Some of the class webpages at my University require IE to work properly.

In addition, I keep Windows around to use Finale, a music notation program. Nothing in Linux remotely comes close to Finale, Sibelius, and the like for Windows and OS X.

In connection with my study I need to run programs such as Reference Manager and ChemOffice. They only run in Windows though I must admit that I haven't tried runing them in Wine etc. - yet! If anyone knows of any linux based software that will do the same job as the two programs above please tell me.

i dont think running win32 apps via wine is insane. all that years of domination by M$ left a big win32-user-base. let the users decide. we have the power and flexibility to let them choose.
choose is a fredom exercise.
wine is amazing.

Get RPG Maker 2003 to work on WINE, and I'll never need Windows again. I'm not a programmer, but I enjoy making games.

If I want to run Windows applications, I use Windows.

I will miss some good quality software on Windows. However, my point in leaving Windows is to leave behind the security issues. I'll welcome Linux/Unix ports of Windows applications but I don't see how you bring the Windows code over without bringing over the Windows security issues.

It is obvious from these posts that there are those who do use the windows and as a group together a weak bunch they are. and then there are those who simply do not, have no need for and would not be seen w/ a windows. this is obiviously a problem because i can think of several applications theses windows users could have used and with determinate rates. part of this windows software on being clung to, i am not able to analyze the success/failures whoever. another problem is compatiblity w/ the windows world as far a file formats go. the mounting problem is the weak distro piles. as you may or may not know intels piler 128 bit doubles and unrolls and inlines everything resulting in code that slides through the processor w/ ky ease. gcc takes a flags for this which they aren't doing. its just -O2. they even choked the kernel off. wtf is sse anyways. whats worse than sse is gcc jumping it. by 4s.

I have been dubbed by my friends as the "King of Free Software." You see when I was using Windows, I knew there had to be a free software program that would do what I wanted.

In short I Googled until I found them, and when I did a software comparison before making that final commitment to a pure linux system, I found that the only programs on my system that I had paid for were the FPS games, SWiSH2 and Windows itself.

Every other piece of software I was using had a freeware version to accomplish what I needed to get done. The funny thing is, that I'm still using a lot of the same programs on Linux.

The best part is that I don't have to have the malware or anti-virus software anymore. I've enjoyed using my computer instead of updating definitions daily.

In regard to the work I do with web development projects, I don't subscribe to the "I need Internet Explorer for testing." axiom. There are so many computers around me with Windows with varying versions of MSIE, that testing isn't an issue.

Summation:
I'd rather use KDE than go back to Windows again (no offense Bill).

I still run Autocad under windows. I haven't tried this with wine etc yet. The functionality that I need is to define a spline curve with end tangents. I have tried various CAD packages for linux but none so far will do this. I would love to have a linux native to do this. I also use Magix Audio Studio and haven't found a linux replacement that works yet.

I remember the feeling of euphoria that I felt after messing about with FIPS and RAWRITE when I first saw something running on my computer that didn't come from Microsoft. No more reinstalls! No more stupid microsoft programs doing thing that I didn't want them to behind my back! That was 4 years ago and the joy has subsided. The reality is that with freedom comes responsibility. If I want to be in control of my own computer (which I do) then I have to learn to control it. This learning process has been a slow and tedious one. You put an evening aside to achive one small task, install a piece of hardware, configure the print system etc. You find a snag. go to deal with that. Trawl around the news group archives or tldp.org looking for answers and a week later you've forgotten what it was that you originally set out to achieve. Meanwhile life goes on and you still need to use your computer to do the kind of day to day things that you Purchased it for in the first place. So you boot up that OS that you hate (but at least you know how to use) and you do the job.

I use Debian Woody and I think that it makes a meal of the init process with to many levels of over complicated scripts with so much commenting that it's hard to see where the actual statements are. I'm not intending to complain, I am still committed to the principle of free software but not everybody has the same patience and we lose a lot of people because of the shear complexity of the process learning to administer GNU Linux.

Why should i waste HDD space on expensive and often very large applications?

I actually think that Linux drives me into doing more productive work then windows that always alures me into games.

I also think that linux applications are very nice and I rather work on linux because it is dificult for me and i like a challenge!!

By biggest issue and the thing that continues to hold be back is that Linux is a a crappy gaming platform. I play FPS and when they are available to Linux its always a song and dance routine to get them to work right. I would like to see some performance comparisons of games running under Linux vs Windows on identical hardware and see which wins the rendering war. Until I can play all my faveorites on Linux it will remain my secondary machine as I don't have the money to maintain 2 state of the are boxes; given the choice I am sitting down in front of the faster hardware no matter what OS its running-sigh

I use Wine,Wine X,and at times Win4Lin which all let me play games,use IE6,and even Windows itself!

Sadly, I do.

I'm an electronic musician and my virtual studio of choice is Propellerheads Reason. There is no Linux equivalent, and there's no Linux version planned. Thus, I have an entire harddrive dedicated to one program.

However, my second, much larger harddrive, is dedicated to SimplyMEPIS 3.3. And that's where I spend all my non-music-composing time.

I think in a world this large, we will first have to make it so the is not so bent on corruption and greed. Then we will not have the need to work with multiple OSes we can get down to actually getting work done that we need. The only reason why I stll have a need to use windows application on Linux is
for the ability to play games, and work on programs needed to do assignments for school. I mainly use Linux, but bought a PowerMac G3 a few years back so I could do things that I could not with Linux, I then have slowly realized that I still have to use Windows because through all of this I still can't do some things. The only way to solve this problem is to have a world uniting of all the computer companies in the world.

I write "software" (web-based applications) for a large service provider.
The group I write most things for has been ordered to use IE, therefore I have to
test if everything I've written runs as expected in IE.
Crossover Office runs it beautifully.

Other than that, there isn't a single thing I need WIndoze apps for.
If you take the time to look around, instead of just assuming (not all of you but some)
you will find that there are FREE comparable apps for Linux for most everything
you would need.

I feel that most people have become inextricably tied to Micro$oft through their own doing.
They just assume they *have* to use product XYZ for whatever reason.
M$ Office is a perfect example. I prefer OpenOffice.org (also available for WIndoze).
I recently used it to pass a document back and forth between coworkers, each of
us adding and revising, with no ill effects. They used M$ Office while I used
OpenOffice.org and they were never the wiser.

You may think you are just a 'drop in the bucket' with your pleas to software
companies to provide Linux support. Never forget that enough 'drops' can turn into a
tidal wave.

For home users, I hate to say it but windows has everything hands down. Unfortunately, such is the monopoly. Try running trillian3 under Linux. It flat out CAN'T be done, and if it CAN, it can't be done, supporting the plugins that make it trillian , at least for me.
Try shrinking a dvd, making a LEGAL copy under Linux. Right, now try doing the same thing under Windows. It takes 5x as long to do under Linux , if you can even find the right application to DO it on a linux box.
Try running programs such as MusicMatch under Linux, and don't give me this "this program works better" crap. I've been using MM for years and will continue to do so, supporting them.

You get the drift. Everything that is developed any more for the HOME user is developed for Windows, NOT linux, Windows. It's sad, but it is indeed a monopoly, forced on individuals by Microsoft.

For workstations/servers , linux is most definitely the answer, but for home users, Microsoft still has that monopoly, even IF the U.S. govt. won't admit to it.

Doesn't matter if its Linux or Windows. They are used as a launching platform for your various tools. Use the one you need. I really like my car but I wouldn't try to take it to the lake and fish with it. I would use my boat.

I can access 99 percent of any application running from Windows from the Linux desktop by using Citrix. Yes it is expensive but it works great. I support 20 servers, over 500 users and about 100 applications in this manner. Mac, Linux, DOS, doesn't matter. There is a Citrix client for it.

So the difference is corporate use and personal use. You are going to be limited by the time and money on a personal level but it "can" be done.

I am using the SUSE Linux 9.1 personal and I love it. It loaded easily and has been very robust, but I have a Windows Ap - Photo Impact that I have grown quite fond of over the last few years. I attempted to load it with WINE that was in the SUSE package, but it did not load properly. I tried to reload it with WINE, but Now WINE looks like it is from Abu-dabi I cannot read any of it and I do not know how to unload it and start again. Any SUSE help would be greatly appreciated.

I know GIMP would probably do what I want to do, but I have not found a good source for books on Gimp except for the Internet. I live in The Metro Atlanta Area, and you would think that some of the major bookstores would carry a decent book or two. The Computer stores carry a few books, but most of the big computer stores only have one version or two of Linux. It is very sad to see all of the counter space wasted on my favorite acronym. Wonderful Idea Never Did Operate Worth S#$&.. You all know the last one.
Thanks, and keep up the great work.

I've only started using Linux (Fedora Core 3) seriously the last couple of months. One Windows program which I use is Propellerheads Reason for making music, I haven't found anything similar for Linux (although it does work on OSX so they may code for Linux one day). The low latency required would I imagine be an issue in WINE. Any video editing apps like Avid would be good too.

This is the equivalent of asking, "Do you have the need to blow your brains out while maintaining a lifestyle of freedom, longevity and joy?"

I don't run any Windoze apps on any of my regular computers. I do, however, have an ancient 'doze laptop out in the field, connected to a bank of data-loggers. When I get a slack period in my research, I intend to try to replace the proprietary software with something that I concoct myself, running on Linux.

I am new to Linux and have only 2 issues w/ suse 9.2 otherwise i'm ecstatic -tried and tried to no avail to get my pcmcia wireless lan card to work
-for compatibility reasons as well as others i need to work in macromedia studio mx 2004
kde offers every other app i need/ if there was a linux version of studio mx 2004 i'd chuck windows in a second

I have hundreds of MS Publisher files that would need converting before I erased my Windows 2000 partition - several years' worth of lesson plans, documents, hand-outs, etc.
I also use it to cut'n'paste photos from my digital video camcorder so I can print them.
Also, my DV camcorder has a firewire connection (for downloading video) and a serial connection (for stills). Nothing in Linux can grab stills from it, although I haven't tried the firewire video grabbing yet.
Linux does not print photos to the same high-quality as Windows.

several sience and electronical design packages are not available for linux, not even a comparable replacement. luckely there is wine to run those programs