I had to test/fix something at work and I set up a Windows VM because it was a bug specific to Windows users. Once I was done, I thought, “Maybe I should keep this VM for something.” but I couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t a game (which probably wouldn’t work well in a VM anyway) or some super specific enterprise software I don’t really use.
I also am more familiar with the Apple ecosystem than the Microsoft one so maybe I’m just oblivious to what’s out there. Does anyone out there dual boot or use a VM for a non-game, non-niche industry Windows exclusive program?
Sadly, a few. I’d love to know if anyone knows any excellent Linux-equivalents for these:
- MakeMKV1: For ripping DVDs & Blurays
- Bulk Rename Utility – For bulk-renaming files
- Exact Audio Copy – For accurately ripping audio CDs
- Logitech G Hub2: *For controlling peripherals’ LED profiles & DPI presets
- Mp3tag3: The best fucking metadata editor ever made, that’s what!
- Paint.NET: For raster image editing (more feature-complete than MS Paint but less complex than GIMP).
- Playnite4: Platform-agnostic game launcher/manager
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: Star Wars MMO that was better pre-7.0.
- Mod Organizer 2: A mod management software that is open-source but not available on Linux? Heresy, I say!
1 Technically, it does have a Linux version, but you have to compile it yourself, and I don’t know shit about that kind of stuff. Lol.
2 I know OpenRGB exists, and it’s good enough for my needs when it comes to LED management, but it doesn’t seem to be able to control DPI presets like G Hub.
3 I tried it back in like 2016 in Ubuntu 4.x and it worked just fine in Wine, but I’m unsure if it still does as I haven’t tried it since then really. Still, any Linux-native software that can do shit just as good is something I’d love to know about. :)
4 Yes, I know there are alternatives like GameHub, Lutris, etc. but frankly none of them seem to come close to Playnite in terms of UI, UX, and sheer functionality.
Thank you! I was not aware of this!
Have you tried Asunder for CDs?
I have not! I may have to check that out! Thank you!
deleted by creator
I’m old and don’t really sail the high seas these days but does Handbrake not rip DVDs and BluRays?
Handbrake will rip DVDs, but not Blu Rays. That’s were good ol’ MakeMKV comes in.
I rip with MakeMKV (which will do DVDs as well) and then convert/encode the MKVs with Handbrake.
I do the conversion/encoding because the ripped files can be 35-50 GBs for regular Blu Rays (UHD Blu Rays are even bigger!) and I can get them down to 3-8 GBs with minimal quality loss.
I then toss the smaller MKVs on my jellyfin server.
EDIT: Handbrake CAN rip Blu Rays but only if they arent copy protected. MakeMKV is able to rip protected Blu Rays and DVDs.
Exactly. I do the same thing: rip with MakeMKV then re-encode with Handbrake. :)