no success with
my beloved Koppix, and wish they were the same
os... As a result of this type of stuff i will refuse
to purchase any hardware that is not supported
with linux. I dream of on day on the box supported
by linux of all flavours..
Sorry for being a grumpy old tom, I just love linux
and would stoked if it was more user freindly.
I support open source, and linux for nubies as it is an
a brilliant Idea.

thanks for putting up with me ranting

nic

While most everything I need is availible on Linux (FireFox, Thunderbird, MatLab, and OpenOffice) I still need to be able to run Esri GIS products and they went windoze only many years ago.

Hell, if I could get Morrowind to run on Linux, I'd ditch my windows partition in a heartbeat.

Actually, I would really enjoy a video editing suite for linux. That is one major thing I miss. There are some, but I have yet to try them, since they require a 3 Ghz computer.

I would like to be able to run Windows games on Linux, but I don't want to pay for Cedega... As for everything else, I do just fine on Linux. But I primarily use my computer for multimedia production and graphic design...

I would love to completely migrate over to Linux, onlything preventing me at this time is I havn't figured out how to VPN into my main office's VPN Router and Log into the Terminal Server(NT2003 Server) and be able to print back to my Local Lan Printers And connect to Shares on the NT Boxes Through the VPN. Once I have that figured out Then I can make the full jump.......then it's just a matter of making WWIIOL, WoW, EQ2 and any new game that comes my way work under wine.

Quicken, run using wine, but only because you cannot forecast cash flow in gnucash.

I use a digital recorder for research/graduate classes from Sony that uses a Windows application called Memory Stick Voice Editor that allows me to transfer files from the recorder to the pc, edit/play recordings, and save to pc, etc. I checked before purchasing this recorder to see if any of the other Manufacturers/Models supported Linux. There were no other options available.

Hopefully someone will write a native Linux app. that will at least allow me to transfer these files and play the codec that Sony provides for this recorder.

The only thing I really need to run is Visual Basic. Wine does run Visual Basic 6 with a fair amount configuration and other tweaking, but it still isn't 100 percent working (i.e.: Resizing forms causes the form to close...). Lucky for us VB programmers, REALBasic 2005 will be the first major VB-like IDE to run on Gnome/KDE/etc.

The only thing really lacking from many Linux distros is a really good media player. Oh yes, I know about XMMS, Xine, MPlayer, VLC, etc, but if none of them can play my fiancee's The Sims 2 movie captures reliably, that technology isn't mature enough. If Windows Media Player 9 can play her movies on this machine, why can't I do the same with at least one Linux movie player?