ZDoom

So... I see a lot of users migrating to Linux, or have already done so, due to Windows 11 being at best spyware riddled, and at worst, unusable slop.

I've considered the plunge into using Linux as a daily driver. There's a few things that are holding me back.

1.) My art program is Macromedia Flash 8 (or Adobe Animate 2023 in imperial units) and doesn't work well with Wine

I was able to get Macromedia Flash 8 to install on Wine but I could not get the Wintab driver support to work at all. It just registered it as a mouse. I have both a Wacom Intuos Pro and an XP Pen Artist 13 Pro and neither of them work with Wine at all, even with native Linux drivers available for both.

I sometimes get people going "just use [FOSS equivalent here]. I've tried Inkscape, Synfig, and even Krita and none scratch the itch to Adobe Animate/Macromedia Flash's vector tools. For me it's an accessibility thing. As shit as Adobe is as a company, I find Animate to be the only program I can comfortably draw in, either Macromedia Flash 8 or Adobe Animate.

I know it seems counterintuitive to try to use Animate/Flash this way, but truthfully if I can't have access to this art program, I might as well give up drawing for good at this point.

2.) I listen to a lot of emulated video game music and I don't know any music program on Linux that can play it

This one is less frustrating as I could use multiple programs, but I'm not really sure about what's the best program for these sorts of things.

3. I'm in the middle of two GZDoom related productions. I don't wanna have to rebuild my whole toolchain, especially targeting Windows still.

This one surprisingly gets a lot of people frustrated at me when I tell them that. It's like the equivilent of buying a new car in the middle of a road trip because your current one works but is a brand you despise and might die at any moment.

As much as I'd like to switch... it's neigh impossible for these reasons.

In short, I have no idea what to do. I've entertained the idea of dual booting, but people give me mixed reports on Windows allowing that nowadays, as well as I'd hate to have to reboot my computer into Linux or Windows depending on what I need to do in the moment.

In the past I've been called by someone a Windows/Microsoft bootlicker for not switching for these reasons. I wish I was joking/taking the piss/whatnot.

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I guess my question is: am I stuck on Windows or am I missing some vital information that could help me along.

SanyaWaffles wrote: ↑Fri Aug 15, 2025 10:21 pm So... I see a lot of users migrating to Linux, or have already done so, due to Windows 11 being at best spyware riddled, and at worst, unusable slop.

Fixed it for ya

I made the switch when Windows 7 went EOL and was fortunate enough to have prior UNIX experience for 20 years. The things that kept me back until a couple of years ago were Paint.Net (using Pinta now) and UDB (works, somewhat jankily, on Linux natively now).

For music playback, it would be helpful to know what the types of these files are; however, the best all round player is VLC Media Player; it can play most things and is in the software store or most Linux distros.

For vector graphics, sorry I have no idea

I had to rebuild my toolchain too; but it was much easier since bash, as a scripting language, is light years better than ... cmd But it did take some time.

2.) I listen to a lot of emulated video game music and I don't know any music program on Linux that can play it

Try Deadbeef.
(I currently use Foobar2000 + Wine for this stuff, but i used Deadbeef before.)

SanyaWaffles wrote: ↑Fri Aug 15, 2025 10:21 pm In short, I have no idea what to do. I've entertained the idea of dual booting, but people give me mixed reports on Windows allowing that nowadays, as well as I'd hate to have to reboot my computer into Linux or Windows depending on what I need to do in the moment.

Whoever is giving mixed reports is just a doomsayer. The closest that happened is 1) Windows RT devices were locked down. These are the Windows 8/8.1 ARM devices. The newer Windows 10/11 ARM devices as far as I know are not (although they have other issues that need to be worked through before running alternate operating systems on them is actually a good experience). 2) Microsoft recently started requiring that prebuilt computers ship with secure boot set so that by default 3rd party operating systems can't be loaded. This is a toggle in the UEFI setup. Conceivably a vendor could be dumb and not provide that toggle, but that'd be the vendor's choice. 3) Prebuilt computers are now shipped with full disk encryption turned on which can get in the way of repartitioning. You can, however, just turn encryption off in Windows.

This doesn't stop people certain people from extrapolating rumors and not adjusting their opinions when they don't pan out. Could this conceivably change in the future, sure, but as of now the biggest hurdle is you might need to flip a switch in the UEFI setup. Since you're already running Linux so you can definitely dual boot if you want.

With that said, with your specific problem you'd probably get what you need by just running Windows in a virtual machine on Linux. You can pass through USB devices to the VM so you'd be able to install the Wacom driver. Probably far more convenient than restarting the computer to run one program.