completely cut off windows???
 

I'm certain this has been asked before but having a real hard time finding an answer/option... I have a Mac as my main computer. My next best is an aging pc running Windows 7. After having installed cruncbang and ubuntu on 2 older laptops I have to say I love it and am itching to use it on my pc desktop...But
Even though I use it for very little, my Windows pc really comes in handy. For instance--I needed it to run an .exe file to root my phone. The sixaxis pair tool was a LOT simpler for Windows than Mac and various other tasks I've needed to run.
I hesitate to install Linux leaving me with no Windows option but feel like I'm missing out . You see where my question is a little hard to fit into a search?
I guess what I really want is advice or guidance. For Linux users: Are you ever in a situation where you can't perform certain tasks because Linux simply doesn't have the program available?
I've got the install ready to go and anxious to do it but afraid I might be setting myself up for dissapointment down the road if I need to do something my Linux machine or Mac can't do...thanks for reading. I look forward to hearing from you.

No. But I don't have any special windows-only programs that I have to use. My girlfriend, in contrast, must use certain Windows programs for her work--that's one reason I haven't been able to wean her from it.

I would suggest that you set up your desktop to dual-boot Windows and Linux. Then you can boot over into Windows when you need it.

Some persons like to completely replace Windows, then install Windows in a VM, but I think that, if you already have a Windows computer, that's rather roundabout.

Note that Windows 7 will likely already have four primary partitions. That is not an issue to Linux--you can install Linux quite nicely to an extended partition. That's exactly what I did to that computer over there.----------------->

This article addresses setting up dual-boot with Mint or Ubuntu, but the general principles apply to any Linux distro.

I have a couple indispensable programs/devices that have no linux alternative. My solution is to run a windows and linux desktop side-by-side, with transparent file sharing between the two.

The obstacles I have to linux only is that I run my business on quickbooks, and an use an on-demand thermal label printer with no linux drivers.

No. I haven't had that problem in the 14 years that I have used Linux.

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Steve Stites

P.S. On second thought I remember a problem once with Sharp. They gave me a Sharp Zaurus for free for me to write application programs for it. After I got the Zaurus the Sharp help desk told me that the compiler and other development programs only worked on Windows. I never did write any programs for the Zaurus.

Yes - for me there's always something coming along that absolutely requires native Windows. Often it's software to interface with some specialized piece of equipment, or to analyze some specialized data. For the last few months it's been Bat Detectors (my girlfriend is a Wildlife Biologist, and I do a lot of setup and troubleshooting for her).

That's why I've been dual booting Windows and Linux ever since I started using Linux more than 15 years ago. Right now I'm dual booting Windows 7 and openSuse Linux. Mostly I run the same software on both platforms, and they can share the same data, so it doesn't really matter on a day to day basis which one I'm using. Sometimes I forget which one I'm on!

I guess it all depends on your computer situation. At home the family uses Windows because they're not technical, don't care much, but do want things like iTunes and the actual Microsoft Office programs because that's what they're taught in school. The biggest things I had to really teach them is to not click away and to not disable the ad and script blocking I installed on Firefox, and to stay away from Internet Explorer. Meanwhile I have only Linux on my home system.

iTunes is the biggest one I know of that people can't find a substitute for.

The Linux Office alternatives are great and I have no problems with them, but some people do in converting documents, I try to use the ODT standards with documents.

When I say it depends on the situation. For myself at a personal level, it's all Linux, not even dual boot. At work I develop for both Linux and Windows and therefore have ONE Linux development machine and SEVERAL Windows development machines because of XP, Win7/8, plus 32/64-bit. Shameful, but for real. From my perspective it's obnoxious to develop applications which are capable of running on multiple Windows versions, even though their tools claim to be able to do this. Their own people can't really answer your questions about stuff like that. That's what I have to tell people who ask me why I have 5 computers in my office.

As one or more have offered, perhaps dual boot is best for you. Personally I'd recommend you maintain a Windows only system as long as you do need it and get something cheap/free to use for Linux. It'll be interesting on the dual boot. I get you that there are certain programs which you've found which do stuff like root your phone. What happens when eventually you get a new phone? I'm wondering how often you'll boot to Windows. Perhaps eventually you may find that for your home needs, you never end up booting to Windows, seems like that happens to a lot of us here who have been on the forum or involved with Linux for years.

Best of luck. It's really your choice. Remember that you can grab some moderately old system and put Linux on it, or a small system. For instance I purchased an Intel ATOM equivalent of a Netbook, but with their free Linux OS. Something like a 129 Gig HD and maybe 4 or 8 Gig of RAM. It's super lightweight, only like a 7 or 8" screen, tiny keyboard, but can run off the battery for about 6 or more hours and it cost me under $200. I think it was $189. Or you can cobble up a cheap system using a Raspberry Pi or a BeagleBoard along with a monitor, keyboard, mouse and some storage cards.

Yes - pretty often actually. Usually it's related to hardware interfacing as sgage mentioned, but there are also more mundane tasks that simply have no truly compatible Linux equivalent, eg: Microsoft Office, iTunes, CAD, etc.

The last phone I rooted was a Evo4G LTE and I used Debian to do it, don't need Windows for this. Easier to do with Windows? maybe, but having to maintain a Windows desktop compared to a basic Linux desktop for home use is much more time consuming. Linux wins here.
I do have a Windows 7 virtual machine, on both my work and personal desktop Debian and CentOS machines. I rarely use the win7 VM at home, actually I cant even remember the last time I used it, must have been about a year ago. The one at work I do use occasionally, because of specific applications for our pbx phone system, firmware updates on HP printers, and other random minuscule things, but you can definitely have Linux as your main desktop and if you absolutely need to use Windows-only applications then a Virtual Machine would be perfect and you can use Linux for everything else.

Interesting point. OP perhaps you should google how to root your phone model and include "linux" in the search string. Perhaps you'll find what you need there; thus alleviating you from any Windows need.

when i rooted my nexus-7 there was a windows *.bat file. reading the file i found that it was just making a call to adb and copying a few files.

the author of the hax has since included a *.sh script for mac and linux as well.

I started computing in June 1990 with DOS, went through various MS Windows versions upto Vista; that did it for me.
I have been Linux (& BSD) ever since December 1999. There are no programs I need that do not run on Linux.

I am afraid it is a fact that sometimes you need to have a running Windows around. But to me it seems dual booting is extremely awkward.

We have left single tasking in the DOS era, now would you boot your Windows machine everytime hen you have to edit a Word document and then boot again in Linux because you need to retrieve that e-mail, and then boot Windows again to finish your Word document?

I have left a Windows partition on my laptop in case I have to send it in for repair, and for the very rare occasion that I have to connect a device to the bare hardware on which Windows is running.

Running Windows in a VM is completely satisfactory and much, much more convenient for the 99% of all other situations.

jlinkels

WPS office (currently in alpha) and Softmaker office both available for linux and offer a nearly 100% read/write experience with MS Office formats including their XML formats (.docx, .xslx, etc). WPS office even uses a ribbon interface so looks a lot like MS Office. I use both on several of my machines, and since I only have 2 licenses of Softmaker office run Softmaker Freeoffice (which lacks the ability to write the MS XML formats) on the rest of the machines. The only thing I was missing was an easy way to print out labels, and I recently found the glabel software, so have even less reason to ever boot Windows now.

Libreoffice/Openoffice offers the ability to read MS formats, however in my experience it's ability to write their formats is, at best, second rate half-functional. I've never been able to actually use Calligra long enough to test meaningfully, the UI is just so hideous on it.

As for hardware, I haven't had anything in the last 5 or 6 years that doesn't work on linux. I had back in the day, but it's been a long time.

IMO, if you don't require the graphics acceleration of a full Windows, and have only very few needs for it, virtualbox + windows install is the best way to go. I do dual-boot myself, but only because Empire at War and Sins of a Solar Empire will never be ported to linux, and I still enjoy those games.