Hacker News Reader

Comment by Aurornis | Hacker News Reader

> I would do it the other way round: use Windows in a virtual machine from Linux.

Every Windows thread on HN is a reminder of the stark divide between people who need to use Windows for productivity apps and those who don’t.

The apps I need a Windows machine for are not the kind that virtualize nicely. Anything GPU related means Windows has to become the base OS for me.

If you’re running an occasional light tool you can get away with Windows in a VM, but it’s a no-go for things like CAD or games.

View on HN

Windows in a vm with a passed through GPU is really nice. Although still pretty niche these days it's easier than it used to be. It also works with a single GPU, e.g. on a laptop.

I personally have a desktop PC with an AMD GPU and then another Nvidia GPU that I pass through to windows hosts. I have a hook that changes the display output and switches the inputs using evdev.

It's really nice if you have two seperate GPUs in your computer?

Most computers do. All laptops and most desktops have an integrated GPU on the CPU.

That's the first. Do you have sources most have more?

He’s right. Laptops have integrated graphics, but all mid-tier and higher laptops also have a dedicated GPU. Desktops are similar, though my guess is a lot of business desktops have only the integrated graphics.

As I mentioned, can be done with a single GPU as well, just makes it a bit more complicated to set up.

I prefer to just have two (or three) GPUs than have Windows as the base OS.

If you can GPU passthrough (it's quite simple to set up), this is not a large issue. You're right that Linux is sorely lacking in native creative software though!

> who need to use Windows for productivity apps and those who don’t.

LibreOffice has gotten quite good over the years, including decent(ish) MSO file format interoperability, and Thunderbird seems to support Exchange Server.

So, I suppose things like MS Project or MS Visio many not have decent counterparts (maybe, I don't really know), but otherwise, it seems like you don't need-need to use Windows for productivity apps.

Last I looked, Thunderbird used Exchange Web Services to connect to Office365 which Microsoft is getting rid of: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/exchange/retirement... (I point out Office365 since vast majority of "Exchange" users are on 365)

It also only support email and not calendaring/contacts.

That being said, Office365 Web Client is pretty good at this point and someone who doesn't live in Office all day can probably get along fine with it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com