I’ve been trying various Linux flavours every year for 10 years or so. The last year I tried Arch, then EndeavourOS, which has been my most successful Linux exploration I’ve ever had, and given me huge hope. However, there are still a few things preventing me switching it to my default OS.
I’ll put aside Games that need Anti Cheat, as I doubt that will ever be fully fixed, unless Governments force game devs to support more than just Windows.
Here is what doesn’t work for me:
- Streaming services like NowTV. (Works in Windows in browser only)
- DRM proected VST’s for use with Reaper (not via Wine)
- Roblox (Using Waydroid was not very successful)
- Office 365 (I like Libreoffice and OnlyOffice but fact is Word and Excel are just required for some stuff)
1 and 2: Just pirate. Any company that disrespects the user by enforcing DRM like that deserves to lose out on money.
I don’t know what NowTV is but sometimes you can bypass restrictions like this by using an extension that switches your user agent to chrome on windows.
All the rest: Yeah… It sucks… Most of these issues would be solved if enough people used Linux to make porting stuff a worthwhile investment. It’s a chicken and egg problem but I’m hopeful with the ongoing enshittification of Windows. Surely one day enough people will be tired of eating shit and finally stop doing it.
I haven’t considered pirating VST’s. My only issue with pirating DRM protected stuff is the risk of having viruses injected into them.
NowTV is the streaming service Sky provide in the UK and this is where I watch the Formula 1. There are no working extensions of hacks for it that I’ve found so far.
I pirate a bunch of VSTs from audionews.org. It’s private but they give away 10 invites a day in their telegram. You should be fine just pirating stuff older than a few weeks by trusted groups like R2R since malware will get taken down (if it gets detected). Personally I think the risk is tolerable but it’s obviously never 0.
1 and 2, there’s also the option to still buy it but then download a pirated copy that actually works. In a professional setting at least, if you sell stuff made with the pirated software you have the license and rights to do so. Personally I would rather skip the plugin entirely, but if you must, and you must legally-ish, that’s an option.
Nothing wrong with dual boot if that’s what you need , but do check out win AME for it.
- Streaming services like NowTV. (Works in Windows in browser only)
Honestly I would just cancel the service and cite lack of Linux compatibility as the reason. Most likely you can get it to work, like when Netflix didn’t supported Linux, 90% of the time it’s just changing the user agent and the website loads because (with some exceptions) a web app is a web app regardless of OS.
- DRM proected VST’s for use with Reaper (not via Wine)
Same as above, if it won’t support my OS I won’t give them money. I’m sure that whatever it is there is a DRM free version in the high seas, and if I’m being forced to sail the high seas I’m not paying for it.
- Roblox (Using Waydroid was not very successful)
Can’t comment on this one, have never used either Waydroid nor played Roblox, but I’ve heard good things about Waydroid, it should be almost a native experience from what I’ve seen people mentioning so it’s weird that it doesn’t work.
- Office 365 (I like Libreoffice and OnlyOffice but fact is Word and Excel are just required for some stuff)
That is unfortunately true, there are online versions but afaik they’re not feature complete. But the fact is that Microsoft has a vested interest in making sure that those don’t work on Linux and that companies use their products.
At the end of the day I would like to point something up, none of your problems with Linux are in fact Linux issues, they’re NowTV not supporting Linux, some VST’s not supporting Linux, Roblox not supporting Linux and Microsoft not supporting Linux. This is an important distinction, because there’s absolutely nothing that Linux can do to fix any of these issues, NowTV, those VSTs, Roblox and Microsoft are the only ones that can, it’s almost like saying the problem with my house is that Amazon doesn’t deliver there, while annoying and something to consider about it before renting/buying, there’s nothing your house can do about it, but if enough people move nearby and cancel their prime membership citing that Amazon doesn’t deliver there, Amazon will start delivering there, same thing for all of these problems (unfortunately I know that’s not always possible, e.g. telling your boss to send the document in odt instead of docx might not be a good career move)
NowTV is to watch the formula 1 race live.
I’m pretty sure you can get that in many other ways varying in degrees of legality, I personally wouldn’t pay for something that I can’t use unless I jump through hoops to please the person I’m paying to provide me a service. But I also never saw the appeal of watching any sports, much less watching it live so I know my philosophy doesn’t apply to everyone and if you want to do that you’ll have to settle for either that or some IPTV provider.
No alternatives?
Try spoofing User-Agent string as Windows or Mac. If it doesn’t work, maybe the website requires some feature unavailable by default in your browser that can be enabled, but idk
For #4, you could use WinApps - just pair it with a debloated version of Windows (like Tiny11) and you won’t even notice any performance impact. I made a custom build of Tiny11 core and it’s idle RAM usage is just 605 MB, and CPU usage close to 0%. When I launch a .docx on Linux, it loads up Word as a RemoteApp in less than a second and it sorta feels like a native app. It’s all pretty seamless once you get it going.
If you are going down this route btw, I highly recommend using freeRDP v3 (which you can install from the AUR), since it’s got a ton of improvements over the old 2.x versions.
Yeah this is a good solution for some of those applications that will outright refuse to support Linux and are relatively lightweight. Bookmarked.
Ok now this is interesting. Wonder if Roblox would also work. Thanks.
Your complaints should light this fire inside you against these asshole companies, and you should feel entitled to hurt them with piracy and converting as many family and friends computers to Open Source software as possible.
Your fight is our fight, you are not alone.
For Roblox, I think Grapejuice or Vinegar should help you out, so check these projects out. For Office 365, there’s the online versions as well but that’s about it.
I don’t know enough about 1 and 2 (I’m a sailor of the high seas, you see?) so can’t help you with these.
Grapejuice and vinegar were working but Roblox disabled the use of Wine again recently so those don’t work anymore. Apparently it gets used for cheats (I somehow doubt there are enough linux user in the first place for it to matter, let alone linux users that want to cheat).
Office 365 in the browser is ok,a nd I’ve used it, but still not quite right.
Roblox disabled the use of wine again recently
Oh no, now what? More intrusive anticheat that nobody asked for or needed? Sorry for the outdated information, then. I haven’t used Roblox in months (rant incoming), as I largely kept it around for a single game, until the solo dev essentially turned to his fanbase and said “screw you” (Bee swarm simulator). And I was there since pretty much the beginning. My friends found it around release back in Spring 2018, and I started playing in the summer of 2019, so I was technically one of the oldest players, though there were players older and better than me.
ANYWAYS, rant aside,
Office online will never match true Office, but when used in a combination with LibreOffice and OnlyOffice it can get really close for Word, PowerPoint replacement. But NOT for Excel. I once needed to view a spreadsheet with VB macros (a grade calculator) and I managed to get it to work, BUT when I was doing my coursework where I actively needed to use Excel, I just stuck to doing it on a Windows machine.
Roblox devs let wine run without the anti cheat, they were interested in troubleshooting any anti cheat problems and providing support from their limited end. But you can’t have nice things always. Roblox on linux was mainly used to run cheats. It basically became a safe haven for hackers. So blame them.
Also almost everyone asks for anti cheat. Most games are unplayable without it. And there’s also risks of hackers showing vile stuff that kids shouldn’t be seeing.
I somehow doubt people were wiping their drives and installing linux to cheat in a children’s game, but megacorps gotta megacorp
Or you could just install a vm. What I said is not a conspiracy or an excuse from roblox. You can join vinegar discord and search for the specific terms to get more info.
Give https://cachyos.org/ A Check ( The Real Arch )
you can always make things more functional by setting them up with nix.
badumm tss…
