This thing runs OFFICE and ADOBE APPS like they were NATIVE?
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There are plenty of use cases where people might need access to some specific windows apps, and running some of them on Linux can be a hassle. Wine has come a long way, but it still fails to run some of the most popular apps without a huge performance hit, like MS Office, or the Adobe Suite. Fortunately, there might be a solution to run these apps as if they were native to Linux.
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The Setup
Set up the KVM machine: github.com/Fms...
Set up Winapps: github.com/Fms...
Run this to start libvirt: sudo systemctl start libvirtd
Run this if the "default network" doesn't work for libvirt: sudo virsh net-start default
Add this to the ~/.local/bin/winapps script : export LIBVIRT_DEFAULT_URI=qemu:///system
Winapps is a script that will let you access windows applications, running on a windows virtual machine, right from your Linux desktop. It integrates a number of applications in your menu, so you can launch them like any native linux app, and they'll show up as "regular" Linux applications, in their own window, you won't need to use them in the VM's dedicated window.
I left the links to the install guides in the description below, they're going to be way more detailed than what I could fit in a 10 minute video.
My goal here is to try this out, see how well that works, and see if it's a viable alternative to other solutions, like dual booting.
Still, just to sum up the steps, you have to create a KVM virtual machine using Virt Manager, edit a few parameters of the VM, add to it a second disk drive for the necessary drivers, install Windows 10 PRO on it, and then create a user account, install required drivers, add some registry entries through a file, rename the computer and enable RDP, and then install the apps you want to use inside of that VM.
Then, you reboot the VM, and run a check to see if Winapps can connect to that virtual machine through that remote desktop protocol. Finally, you run the Winapps installer to detect the apps, and it will add them to your menu.
So, how does it run?
Well, it's really kinda nice. I only gave 2CPU threads to the VM, and 1GB of RAM, with the ability to go up to 4Gb, and still, every app started blazingly fast.
By default, Winapps only autodetects a handful of applications, including the whole Adobe Creative Cloud suite, the whole MS office suite.
In use, the apps showed up in my dock, I could resize the windows, move them around, minimize them, and interact with them as if they were native, although they don't use your window manager to display their window borders.
I could also copy paste text from my Linux desktop to the windows apps themselves. Winapps also seems to bind these applications to the right file types, so you can open a spreadsheet using Excel through Winapps, and it will work just fine, and you'll be able to save it in place, without any issues.
I tried running Word, Excel, and powerpoint, which all worked great. All features are accessible, the interface is snappy and responsive, it just works exactly as it would in windows.
I had to remove a small argument in the start command for outlook to work, but after that it launched and operated as intended, with a weird tendency to maximize itself even when I told it not to.
I also installed adobe Creative cloud, with more mixed results.
Photoshop opened after a really long loading time, and it took even more time displaying anything and letting me create a new document. After that, it worked alright, although there was a noticeable delay when using a brush to draw my masterpiece on the screen.
I'm pretty sure more advanced uses of this app, if they exist, will meet with a bit more friction and delays, but it's definitely usable once it's started.
InDesign flat out refused to work, launching with a weird overlay on top of it, and never responding to any action I tried.
Illustrator worked fine, I could open a blank template and play around with my incredible Illustrator skills. The "New documetn" window though, was trying to escape from my screen and not displaying anything apart from a cryptic title.
In general, for the Adobe CC suite, it's a bit hit or miss
![ผัวเถื่อน - ยูริ โตเกียวมิวสิค [ OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P08ORRVDGl8/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Live] ศึกมหึมันส์มวยไทยสังเวียนเดือด เวทีมวยชั่วคราวสวนสยาม | จันทร์ 30 กันยายน 2567](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pM1k6f7JXUc/mqdefault.jpg)
"Just like today's sponsor!"
_Why do I smell Linus in here_
It's amazing how much The Sebastian has ..."infected" the pc tech youtube world eh? xD On a sincere note, Overall. it's cool. I've become used to this sense of humor.
Yeah, let’s say it’s an « hommage » 😅
No shame in learning from one of the best.
@@TheLinuxEXP xD In any case it was appreciated
It was just The Linus Experiment
Windows: "Let's create a Linux VM in Windows to run Linux Software." The Linux community: "Let's create a Windows VM and integrate it into our better OS."
How KVM is comparable to Hyper-V?
@@athemalive The performance and stability is great in KVM, I'd say. I'm using an i7-4770s, so not exactly the best CPU out there.
Yes. That's exactly what Microsoft did and how WSL2 works. But Linux is lightweight and runs good.
The technical term for such gymnastics is: circle jerk.
Excuse my French but that's kindergarden at best.
Well, technically WSL is not A VM. It's more like a container. A docker if you will, Which is way faster and way lightweight than running Windows on Linux. The thing is, I have no idea what I should run on it. Because most of the productivity software on Linux is available on Windows.
the reason why I haven't fully switch yet because my job requires these applications.
Maybe it's time now
My job requires ms office, I use office 365 on firefox and no one ever know the difference. In India, most people (even companies) prefers pirated Adobe cs5 stuffs. No matter how much I try to convince my colleagues to use oss alternative. I do know adobe cs5 Photoshop and illustrator works well on wine on latest kernel.
@@chlorobyte_projects I prefer Google docs too.. But one can't bite the hand that feeds us. I am allowed to use linux for work is more than what I can ask for, (although its mostly because I asked them to provide me with licensed windows because I won't pirate it).
Same here. I haven't given up Windows due to work requirements. I don't need winapps on linux. One computer runs Windows 10, the other Linux.
@@jeancorriveau8686 is there any specific thing or restrictions that doesn't allow you to work on linux? In a past consultant gig, i ran their time tracking software on wine, and they never knew I was on linux the whole time, the current gig allows me to work on linux but doesn't support me for their vpn or any other query. I managed vpn on my own and other stuffs were compatible on linux, but I always wondered, would my past employer sue me if they known I wasn't on linux?.
The actual and technically correct "windows subsystem for linux"
Why did they even name it like that? It's named like it's a thing to be used within Linux. Microsoft is literally so bad at naming things
Not a great name but the meaning seems pretty clear to me.
@@terrydaktyllus1320 Outlook. There is *nothing* in the Linux world that even begins to compare, especially in the works with all common mail and calendar hosts out of the box. Granted a whole VM just for one application is overkill, but...
Or, to use Windows' scheme Linux Subsystem for Windows
@@JohnJohnson-ox3uc Thunderbird. Period.
Really funny those running windows... "we really don't belong here. Let's get away as fast as possible!" Nice.
« Is that Linux? We’re not supposed to be here »
I was so exited when I saw this video...
3 minutes later all that excitement dies when I realise it's just a VM with better desktop integration
definitely out of the question for my 2 core APU (T_T)
Sed lyf my friend
I don't know but KVM use ta technical i read somewhere where it run os natively hardware for some time and shift to Linux again vice versa and shift fast and it's mean you are running native .
Same here...
That's an interesting solution for sure. Thanks Nick!
Another valid usecase for Windows apps in Linux, I feel, is when you work in a company or a team, and the team uses Microsoft Office (for example) and you need to use it as well to avoid compatibility issues. And the team also might get annoyed if compatibility issues or other problems arise, so it's nice to avoid them for that reason too.
I am a OSS and FSF advocate, however at work we have eliminated all but a few Windows machines. my coworker has to have MS Office, no knockoff or substitute will work. The reason is she has to use voice dictation software and MS Office has had this working for the last 15+ years. No other OSS works as well as their Office suite.
Yes, this the main reason that designers can't switch. While I think everyone can learn Inkscape instead of illustrator and if you ignore that Gimp still doesn't have a nondestructive workflow and learn that you will still have problems when getting files from other companies, designers or customers in the latest Creative Cloud version. If you would dare to tell them that you are using Linux and can't open the files, they would probably laugh and fire you from the project..
I have to sign pdf's with a certificate based digital signature (not the file, on the actual signature line) for work. Linux used to do that, but getting it to work with PIV's for digital signatures cost me 2 days I'll never get back. I resorted to running a win vm JUST for that and accessing websites with that same set of certificates, because, again, couldn't get them working right in Linux (even following Chromes own step by step process... it'd only read the first slot and I needed it to read slot 2).
Man I'm new to Linux and I had to click this video instantly!
Nice!
Same using linux for 3 weeks
Welcome mate
New on Linux too, pleasantly surprised when I found out 99 % of my frequently used programs have native Linux versions and were even in the package manager.
Only had to install a few games and discord from a Deb file. That was annoying. Still can't get Android studio to word for some reason too. Only runs inside the folder, doesn't want to install.
It seems to complicate more than just using a normal VM, and it doesn't add much in terms of functionality. Here's what you can do, alternatively: open your VM in full screen in one of your virtual desktops, it will work as a normal Windows machine, and you can get back to working on your Linux desktop in one click.
That is what I do, and it works great, and when I'm done with working on Windows I just shutdown the virtual machine so it doesn't use any resources from the host.
Yep, and actually, just put your Windows VM on another workspace, so you can quickly switch between the two.
Can you do dual screen with a normal VM? Also, the apps feel a little more native running in a window rather than a VM window or RDP session.
@@POINTS2 You can do dual screen, just maximise the vm window on your second monitor
@@fred-youtube I do remember doing that for a while, stretching the VM screen to 2 monitors and then running 2 applications. It didn't work that great for me and I kind of like the coolness of apps running directly in my desktop. However, it is a pain to setup/maintain and sometimes things like copy/paste don't work perfectly.
Correct, this is just RemoteApp instead of full desktop, standard Windows functionality over RDP. This thing runs everything, not just Office and Adobe software. Because it's just a Windows VM that you RDP into.
I use Linux for many things, and have for a long time .
I must still use Windows for a few of my animation apps such as ICLONE and Daz 3D , and I am learning Unity. It sounds to be FAR too much hassle attempting this set up, as my apps are Heavily relied on GPU rendering. Maybe Linux developers should concentrate more on developing truly professional level apps for musicians , creators , artists etc... instead of spending all their time and resources creating yet ANOTHER new Linux OS to add to the immense pile of Operating systems choking the internet already. Sorry if I sound disappointed but I think the Linux developers are approaching this "Bass Akwards".We do not need a Linux Distro , or VM that will run adobe and Windows apps as much as we need quality , professional Apps for Linux that can Rival those for Windows and Mac.
Maybe we would finally see the average PC and Mac user move towards Linux if we give them a reason to. I would love nothing more than to see more users approaching Linux rather than running in fear because we offer FAR too many OS choices and Not nearly enough Great software.
As someone that is thinking about switching from windows to Linux because my laptop is just terrible (4gb ddr3 and pentium n4200@1.1ghz) and I hope Linux wil run better. I am 100% agreeing with your comment. I've been spending so much time now trying to find the best distro for my case (a high school student). But I really don't know what in hell I should use. Also school forces me to have office apps (mostly word and PowerPoint). Which are still not for Linux.
Making a linux distro is easier than you think.
Plus, there are already "professional level" apps. They're open source, and widely available.
KDE spews a lot of apps, check them out.
keep in mind most industry standard apps for professionals and creators are developed by their main companies and not ¨Linux Developers", so you couldn´t really ask a linux developer to create an Avid ProTools or an iClone version for linux. At best they could try and make the Windows version work or build an alternative if there's some collective demand and/or resources allocated to it. And probably supporting Linux isn´t at those enterprises best interest at the moment, maybe because the low percentage of users on those fields that prefer/use linux or some bigger monopolist reason arround it maybe.
@@c0nvexo632 Reaper has 2 programmers, it's available for linux, win, mac...
If the graphics professional and video creator tools were on Linux I'd move over.
"gimp is just as good" says people who aren't professional designers. Also, there's no rule that says we have to use FOSS software only on linux. Use whatever fits the needs that you have. In fact, what I think is hurting adoption of Linux as a desktop of choice is the myth that for-pay software is unwelcome on linux. So you have this nasty cycle where critical apps needed by creative professionals simply aren't being made for Linux, and thus it stops people from switching to Linux. If one objects to using paid/proprietary software - then they are always welcome not to use it.
Fully agree, while I can use Inkscape instead of AI, and Gimp instead of PS, since I do only basic stuff with these 2 apps, I really cannot use Scribus instead of InDesign, and ID is 70% of my work, Also, there is nothing closer to Adobe Acrobat on Linux, and Acrobat is not only editing some text in a pdf file. DP and Linux cannot work together.
@@radu81x Agreed on all points. I'm still glad the alternatives exist. I really am a fan of the Affinity apps by Serif (photo, designer, publisher) they are a great alternative to Adobe, but sadly they've stated they won't be making a linux version, which is sad. You are right also there's no substitute for Acrobat particularly when I'm authoring interactive form PDFs for clients.
@@meowcula Never tried Affinity, Adobe is what we get at work, and luckly I can use the same license on a second PC to work from home. For this I have to use dual boot. When I am working, the apps should be stable and fast, so the alternative presented in this video is not an option.
@@radu81x Yep totally understandable and good you have the subscription paid for by work!
"or maybe I'm just a lazy bastard", wasn't expecting that 😩😂😂😂
I never understand why Adobe not making their apps available natively in Linux, did they know it's even exists? i love your content and you sense of humors too
Thanks!
@ShezdrekhMizhteh that decision will be the death of them. Krita is only getting better.
@@n.m4497 : That will require that schools decide to actually teach, rather than shill. But when schools start actually teaching rather than shilling, companies like Adobe send in lawyers to bully federal and state agencies to cut funding to the school. The school, usually a little bitch, will capitulate. Because without that extra taxpayer subsidy, they can't afford their multimillion dollar sodomite appeasement programs, and then they get zapped by mobs of perverts, as well as becoming targets of Antifa and other extreme leftist political groups.
So to keep the virtue signaling up to keep the violent mobs from rioting, they need to keep the soy budget. And that means they have to keep their city/state/federal funding maximized.
To do that, they do what Big Government says they do. Which is to shill for big companies that are comfortable with the Microsoft/Apple duopoly for OEM.
Krita is amazing, but no community college will teach it. They get no subsidy for teaching it, and may even lose funding for mentioning it. Their mentioning it prevents students from becoming mindless sheep that only know the Adobe /Serif way of doing things.
Therefore, community colleges now partially exist to keep Adobe afloat. Bootlegging your brain and making you a slave to their subscription model, so you can't bootleg their software. Too many stole their toys in the past, so now, they're stealing your independence.
This is the true evil of piracy: it begets evil empires in retaliation.
@@n.m4497 “Krita is only getting better,” which is great news to the 2% of the market running Linux. 2% (and shrinking) is not going to kill Adobe. Back in the day, Photoshop ran on IRIX, Silicon Graphics’ version of UNIX.
The fact is, porting Adobe to Linux would require as much in resources as either Windows or Mac development. And with so many Linux distros knocking about, Adobe would have to pick one and piss off users of the other gazillion flavors.
Don’t get me wrong: I’ve used Linux since I bought a Slackware CD to run it on my i386. But I need Windows or Mac for some things and frequently even Mac isn’t an option. And as a printing photographer, my one attempt at photo printing from Linux was a disaster: the same file that printed beautifully (it’s custom framed and hangs on my wall) using QImage Ultimate on Windows, was a disaster printing from Linux (and there is no QImage equivalent on Linux, just some projects abandoned years ago).
They're quite aware of linux, they used to offer reader for linux, and they stopped years ago. They're aware of it..
Community: Make a x86 linux version of your adobe apps
Adobe: No
Also Adobe: **MAKES ALL ADOBE APP FOR A COMPLETLY DIFFRENT CPU ARCHITECTURE (M1)**
Fuck adobe. We all know Inkscape is better than Illustrator, so that's what I'm gonna use. KDEnlive and Davinci Resolve are also alternatives to Premiere, so no issues there.
@gghhkm they are lazy
A lot of art people use macs so they have to do it. No art people use Linux so they don't have a reason to do it. Also they are lazy AF. They are so many bugs and problems with their software but they don't care. There is no viable competitor to what they are offering and even if there was most people are not willing spend time to learn another software so they can do whatever they want.
@@ivailogeimara I'm "art people" and I use Linux. Never used any apple product and never will. I don't see why any artist would use a Mac when Windows is clearly better.
@@softwarelivre2389 IDK why they'd use it. Ask them. Probably because "it just works". A lot of art people learn on Adobe products in schools or learn them themselves because that's what the industry uses. As a side note I really like how all Adobe products have the same UI. That I imagine is another plus.
This is actually a really helpful tool, thank you Nick! I needed to help me move over to Linux full time! Especially when my school requires me to use Windows and Office for the course work.
You’re welcome :)
Schools should be forced to go Linux
@@crhu319 true
That solution might work well for Office or any low GPU dependent application but it will be a terrible solution for almost any Adobe application and other image/video editing software that require heavy use of GPU.
A good solution for those who have integrated GPUs in their CPUs and they don't use Linux for gaming and image/video editing, would be to boot Linux with the integrated GPU and passthrough to the VM the dedicated GPU. This will give to the VM almost bare metal experience.
did you tried it ? I'm considering photoshop (I have an integrated GPUs in my CPU)
What if you get direct passthrough of your GPU? That's a feature available in KVM.
@@wathekghenimi9133It works great.
@@wathekghenimi9133Also you can run photoshop via wine if you have all files ready to go.
IT'S THE FIRST TIME I HEARD A "LEAVE A DISLIKE IF U DIDN'T" :O THAT'S QUALITY CONTENT !
I LIKE IT !
Thank you :)
Right. Create a Windows VM, and it will run Windows apps. This is just a script to automate setup of the already well-established KVM. I would just do it manually.
If I could run Affinity Photo & Designer via VM, I'd be sold but just the sheer concept of doing this is plain silly and makes me feel guilty haha
Linux needs to get real. LibreOffice is good but the spreadsheet is nowhere near at the Xcel level and does not fully compatible with Excel functions and macros. That's just not going to work for most people sorry.
So..winapps for people switching from windows to linux? It's gonna make them switch back hella quickly
why?
@@johannbauer2863 well for someone new to linux, setting up a KVM is just not a thing. They go through an hour long setup process, only to find out their app didn't work, as advertised btw, that Adobe suite works. Even if it did work, it's janky. Most users will be like - okay I'll take my random reboots and let ms take my data, I just wanna work, and switch back to windows
i like winamp its the best music box on windows
@@adityachaudhry7566 There is still potential here if they fix the bugs and add a simple install script. It'd also be interesting to see this working with debloated Windows 10 with 512 MB of RAM or so.
@@CarinoGamingStudio winamp can be installed directly with winetricks on Linux.. Use Q4Wine to keep track of wine and install apps & other stuff easily with winetricks under the hood.. But using multiple wine versions together & adding dx12 support is for advanced users..
Woah, this is a really system design. If only they automated/polished the VM creation process, this would be awesome!
The problem with most Linux software is that it doesn't get fully polished. It still ends up having more rough edges than Windows, nevermind macOS. So, it's unlikely this will be polished, too.
Vagrant would do the work I think
My development pipeline might finally get streamlined with this
Sounds a lot like vmware seamless mode. If you're going to run a windoze VM suggestion is put it on an SSD, if you put it on a spinning magnetic HDD it will run like a pig.
Heh, I have a 2.5" 4TB HDD in my livingroom pc. It's a nice disk for what it is, but it is _very_ slow, with seek times of up to 25ms. For fun, I added a Windows VM to it. Totally useless. Took around three minutes to boot. The improvement once it had been cached by Linux was just extreme. Booted in 15 seconds or something.
*People exporting their own MS Office document into a pdf and having it completely broken*
Meanwhile I export those same documents as pdfs with OnlyOffice and they're flawless...
@@terrydaktyllus1320 I use it when some annoying colleague wants a docx and I wrote everything in LaTeX, pandoc is pretty cool
Did you use Adobe one? Since you can use Acrobat to export docx into PDF. It should gives better result than Microsoft own process
(export with adobe option will automatically show on Word toolbar or navigation sidebar)
@@Vysair I don't know how they exported it, however a PDF is a PDF and should be universal, I'm sure OnlyOffice adheres to the best standard by default
@@baldpolnareff7224 Usually, those screwed pdf to docx file happens when the file is being exploit meaning using unorthodox way to format your document (like arrange it in a weird way, eg insert space until next page instead of page break)
@@Vysair it was from docx to pdf tho, not viceversa
Is wine-wayland worth discussing at this point? If yes then i would love to watch a video on it
7:49 That window be like.
Ight, imma head out.
Haha yeah, « I’m moving out »
The one note supported is the full wersion or the small one that it's almost identical to the online one? full OneNote it's the only reason i still got a dual boot for my uni classes and notes and would love to nuke it lol
Full version
This let you run full windows apps in your linux, so yes the full onenote 2016 will be supported, im not sure about the windows store version, so use onenote 2016 which is the exe version
@@fred-youtube Aren't the versions shown running in the video the Office 365 ones?
Try upping your memory to 8GB (Adobe's minimum) and the CPU to 4 cores.
I think it's good that we're moving to a world where there is less barrier between the different ecosystems. If it could get to a point where you can do Windows gaming on Linux this way, it would mean more people might be inclined to switch to Linux as their main, and just run Windows as a VM. More secure overall.
You'd still need 2 GPUs to have native Windows gaming, unfortunately.
@@chlorobyte_projects Why would you need two GPUs? If the emulation can support passthrough, it shouldn't be an issue.
@@anonimuso Yeah, that's the point, you kinda need a second GPU to pass through to the VM, since one is already in use.
You can do high-performance Windows gaming on Linux, but you wouldn't use WinApps for it. You would use Looking Glass.
@@anonimuso: SR-IOV GPUs are extremely expensive. Intel GPU's support vGPUs but so far, those are only on CPU, so they're not exactly gaming stuff. Hopefully, the Xe dGPUs will also support it. That might enable single-GPU gaming that way.
I never thought it was possible to get closer to reverse WSL!
Run KVM & Winapps on WSL2.. that will be a full circle.. 😎
@@roshlew6994 thats the sickest thing i ever read
@@roshlew6994 i kinda confused, why you need winapps when you already use wsl2?
is it because you can't switch from wsl2 to native windows?
@riufq it's a joke dude
*Forks GIMP, Krita, Inkscape, Kdenlive, etc. to make a free software version of Adobe CC*
Yeah, it really doesn't work like that, I'm afraid :)
Yeah allot of people are also hooked into the plugins system of adobe apps which don't 'JUST WORK' on other open solutions.
@@PRiMETECHAU yeah they cannot do professionally..so its not the fault of apps itself but the open source. i hope a lot of company will mandatory use open source apps for escaping from crazy adobe subscriptions and have some programmer to improve the apps that suitable the company. (Tl;dr : Company move its budget for subscription to employ some programmer to improve open source apps and make it more suitable for professional use)
Imagine doing this on Gentoo. I'd have to steal the Windows source code and compile it myself so that no community explodes because I used a binary/premade package.
I tried this a while ago: to begin with, the VM was extremely laggy. Still, I managed to set it up. The thing is, once I closed it, there was no connection; the app shortcuts never worked and my distro started becoming absolutely laggy as well. I ended up going back to Windows (I need Office, Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for work)
Hey i know its been like a year but did you ever have issues syncing your steam saves with windows?
5:33 "The full version, not a VSCode"
VSCode is not VS in part other than branding and logo, they don't share any part of code.
VSCode is an Electron app, VS is windows native app.
If only Microsoft Office works, maybe it is better to just use the Online versions. Webapps already exist for them for that matter, and it's lighter on ressources. And yes the Adobe programs are too messy to run on Linux
The web apps have cut down functionality. I notice this mostly in powerpoint, and have had to open up the document on my windows laptop plenty of times to do things I couldn't do online.
Just subscribed. Thank you so much! The only thing that's preventing me from switching to Linux is one obscure Windows program. I tried Wine with no luck but thanks to your video, which introduces me to this wonderful integration, I am now installing Ubuntu and switching to Linux once and for all. Thank you again!
Runs just like they’re native?
Slow, buggy, jumping all over the place, cryptic titles, complex settings that don’t make sense…
Checks out :)
Window: Hello!
Kernel: Hello!
Window: Wh... oh my god. ohmygod. *ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod* IM OUTTA HERE!
Something like this is a good use case for a Threadripper or 5950X Pro CPU, add in a dedicated GPU and it will be pretty great. I guess somehow you could hack in drag and drop or at least have a local cloud to send files to.
Level1linux released a video on using ms stuff on linux using windows vm with gpu passthrough. I played Assassin's Creed using gpu passthrough once to I guess it should work for Adobe stuff too..
Probably, yeah
@ཀཱ what's an SOG setup?
Apparently is now possible to run Affinity software on Linux decently, hopefully you can make a tutorial on it one day.
Reminds me a lot of VirtualBox unity mode (does that still exist?) but honestly, most may be better off just having a VM on a separate virtual desktop.
You either meant virtualbox seamless mode or vmware unity mode - but yes, it exists. It breaks randomly with windows 10 vms tho.
@@Xtrems It's been a good minute since I used VM's for much, but I suppose Win 10 is so broken even VM Hypervisors don't like it... lmao
VMWare Unity was discontinued a while ago due to it being buggy, rarely used (relatively) and hard to maintain. If you have ever used a Mac, Parallels version of this idea is really really good
@@Naetrox Good to know. I haven't dabbled much with VMs in awhile as I don't have a need to mess with them these days.
That's why I don't switch to Linux, because it doesn't run Steinberg Cubase 12 and there's no substitute for it in Linux.
This program is awesome but it needs a little work. I think one of the most important features that is needed from QEMU/KVM is a real Virtual GPU that can at least support OpenGL/Vulkan (DXVK can be used on Windows for DirectX support) and Winapps needs an easy way for to get setup and manually add apps. Also multiple VM support could be handy in some situations. I think all this will be possible eventually it's just going to take time. This in my opinion will not be a replacement to Wine, but a good tool to use for the programs that Wine doesn't support.
Let's be honest. Libre office doesn't even compare to office. It's not even 10 percent
It would actually be a good way to convince public institutions that are paying MS licenses to start using Linux. Who knows
You need an ms license to use this, itsbased on full windows
@@fred-youtube oops 😔
@@fred-youtube nonetheless, if this can still be used as a way to pass from the (already paid) MS Windows OS to a Linux distribution at all, I argue that a first big obstacle could thus be removed from. Optimism, I know, is not always realism, but why not
After seeing that now we need a KDE setup guide so that our machines can look like yours.
I could do that in the future
@@TheLinuxEXP Please do!
Kind of a neat thing, I suppose. I'm sure someone will want to fiddle with it. Not me though.
Why not, though?
Can it do graphtec plotters (win driver specific) with the adobe illustrator plotter plugins etc? That would be the windows killer for me, outright. Also Adobe Animate.. but I don't want Linux, I want FreeBSD. Any how-to? WINE is a no-go, period. Those devs are useless, especially the "clean room" criers. They've had over 20+ years to get it right and have failed miserably.
The polishing of virgil (paravirtualized gpu) and virtiofs(filesystem passthrough) are key for great performance on vms. virtiofs works pretty well after some tweaks, but virgil support for windows was only done experimentally by red hat and other guy, and then dropped. I think it was attributed to virgil architecture needing some tweaks to work best, as it was only a research project,
None of this makes sense to me.
It's not even a question of using Gimp, Inkscape, or any other wonderful FOSS software (considering nobody is able to use these free software at 100%).
It's just : if you know you need Windows exclusive software, why make this absurd decision of installing Linux instead and then add an insanely complicated amount of steps - virtual machines, correct errors, etc. - just to get back to the initial level you were at the beginning, without the same quality?
Adobe and Microsoft don't want to support Linux for their flagship software. But there are people making MS and Adobe's job, for free, instead of contributing to FOSS amazing products.
It is absolutely the best way to make people stop using FOSS and I don't like it, at all.
For me free office is enough. As a student I don't even use free office at even its half potential. But this thing will definitely help newcomers to adopt linux more.
Linux is great. I have been using it on and off since 1995. And fully on my private computer since 2016. Gaming is done on my old Dos hardware, Amiga's, C64's, Playstation3 and my Android phone. No need for using my laptop for gaming.
The problem is I guess when you work with other people. The standard is still Office and docx files which is a sh*tty format
Eww, imagine loading that bloatware in a VM. The whole purpose of Linux is to have quality operating system that knows to manage resources to run well. Having the worst unoptimized OS ever, Win10, take 16GB RAM, 1TB of NVMe SSD and 8 CPU cores outta a VM just to boot in 5 hours and work slow as hell... is not a proper way to run Windows apps...
Nice try but this isn’t ready for primetime.
I think it would just be better if you created and used a Windows VM without all that other nonsense since you could get way better performance using GPU pass through if you needed it and way way less bugginess.
Nice! A reverse-WSL!
Haha yeah sorta!
Take a like just for the disclaimer at the beginning for crybabies saying nobody should run proprietary software in Linux
Truth be told proprietary software is often more developed and feature rich than open source or free software this due to the obvious income and resources proprietary software has in most cases
Although is great to see what open source can do with help and funding from the community
Actually I never got it running correctly. Every time I try to launch a Windows app, the app will always come with a blackscreen.
At the end of day I'll be pretty beat, and just to check in Lutris that if Lutris is able to install that app and run it with correct Wine setup.
That is obviously a problem - its suppose to be a blue screen of death on windows
Microsoft has created a Package Manager called winget for Windows. Please Compare it with Linux Package Managers like apt, dnf, yum, pacman etc
I remember I saw this when It was just started but forgot about it later
Modern Adobe CC apps need GPU acceleration and at least 8 GB of RAM. This is why they don't work well on VMs.
Great video Nick, thank you. I am using exclusively Linux for the last 11 years but I need to use MS Office from time to time, just to finalize documents that I work with others. During the last years I have a VM with Win10 installed and use it in those rare cases, with my files stored in nextcloud. I still believe that this solution is better than Winapps, since I use the VM only when I need it, it can be any VM application and because the full potential of the MS Office programmes is unfolded in the Windows environment. Of course I have a beefy machine to give enough RAM and CPU to the VM when needed. Otherwise, maybe maintain a Windows installation in a older laptop is a solution too.
Any love for FreeBSD? What about illustrator cs6 with... a plugin for a plotter? Also, what about HASP dongles? I use faronics deep freeze to circumvent HASP security, want to do this on FreeBSD...
Which distro and theme are you using in your video, it looks really clean!
I use WSLg so I guess I'm doing the exact opposite of this :p
"No such thing as too many keyboards"
^ To all the people who told me putting 64GB of ram and 16 thread processors in my laptop and desktop was stupid.
The new music, aahhh so good.
waw this is great this what we need, it is working good, so this will need automation, some one-click installer like what steam did or a flatpak app
7:23
It is a masterpiece
2:30 Using that argument of yours, nobody should then switch to Linux as they are already very familiar with Windows or OSX
Those aren't really comparable and are to different
Finally something where i can run _proprietary garbage_ on
Well, it's not garbage by any means. But them patenting algorithms really grinds my gears.
Patenting as such is broken. It would be fine if you could patent something for two years - but that's it - no extensions, no nothing.
I mean, if you're two years ahead of your competition, then it's hardly a competition.
@@thislopop2700 I think the issue with adobe software and why I would consider it "garbage" from a developer point of view is that they were not at all designed with portability in mind. They were most likely developed in a time when making GUI applications with win32 was acceptable, and they most likely piled more and more features on until it would require major rewrites just to port the software over to another OS. Ideally, one should use frameworks like Qt or Gtk for app development, and then porting is more or less trivial. Anytime any piece of software is designed without any portability in mind, I consider it hot garbage. We should not be using outdated tools and operation system specific tools to write our applications. This is why Qt, Gtk, SFML, SDL, OpenGL, Vulcan, etc exist. The year is 2021, not 1999. If I see one more programmer use win32 to check the system time instead of std::chrono I'm going to lose my mind.
It's a cool project, but I wouldn't trust it as a core part of your workflow long term. The GitHub is basically abandoned with the last commit ages ago, and I don't think the creator is supporting it anymore. Anything can and probably will break with time, so I wouldn't rely on it too much
The last commit may have been a while ago, but i wouldn’t say that’s a big issue. All winapps really is a set of scripts that help you seamlessly run windows apps in a VM.
The biggest and hardest work needed is work on FreeRDP and KVM to make the VM work better. Most of the issues experienced in this video are FreeRDP issues and not really things that can be solved in winapps.
This project of getting windows apps running well in virtual machines is much larger than this one person’s set of scripts. Even if the maintainer decides to stop working on it the project and the general work will live on.
To me, sounds like a big hassle (and performance degradation) compared to running a dual boot and being selective about when to boot to the other OS (also works properly with games of course).
The day microsoft officially launces ms office for linux is the day i say goodbye to windows. It is what you said..I have years of experience in ms office, and when I tried libre office i wasnt productive at all..
You can try open office or WPS, Also running a virtual machine (Not winapps) with VMWare of Virtual Box Is ok if you have a powerful computer.
Honestly, this proof of concept is actually really great! Just imagine a wine instance that can do what this is doing more easily. This is just providing that there is a work-aroumd.
Wine is a more ideal solution but it unfortunately is a lot harder to develop and make work well.
Crossover (paid wine) works fairly well for office 365, but unfortunately wine has to be reverse engineered which is inherently problematic with compatibility.
A virtual machine avoids virtually all compatibility issues, which is why it’s so enticing. Of course performance can be a big problem with virtual machines.
adobe in VM with 1 gig of ram,
yeah, sounds legit.
I think it would be easier to use a normal virtual machine than to go through all this, and i think it would work better than this.
Does anyone know what *Linux operating system is using in the video*
Manjaro KDE
@@TheLinuxEXP thx brother
I run MS Office 2010 with Wine, runs perfectly on my 2007 "white" Macbook with only 2Gb Ram and many other useful Windows Apps I need. like ePSXe emulator, N64, Mame, Applewin, FL Studio, Samplitude, Serato DJ, Reaper, SKetchup, Fireworks, Photofiltre, Scrivener, etc... All in Kali Linux 2021 (Bare metal/no VM )
I understand why enthusiasts want to promote FOSS to new users if they've already made the jump. But for my usecase I work in Thai language document. Libre office just messes up the formatting every damn time and Onlyoffice is really buggy and lacks feature. That's the reason I still have to put up with windows.
I say if this app allows people with my condition to be on Linux all the time and end up using FOSS for the other 90% of my apps, I think it's a fair tradeoff.
One last app to try is Abiword. Also, be sure to submit bug reports if apps misbehave. In the meantime, have a good day!
@@ThatBrubakerFellow thanks for the suggestion. I'll try Abiword out!
Forgive if im being naive but wouldn't it be easier just to use Wine or Docker to do this without installing Windows 10.
Wine can’t run these apps correctly :) and docker, you’ll need to install windows 10 in
Nothing more than installing virtual machine inside linux. Wats bigdeal..?? It's there from decades...
VM with a seamless mode that makes the windows feel like they’re native programs, and integrates all apps on your main menu. That’s not been there for decades ;)
Thank you, Nick. For those who need to use this, great. (cough/ But they don't. /cough)
2:55 Internet Explorer
The exact opposite is WSL2. Windows does the same with ubuntu and launch a "Remote Desktop Connection" to it, which allows it to run even Linux GUI apps in Windows 10.
I like Linux for the lack of telemetry, but I need Teams and the whole Office365 to work if I’m supposed to use Linux professionally. Excel also needs to work properly, and no, the various Linux Office apps aren’t comparable in functionality. Aside from those, I get told “we use this software here” and I am expected to use something compatible. I have a couple of machines and one is Windows and the other is an ex-Windows machine now running Linux with a Windows 10 VM on it. The Win 10 VM runs faster through Linux than it ran locally!
I have plans to buy a gaming laptop for power use (not for games, for work use) and I’m just dreading having to have a Windows 11 machine with all it’s phone home bloating crap…so will be installing Linux and then using the Win 11 through a VM only when I need it. I can create a new clone of the VM for each different organisation that I’m working with.
I very valid usecase is when you work on linux as a personal choice/préférence, nit your clients still expect word documents.
The Adobe apps don't really work likely due to the missing HW acceleration, as the GPU is virtual. Try turning it off in the apps; That should fix it
Conclusion, adobe not run smoothly on Linux!!! Linux suxxxx...better I spend money for buy windows
True
no
As a graphics professional, I can tell you GIMP and Inkscape aren't good enough let alone that Indesign alternative that name I can't remember now. Affinity's apps could be soon, but those aren't on Linux either. If I could run Photoshop, Indesign, and Illustrator on Linux along with Davinci Resolve reliably I'd move from Windows to Linux right now.
*"Open Source alternatives are just as good!"*
No... Just no... Nope
They're not _bad_
But I would take the Windows apps 90% of the time. Some because they are the industry standard, and some just because they are just much much better...
I daily drive Linux (Lubuntu to be exact), but i dual boot Windows for when I want to do a lot of other work...
For example, video editing softwares. On the open source side i have never found one that works well, looks good and have support for GPU Acceleration. But, on the proprietary Windows side, a lot of them looks good, and actually works well, with GPU Acceleration out of the box.
And office tools, Microsoft Office is basically the industry standard now, and I have not found any open source alternatives that has perfect compatibility with Microsoft office files, which makes it unusable for when you work with other people that uses ms office...
Of course the open source alternatives are not bad, especially because they are free. But that is also why they are not as good, open source devs gets $0 from their software, meanwhile Adobe gets like $50/month/user and they have like thousands and thousands of users....
Sorry for the rant comment. I'm just so annoyed by the Linux/Open-Source fanboys that I see super often. Even as a Linux and open source "fan" I also realize that they're not for everyone and that some proprietary software are just better, especially for serious work...
Thanks for the review brother, but as we say in the South, "sounds like a lot of sugar for a dime!" Interpretation for my none shorten speaking friends, WAY TOO MUCH work for the results. I am running VirtualBox on my Plasma desktop and Gnome Boxes on, well Gnome. Accordingly, I will stick with that for things that absolutely require Windows. Bonus note, I basically have nothing negative to say about Windows, it's just not my preferred OS, and when I really-really need it's on one of my boot partitions 😉. Thanks brother and God bless👍🏾
Honestly I would much prefer to use open source programs and I have absolutely no affinity for Adobe in the slightest. I strongly dislike them and their business model.
BUT. Photoshop is the best photo manipulation software on the market. GIMP is just not as good, it's not even close.
Microsoft Office in a VM seems to be still faster and more efficient than LibreOffice natively. Ornis it just for me so slow?
@@terrydaktyllus1320 I was using Microsoft Office 2007 until a few years ago, but on the first glance, I have the impression that the UI on newer versions stayed virtually the same (minus color/contrast changes). And I personally like ribbons. I'm using them in LibreOffice, too. But arguing about this is completely subjective. It's mostly a question about what one is used to.
On my Linux laptop (recent core i7), LibreOffice Calc definitely seems to have performance issues with diagrams and startup times aren't overwhelming. According to my experience, Excel 2007 definitely runs more fluent, single core 32-bit or not.
I used to switch installing Windows and Linux and again and again... I never found any Linux distro that really worked as well as a plain Windows. As a VBA developer, I can't switch to non Microsoft applications and as soon as I had to create a VM to install MS Office, I always found myself running Windows way more than Linux. So back to a full Microsoft installation where I have no hardware limitation and run Linux in a Hyper-V. It is always a difficult choice. I still think sometimes that maybe now there will be a perfect distro or another upgrade to an existing distro that would do without hasssle... My favorite Linux so far to use is Zorin 17 Pro. Nice... But again I am back in Windows.
In the case of creating a VM is not worth it. The only reason I run a VM on my Fedora is to run MS Money (25 years of my financial transactions, so I don't want to change). But for MS Office, I will just use Libre Office or Google Suite. Teams actually runs well natively on Linux (i had to work from a few weeks ago). Thanks for trying.
Aah major drawback
Not works on dual boot and clean disk install 😭😭
By the way great video
Will learn libre 👍👍
Is this some kind of LSW ("Linux Subsystem for Windows") ? NO !
Is this some kind of Docker-like container with Windows apps to run on Linux without the need for a full OS install ? Hell, NO !
Is this some kind of *Proton for Office* ? NO !
Is this better than *PlayOnLinux* or *CrossOver Office* ? Nope ...
*Is this just an "over-hyped promo" for a thingy which does what folks know as "seamless mode" on Virtualbox or VMWare ? YES !*