Switching to Linux, With a Virtualization Twist

[XXX_BlueFire_XXX]

Hello All!

 

I recently decided that my next PC build will run linux as it's main OS. I'm very excited. With that in mind, I thought I'd reach out to the community for some advice.

 

Aim:

1. Gaming

What distributions would best allow me to game without losing general use of the machine (open to a multi distro system, actually am very interested in the idea)?

What workarounds (Wine, Steam, Virtualization etc.) has everyone found for software compatibility issues (Windows, etc.)? How do they affect system performance?

Finally, I want to have a windows virtual machine on my system to game, what kind of hardware / performance complications might I run into? Would I need multiple GPUs? (I'd like to run MSFS 2020 on 2 - 3 1080p monitors at around 30 FPS at high to ultra settings)

Note: I really like how Some Ordinary Gamers utilizes a virtual machine to play Windows only titles. The only thing I want Microsoft to know about me is that I play a lot of BF2 with the bois lol. So if you're look for a reference on what I mean, he has a few videos talking on the subject.

 

2. CAD

How will switching to linux affect my ability to do CAD for work / personal use? (I utilize mainly SolidWorks for now)

Can I utilize a virtualization layer to do CAD work in Windows?

Are there any CAD programs that run natively on Linux?

 

3. Compatibility

For those who switched, how did it affect your ability to interact with the rest of the world in terms of general documents (office suite, etc.)?

Anything I should know about sending files to others to make sure it's something they can open them?

 

Thank you for any information you're able to provide!

[delph]

27 minutes ago, XXX_BlueFire_XXX said:

Aim:

 

1. Gaming

 

Most Debian distros are pretty versatile for both office work and games - but Arch is also well-equipped for both. I haven't tried Fedora in several years, but know it is very popular for offices.

I would suggest something Ubuntu-based as it's pretty stable, and basically the "standard". You'll find a lot of programs online that are released for "Linux" are only released as deb (Debian) files. Pop!_OS is pretty popular for gaming recently, but standard Ubuntu is solid. I use Linux Mint which is also Ubuntu based.

 

Steam allows you to run "Windows-only" through the Steam client without much work. I haven't widely tested this (most of the games I play have Linux support already) - so I'll hold off on commenting. The support seems quite good - though if you're already interested in running a Windows VM, you might get better results there.

 

27 minutes ago, XXX_BlueFire_XXX said:

2. CAD

 

Check out Solidworks' site/customer support and find out if there's any issues running it on Linux. A lot of CAD stuff runs on Linux and there's multiple open source CAD programs out there. Though, if you already have experience with Solidworks, I'd see if it runs natively on Linux before trying to switch to another one.

 

27 minutes ago, XXX_BlueFire_XXX said:

3. Compatibility

 

LibreOffice and OpenOffice work great. You can export files in .doc, .ppt, .xlsx and so on. They will also edit those files  (and docx/pptx etc) without issue. The only thing I've had trouble with was some lost animations a few years ago when transferred between different programs (made in OpenOffice, then edited on WPS, and finally edited on PowerPoint). Since switching to LibreOffice (which comes on most distros nowadays), I've had no issues at all. Printers are easy to interact with through Linux, but this is can depend on the printer.

[RONOTHAN##]

19 minutes ago, XXX_BlueFire_XXX said:

What distributions would best allow me to game without losing general use of the machine (open to a multi distro system, actually am very interested in the idea)?

Technically speaking, distro doesn't matter. Linux is linux at its core, and the distro just determines the preinstalled software, the package manager, and the default settings. You can, with the right amount of error, make one distro into another. 

 

That said, you should probably stick with a distro designed for new users if you're asking. Pop_OS! is a great choice for first time users, since it has fairly up to date software while being Ubuntu at its core so you maintain the immense documentation you get from the Debian branch of Linux. Plus, it's not that hard to setup QEMU VMs on Pop_OS!. 

22 minutes ago, XXX_BlueFire_XXX said:

What workarounds (Wine, Steam, Virtualization etc.) has everyone found for software compatibility issues (Windows, etc.)? How do they affect system performance?

Depends on the application. Personally, I just try to use Linux native software wherever possible, and don't usually bother with gaming on Linux. For everything else, there is a Linux native application that don't have too great a learning curve and are very powerful. Wine, Proton, and Lutris exist, but you wanna avoid having to use them unless there isn't a Linux native version. As for how it affects performance, it really just depends. 

 

25 minutes ago, XXX_BlueFire_XXX said:

Finally, I want to have a windows virtual machine on my system to game, what kind of hardware / performance complications might I run into? Would I need multiple GPUs? (I'd like to run MSFS 2020 on 2 - 3 1080p monitors at around 30 FPS at high to ultra settings)

If you want to have VMs to run certain Windows games, then more than likely you'll need to have multiple GPUs. There is a way to do it with some higher end Nvidia GPUs (excluding Ampere), but it's a whole other can of worms and takes a lot of effort to setup. Multiple GPUs and GPU passthrough to the Windows VM is your best bet for this. 

 

In terms of other hardware, make sure you've got enough cores and RAM to have one of your VMs use it. 

29 minutes ago, XXX_BlueFire_XXX said:

For those who switched, how did it affect your ability to interact with the rest of the world in terms of general documents (office suite, etc.)?

Anything I should know about sending files to others to make sure it's something they can open them?

For most things, just make sure to hit "Save as .docx" or whatever file format the Windows equivalent uses and you're good to go. Some formatting can be messed up on Word documents, but for the most part everything does transfer over pretty easily without much issue in my experience.

[XXX_BlueFire_XXX]

Hi All!

 

Thanks for your detailed advice, I really appreciate it. Was away for a while for the holiday though these messages have given me a great place to start!

 

For gaming it seems that it would be best to run the programs on their native operating systems. Since I'll already be creating a fully functional Windows VM within my system, I may just put all windows only compatible games on their rather than attempting to use a wine. As for the steam compatibility layer, maybe I'll just do a comparison between it and the Windows VM to determine any performance difference.

 

On 12/28/2021 at 4:45 PM, delph said:

A lot of CAD stuff runs on Linux and there's multiple open-source CAD programs out there.

Could you give me a few examples of some open-source CAD programs that you utilize / proprietary ones which are compatible with Linux? I'm very open to learning new platforms so this will give me a great place to start.

 

On 12/28/2021 at 4:49 PM, RONOTHAN## said:

If you want to have VMs to run certain Windows games, then more than likely you'll need to have multiple GPUs. There is a way to do it with some higher end Nvidia GPUs (excluding Ampere), but it's a whole other can of worms and takes a lot of effort to setup. Multiple GPUs and GPU passthrough to the Windows VM is your best bet for this. 

Do you recommend any specific resources where I could learn more about this topic? 

 

Thanks again for all your help!

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, XXX_BlueFire_XXX said:

Do you recommend any specific resources where I could learn more about this topic? 

 

Don't know exactly which you're referring to, so I'll just say both. 

 

For the splitting a single GPU, look at the vGPU unlock script. They have their own wiki for how to set this up, including for running everything on one GPU. It does take a lot of work to setup, but it works. 

 

For dual GPUs, you're gonna be looking into something called IOMMU. This is basically GPU passthrough. Level1Techs does a lot of stuff on it, since Wendell (the guy who runs it) is very big in the Linux scene but also needs some Windows applications to run, basically the situation your in. There is a ton of stuff out there on IOMMU, how to set it up on almost every distro, what you can do with it, what you can't do with it, etc. 

[delph]

None that I have professional or significant experience with, but open-source: LibreCAD, OpenSCAD, and FreeCAD. FreeCAD was fine, nothing special and not particularly easy to use.

 

I know AutoCAD is the standard. I have a friend who professionally uses Dassault Catia, and have also heard good things about Solidworks and Rhino 3D (though, some of these are design software which may not connect to a CNC router), and are notably, not free.