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.