Building a New-to-me computer & want to move to Linux + virtual machine, any experiances?

So Thanks to the generosity and some great deals from some members here on BLF I was able to trade my way to the parts to finally update both mine and my Moms work computers for the first time in 10 years (I was using a Q9550 and hers is an E6600).

I have been wanting to move over to Linux full time but both of us need windows only program for work such as Office, Adobe, DXO, sony vegas, solidworks ect.

I have been using virtual box for years and love most of the features it offers and it has been pretty stable as well. Only issue is the lack of directx support seems to cause issues with some programs and drivers installing. I hear VMware is better.

Does anyone have any experience running a linux base system (most likely ubuntu/mint) with virtual machine for windows as a daily driver / work computer under heavy work loads?

Also does a virtual machine support multiple monitors very well? Both of us run 3 monitor setups

Any tips would be great, first time updating anything computer related in 10 years so I am out of the loop to say the least.

Side note: I am still looking for a few computer items if anyone has some things you are getting rid of. In particular a small 12-14” laptop / tablet for my Mom, preferably with usb 3.0 and HDMI.

Also 8-12tb+ of hard drives, NAS, Video cards that support 3 monitors, Monitors themselves, these are 10 years old and well past their use by date, SSD for working/swap drive, USB 3.0 dock/hub with fast SD card reader, USB 3 PCIe card, 5.25/3.5” front panel USB 3.0 port/SD card reader among other stuff.

I use VirtualBox. Never had any problems with it, but probably never used any DirectX software on it. I never needed multiple monitors, but a quick search shows that it’s possible:

As far as I know DirectX is proprietary technology of Microsoft, so any non-Microsoft implementation of it would be illegal. Not 100% sure though.

Lol. Someone might want to tell the people over at Wine.

Anyway using Linux as a host for Windows VMs works very nicely. It makes administration easy as pie. You can have a fresh base install that is never modified and then overlay software installs. “Reinstalling Windows” is as simple as not loading the overlay. I haven’t tried much with multiple monitors.

GPU passthrough and virtualization instructions means little performance is lost. Though I use the VM as a last resort if Wine doesn’t work. It is scary how good Wine is. I’ve had games run faster under Wine than natively in Windows on the same hardware.

Yeah, that is how I understood it as well, I think they get around it by not implementing the directX themselves but simply building in the support structure so that directX can work.

I have been doing some research recently and have seen several people say that got directX to work in virtual machines, even enough to play full AAA games in virtual machines with GPU passthrough.

Linustechtips has a few videos running multiple virtual machines and games off the same computer using unraid.

Which brings me to another question, what is the best virtual machine software for a linux host? Virtualbox and VMware are both good but I have heard about another system that UNraid is based on but it has proven hard to find details on how to actually use it without unraid.

Indeed, all the reasons you listed and more are why I want to move to a virtual machine. I LOVE save states as well, that way I can keep all the files and programs for a project open and simply save the state and come back whenever I need it again.

What VM are you using?

I have tried wine but found the learning curve difficult (keep in mind I have only used linux as a hobby/secondary system) course I was also trying to get Adobe CS6 to work which I hear is basically impossible.

How hard is the GPU passthrough setup? I was looking into that myself but virtualbox seems to have issues and VMware does not seem to officially support it?

Also, I am not married to a linux distro yet, I just prefer to stick with the big ones so that support is easier to find. Ubuntu and mint are the main ones I have used in the past. Any recommendations?

Also I might try swapping my family over to linux before long as well but they hate the “old, boring and ugly” desktops most have, any good modern and sexy looking desktops to consider?

I use Elementary os which is Ubuntu based but is much better looking. You can replace office with libre office and save to docx as default. The other programs might actually need a windows virtual box. With some research you can go fully Linux by finding programs that will replace the windows counterparts.

I also use openmediavault for a NAS and works really well.

How recently have you used Wine? Adobe CS6 version 13.0 has been tested with the 3.0 version of Wine and has a Silver rating (There are Gold and Platinum ratings above that). But, according to the test write-up, the only thing that didn’t work was reading camera RAW data. So, YMMV.

Why do you need this? Virtualbox supports 3D accelerated graphics to the guest OS. If you need direct hardware access, you might be better of dual booting.

Ubuntu is still a reasonable choice for beginners. Depending how long ago you tried it, the interface may have changed from what you were using. But, it is actually fairly intuitive, so the learning curve shouldn’t be too bad.

If you want a really cool looking desktop, you may want Compiz Fusion installed. It’s a fancy 3D window compositor. I don’t know of any distributions that have it enabled by default, but several have it available, including Ubuntu, which uses Compiz Core (the stripped-down model LOL!) to render some of its effects.

I think I considered Elementary at one point but was worried about the stability of the distro at the time (aka, if it would be kept up to date).

Yeah, I have tried the linux alternative to most of these programs but they just are not up to the same level last I tried them.

For office my Mom has hundreds of macros and settings setup exactly how she needs them, is it possible to transfer all of those settings and macros to Liberoffice? I have not looked if it supports office macros. I have wanted to switch her from office 2003 (anything newer is “too smart for it’s own good” and annoys her) for some time.

Adobe, DXO, Vegas and solidworks do not have competitors worth talking about on linux that I have seen (no, Gimp does not count for my uses).

Another issue are the little programs like an advanced file finder my Mom uses that allows her to rename files within the program itself like explorer, she refuses to use anything that does not allow that.

It was still wine 1.x or maybe 2.0 had just come out last I tried, good to see they are still moving it forward.

I don’t need GPU passthrough but some of the programs I use like vegas and premire can use the GPU for rendering tasks and I was not sure if this is possible without it.

For me personally I can use anything, I look for the most compatible and widely supported version myself but for my family they want something that looks pretty. Mint has looked like the a good option so far since it also mimics windows to some extent.

Compiz Fusion is interesting but their larger complaint is in how basic and boring everything looks. Like the windows themselves just being grey featureless and non-transparent feels very 1990’s, which I do have to agree with. It reminds me of using computers about 15-20 years ago. I get that all the fancy looking stuff just uses more processing power but in the day of massive power left over, it is worth it IMHO.

Elementary os has been pretty good and stable for me and I get updates every now and then with no issues. I dont think libre office will take those macros that were built on microsoft office.
I agree that most of the programs that are meant to replace other software that is expensive just isn’t up to par. They only have basic functionality it seems.

Running these programs from wine compatibility layer is a nightmare as well.

Yeah, that I’m not sure about. I haven’t ever had to try that.

There are a lot of distributions nowadays that “look pretty” actually. It’s a matter of taste, though. Maybe check out Distrowatch.com. Look at the ranking list on the right side of the page. Click any distribution name to be taken to the description page, which usually has a desktop screenshot you can look at.

Compiz Fusion is what gives you transparency among other special effects. The actual window borders and colors can always be changed, but if you pick out a nice looking distribution from Distrowatch, then that part will have been done for you. IMHO, Ubuntu is nice looking. But, there are better looking desktops. You just have to look around to find what you ( and/or your family) like(s).

Ubuntu has you (and your Mom) covered. No need for another 3rd party app for “advanced file finder” functionality - it’s built right in.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had any virtual machine installed, so my experience if surely super outdated, but I remember performance of the virtual machine being prohibitive for anything other than light tasks. Of course, modern computers are many more times more powerful and virtualization is more efficient, so it might be feasible, my last computer upgrade made photoshop run like the wind, so who knows, you might not run into performance problems with it virtualized in your new hardware

I have looked through distrowatch in the past my biggest problem with it is you never know which distros will keep being supported down the road outside of the top handful. Once I pick a distro there is a good likelihood I will be using it for another decade so I want it to be supports naturally.

I actually liked the old ubuntu unity desktop more then the gnome they are moving to now. I tried the gnome version but was not very impressed which is why I have been considering mint this time around.

I will look into Compiz Fusion deeper, all I found in a quick google were videos from 2007 that looked like it just added some fancy alt-tab transitions and the like.

I will fully admit that linux file system is still one of the biggest hurdles I have with linux. I am used to seeing my hard drive and everything on it. With linux I just can’t seem to do that, everything in these funky folders that don’t seem to correlate with actual folder on the drive (If I type the folder into a terminal without fail it can not find it and I have to add a bunch of stuff before it by a copy/paste).

It just never made sense. I am very particular in how my files are organized and have some deep trees to keep it all sorted out.

Even with virtualbox running in windows I have been impressed with the performance in the virtual machines. My biggest hurdle thus far has been lack of SSD storage and lack of ram.

I’ll try to not make this a book but no promises. I’ve been running primarily linux for many years now and for a few years with a VM for some things, I still have a windows install used for some games. For the VM I use QEMU with a pass-through, which I think the pass-through problems are the same regardless but you have to be very careful how you setup the graphics cards so they can be isolated. They have to be on different busses and depending on the drivers and card brands you use not all combos work. I use a Nvidia host and AMD guest and I know an Nvidia guest will not work at least with a Nvidia host, and I can’t use my CPU’s Intel because it’s on the same buss as other things and my host card has to sit in one of the X8 PCI-E slots because the X16 is on it’s own bus which I can separate out for the guest card. Oh and you can’t install any new versions of Solidworks (like past 2013) on a VM, or at least this VM during the install it just says you’re not allowed to install it on a VM. Honestly moving forward my plan might be just a second computer with synergy or a KVM. Using a VM for advanced applications is a delicate balancing game of convenience and cost. Sure a second computer cost more but I need to buy a 2nd GPU anyway for pass-through and that’s a big chunk of the cost with most applications, and also need a nice stack of ram in the host to run two OSes at once. So peripherals are easier to pass-through but you still need to switch the monitor since the pass-through has to have it’s own input. If very small amounts of lag aren’t an issue then synergy is pretty good, haven’t used it much recently but it’s pretty seamless. Because the first rule of any linux thread is to say what distro you use, I use Arch and while it’s probably decreasing my life span from stress related to updates breaking things I can’t really see myself using windows as my primary OS. That being said it really depends on the person, as much as linux fanboys like to think it, linux is not for everybody but if it is you know it.

Yeah, I have heard about those issues with the GPU passthrough as well, I was not sure if it had improved any.

I did the 2 computer thing with a KVM for many years and it just got really annoying since I only need the second PC occasionally and so I left it off most of the time.

Synergy is an option if I could find a nice low powered system that would not use a lot of power leaving it on 24/7.

I have been thinking about getting something like this to use as a media box but not sure if it can handle H265 @ 1080p.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/222923789749

Yeah, I agree the Gnome desktop they’re using now isn’t the best (in fact, I said it above :wink: ). Honestly, even more than the old Unity, I really liked the (now way long gone) Ubuntu Netbook Edition desktop, which was (visually, at least) a pre-cursor to Unity. I think it was my all-time favorite desktop layout. But really, the coolest thing about Linux is how customizable it is. You could literally have any look you want - even a Windows or Mac -like desktop is possible.

As far as longevity, I couldn’t promise you that ANY of the now-existing distributions will still be around in 10 years, but at least the larger ones should be. With that, I’d expect most of the mid-size-or-larger off-shoots of those main distributions should also survive at least that long. In fact, most of those still maintain backwards compatibility to their parent. So, even if you were using some off-shoot of Ubuntu and the group responsible for that distribution were to dissipate in the near future, you could merge your computer back into main Ubuntu without too much effort, even keeping the apps and desktop look/feel that you have been using. The reason this works is because of how Linux distributions do “package management”, which also makes updates and upgrades faster, easier, and safer, not only for the OS, but for your apps as well.

Yeah, that is why I have been sticking to ubuntu / mint as my first choices up to now, pretty sure they will still be around for quite a awhile.

I will be honest, I have never used linux through lifecycle, I always end up reinstalling it long before that and don’t even bother transferring anything but my data from my old install.

You also bring up why I have considered just using ubuntu and then modding it to feel like I want, although I could not find a desktop a year or 2 ago with near the refinement and prettiness to make my family happy (or myself to be honest). They are all just so basic and boring, it makes it feel like an industrial workstation.

I tried to switch to linuix for a few months about 2 years ago but it was flat out rejected on this basis by everyone else and I was not even trilled with the desktop myself. It just didn’t seem as refined as windows 7.

Anyone know of a windows desktop clone that actually works? Or heck even mac is better then anything I have seen from linux when it comes to visual appeal and refinement.

Due to a development time required many of the “fancy” desktops are not always super reliable. Like in total I think KDE, or plasma as I guess they’ve now decided to call it is far nicer than windows or mac. So many nice features like the control over the windows, so for instance I have many programs that start automatically and they all have window controls so they are locked into a place on a monitor and that’s where they stay, while others are only semi locked or not locked at all. But with all these comes the fact it breaks a lot.

Depending on how much performance you need there are many small computers that can run advanced programs sufficiently and most modern computers use very little power in sleep mode and wake quite quickly. But if using synergy the host has to be on to use the guest but you can just make the host the one you use more, still will have monitor switching concerns, I always just did it by giving each their own monitor But with my VM I just hit the input switch button on my middle monitor and have the VM pass-through using the VGA input, it’s reasonably quick and easy and I can still use the other monitors normally in linux at the same time. No matter what it’s going to be complicated with linux and windows running at the same time in some way.