Alternatives to Microsoft?

[FourCats]

We are looking to get away from microsoft, because we don't like them.  Currently the only microsoft product we buy is windows.  If we install on Linux on the new computer that we will build "someday" will it run programs that require windows, such as the sims games?  Or is there another non-microsoft OS that you would recommend.  We still want to use our same programs, can we do it without windows?

[V]

I used Linux for a few weeks around Christmas. There are some programs that are supposed to help you with Windows programs on Linux, but they have mixed reviews. I think the one that is most loved is called "Wine" or possibly "WINE". It still could not run Sims 2 as of early January, but they were working on getting the base game to work. It is all community led, so I think they need more volunteers from the audience to test and report.

I was only using Linux to help out during my upgrade from Vista to XP, so I did not focus on making Windows programs work. I only learned enough to be able to download and install programs so that I could make a disk and get back to XP. I also took the time to download important things such as an IRC client and Dominions first.

[wes_h]

my upgrade from Vista to XP

A fine sense of style there. "Yes, I'll take that shiny new laptop and the Windows XP upgrade package, please."

It appears, from my observations of the shelves at OfficeMax Circuit City, Best Buy and the like that the Windows XP upgrade is a top selling program. Microsloth has outdone themselves with a new business strategy for increasing revenues... sell everyone two OS packages.

[Simsbaby]

It's not really much of an option when it comes to buying a computer off the shelf. Your stuck with Vista or Mac OSX if you get an Apple. "Yes, I'll take that shiny new iMac and the Windows XP upgrade package, please."

I was kind of messing with Ubuntu a bit and I tried a few programs with Wine, but none really worked. There is a list here that shows programs that work with Wine. The Sims 2 got the rating of garbage though. 

[witch]

If you upgrade Vista to WinXP it shouldn't cost anything. I used my education copy (from work) of winXP for my laptop, the MS helpline said that was fine. If you own a license to Vista, you are supposedly allowed to retrograde to any previous OS as you own the license to that too. So I was told by someone in India. From what we could understand of each other's conversation.

[V]

Right. I already had a copy of XP so it did not cost me any extra. I just had to pay for a useless OS when I got the laptop.

And I did try Vista. I gave it a good long trial basis and finally just "upgraded". My laptop runs so much better now. I did lose some functionality with my video & sound because they don't yet have drivers for the hardware that are backwards compatible, but the difference in performance far outweighs the "inconvenience" of losing cool features such as turning down the volume on individual programs rather than all or none.