Windows programs on Linux

Although I am a proponent of open source software, I am a proponent of excellent software, regardless of sourcing paradigm. There are some Windows programs that are more excellent than their equivalents in other operating systems, and there are some Windows programs for which no suitable alternative exists in Linux. For these, I have two solutions: I run Crossover Linux (the proprietary version of Wine), and run the Windows programs on them, or I run the VirtualBox virtual machine with Windows XP as the guest system. Here I describe my Windows-on-Linux setup. All of the programs listed here are proprietary applications that I had to pay for unless otherwise indicated.

Proprietary Wine: Codeweavers Crossover Linux

Wine is an open-source binary-compatibility layer that permits running binary Windows programs on Linux or Mac. Crossover is a proprietary version of Wine produced by Wine's chief contributors, Codeweavers, that enables Windows programs to run with minimal extra configuration. Whereas Wine typically requires a lot of application-specific tweaking to work, Crossover has already done a lot of the tweaking. I use the standard version, which costs around $40. It's primary focus is support for Microsoft Office, but it also provides heavy support for many other Windows programs. Many other Windows programs that are not officially supported by Crossover work just fine. With Crossover Linux, I am able to bridge the gap for most of the Windows applications I have that don't have Linux versions or equivalents.

Microsoft Office

Although OpenOffice.org is an equivalent of Microsoft Office, MS Office is simply the best office program there is. It is feature rich, has an easy-to-use interface, and just feels smooth. My primary quibble with OpenOffice.org is actually very minor: I love MS Word's feature where when I hover the pointer to the left of a line, it gives me the option to select the entire line—not a sentence or paragraph, but the visual line. I use this feature all the time. OpenOffice.org doesn't have this feature—I've searched extensively for it on the Web, and have confirmed that it simply doesn't exist, for whatever reason; you can select a sentence or paragraph, but no a visual line of text. That is probably a very minor detail, but it makes OpenOffice.org feel clunky to me. There are other similarly minor user interface features, but overall, I like MS Office's feel the best. Thus, I just go ahead and use it. If it were impossible to get working on Linux, I would probably switch to OpenOffice.org, but since MS Office does work on Linux (and I could buy the latest version for under $100 under the students and educators' pricing), I use what I like best—MS Office.

Using Crossover Linux, I run MS Office under Ubuntu. With version 9 of Crossover Linux, MS Word 2007 works fine for most of my extent of usage (regular editing and tracking changes) and never crashes, as it occasionally did with previous versions of Crossover. The only problem I have is with installing and using Word addons, such as Antidote and Zotero—I haven't been able to get these to work successfully. (Of course, these are both rather complex addons: I haven't got Antidote to work properly in Crossover, so it's not surprising that the Word addon doesn't work well; Zotero interacts with a Firefox extension: I have to install Windows Firefox in the same Crossover bottle with the Zotero extension in order to interface with Word—pretty messy.) Excel 2007 works great also, though I don't use its advanced features. PowerPoint 2007 also works when I occasionally use it (it didn't work in previous versions of Crossover). I haven't tried other MS Office programs in Crossover Linux 9, so I have no comment on them. The Codeweavers website has detailed information on compatibility issues for MS Office on Crossover.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Ever since Firefox 1.0, I have been an avid Firefox fan. No matter what the features might be of any new version of any new browser, nothing beats Firefox extensions, which equal or exceed 95% of any other browsers' features. Thus, the only reason I ever use Internet Explorer is for the occasional site that is compatible only with Internet Explorer; some sites, such as some high-security Quebec government sites, refuse to work if they do not detect Internet Explorer. For these occasional annoyances, Internet Explorer 6 works just fine under Crossover Linux. When Internet Explorer 6 is insufficient for a task, then I run Internet Explorer 8 on VirtualBox, as described below.

Microsoft Money

I mostly run MS Office in VirtualBox, as described below. It mostly runs fine under Crossover Linux, but it has three minor bugs: First, MS Money has a neat feature where the combo boxes both give a drop-down list and receive auto-completion text entry. I guess this is a custom combo box for this application; the result is that it is not fully smooth on Crossover: under Crossover, only half of each line is displayed, though the contents of the drop-down list are accessible. Second, a lot of the characters, such as some spaces in these special combo boxes, display as character codes, like %20 instead of a space. Third, probably due to my installing Money in a distinct Crossover bottle, when I export reports, I do not get a CSV export option, probably because it does not detect the presence of MS Excel. In any case, for these three inconveniences, it is easier to do my monthly financial book-keeping while booted into Windows, rather than in Linux under Crossover. I only run MS Money in Crossover for occasional use. I comment on MS Money in more detail below under VirtualBox.

Virtual machine: Oracle VirtualBox

Using Crossover is the most comfortable way to run Windows programs in Linux, but it doesn't work with all programs, and more complex programs do not function 100%. When Crossover is unsatisfactory, I use Oracle VirtualBox. VirtualBox is a virtual machine program, a software program that pretends that its a computer so that you can run entire operating systems within it. It was initially proprietary software created by Innotek; then Sun Microsystems bought it and released an open source version with a little less functionality than the regular version, which is freeware for non-commercial usage. However, I've always used the freeware non-commercial version because the open source version does not support USB connections, which I do need occasionally. Since Oracle bought Sun, Oracle now owns VirtualBox. I've used Parallels in the past (up to 2007), and it was way too slow. Since I discovered the freeware VirtualBox in late 2007 or so, I never looked back. Another very popular virtual machine program is VMWare; I've never tried it, so I have no comments.

I use VirtualBox to run programs that do not run adequately on Crossover Linux. That way, I can run Windows XP within my Ubuntu system without having to dual-boot. On my computer, programs run at native speed for all practical intents and purposes (I'm not a gamer), so this is a very satisfactory solution. The only minor peeve is that I can't Alt+Tab between individual programs running in Windows in VirtualBox and programs running in Ubuntu; Alt+Tab will work from Ubuntu into the VirtualBox operating system, and among programs running within VirtualBox. However, this is a very minor peeve, and I don't really expect a workaround. I'm very happy with VirtualBox.

eMedia Guitar Method v5

This is the program I'm using to learn to play the guitar. It's a very nice song-based approach. I initially selected when looking for a guitar-software combo. However, my selection was sealed by the fact that it is the top rated guitar instructional software on TopTenReviews, whose reviews I find consistently excellent. I'll let you read their review instead of commenting further here.

The only thing I don't like about the program is that its proprietary Quicktime-based software does not run on Linux, even under Crossover Linux. This program is pretty much the only reason I regularly use Windows. Fortunately, it works great in VirtualBox, so I no longer have to dual-boot just to use it, as I used to before I installed VirtualBox. Because it is a lesson program and I have to practice regularly, that used to be a real pain, and kept me using Windows 7 way more than I normally would have.

Microsoft Money

Since the late 1990s, I've used Microsoft Money to manage my personal finances. It has easy data entry features, and I can export my transactions from my online accounts in MS Money format and then import them into MS Money. I also like its reporting features. It took a while for me to figure out how to get all  the reports I want, but I've got it down pat now. Since I got the 2004 version, I've set up my perfect financial settings, and I have no reason I can see to ever upgrade my software. I've considered switching to MoneyDance, as it is a Java program that runs natively in Linux, but in the end I decided that there's no reason to fix a system that isn't broken. Thus, MS Money is one of the reasons for which I will continue to dual-boot into Windows. I spend one whole day a month managing my finances. For minor entries and verifications throughout the month, MS Money running on Crossover Linux works just fine. There are only one or two very minor items that don't work right, but they are very tolerable for occasional use.

Note that since 2009, Microsoft has stopped selling MS Money. However, MS Money 2004 works fine for me, so I don't think this really affects me. I'll see. If I run into an insurmountable problem, I might consider MoneyDance again.