Then codeweavers would just have to make money out of support etc, like MySQL, I suppose.

I don’t have a lot of windows only apps I use, I’ve found great open source alternatives for almost everything and in my line of work more and more apps are coming out in multiple flavors.

For those “must have” windows apps I use an XP VM via VMware player.

To me this is an ideal setup – I can still run Windows if I have to (Ie for those apps that just won’t play nice with Wine) plus I have the stability and security of Linux.

I also use Smoothwall (Linux based) as a firewall for my home connections – If you have an old computer lying around I’d suggest checking it out. It’s a bulletproof free firewall that does a whole lot of things you wouldn’t expect for free software.

see: http://wine-review.blogspot.com/2008/03/codeweavers-to-release-crossover-games.html

I use excel on a daily basis via the version a version of wine maintained by codeweavers.

OpenOffice was just too slow and lacked the advanced Excel features that I actually make use of and Fireworks just has no equivalent on Linux. Ultimately I have two choices for a usable OS, Mac or Windows. Linux just doesn’t have the public support from companies to be worthwhile. I still like it though. Shame really.

Google recently ponyed up the cash to codeweavers to get photoshop CS3 working. As someone who knows GIMP in and out, there’s things photochop will do that the gimp just can’t match.

Plus, you shouldn’t forget about all the businesses out there that had a custom application package developed for them in something like visual basic or visual C that they’re partially tied to, WINE provides them a way to migrate to linux now, and redevelop the application later.

I’ve also not found a decent video editor package for linux that works reliably yet, a few are on their way, but they’re not quite there yet until gstreamer improves a bit.

It’s not really the need for Microsoft, it’s the need for running applications which users are already proficient in using.

Plus it doesn’t hurt that current versions of WINE have pretty good DirectX 9 support and many recent games work fine on modern hardware.

AMD+ATI have recently dropped the 780G bomb, $89 motherboard with a built in Radeon 3200 HD (open source 3D soon! Read more @ phoronix.com ), drop a $100 BE-2400 Athlon X2, and a $80 4GB 2x2GB Mushkin PC2-5300 for a screaming fast PC under $300. Ubuntu runs amazingly quickly on it. And so do winnt applications. And even OSX with pearpc or mac-on-linux.sf.net, or just virtualize it: http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/hack-attack-install-leopard-on-your-pc-in-3-easy-steps/

Any way you go, linux is the most flexible. EVERYTHING runs on linux. And linux runs on everything. And so the world was saved.

You get the excuse, someone has to support this, but if you’re using open source, there is no application cost. Take some of the money you save by obsoleting Microsoft certified staff and hire a Linux guru. You save money in the long run.