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Thanks to Valve and the Steam Deck, all games that I care about now run on Linux. I sadly still need to use Excel in a VM sometimes, because the text import cr

Thanks to Valve and the Steam Deck, all games that I care about now run on Linux. I sadly still need to use Excel in a VM sometimes, because the text import crashes in Wine. But apart from that, this year has finally been the year of the Linux Desktop for me. And 3 months later, I can say that it's been a bliss :) PopOS feels exceptionally responsive. Looking back, it's hard to justify why Windows was feeling so sluggish on a PCI5 NVME with 64GB RAM and high-end GPU...

miyuru 4y ago
> I sadly still need to use Excel in a VM sometimes Any reason for not using Google sheets or similar?
- samtho 4y ago
  Sometimes it’s not up to the user if the company they work/contract for requires it.
- dzink 4y ago
  It is woefully behind if you have real number crunching to do.
  - YurgenJurgensen 4y ago
    If you need to be doing 'real number crunching', you probably shouldn't be using any spreadsheet. Excel is not MySQL or Jupyter.
    - michaelt 4y ago
      I think the Google Sheets devs would agree with you that spreadsheets shouldn't be used for anything serious. That's why it's missing such basic features as an X/Y scatter plot with a line - which is trivial in any other spreadsheet program. Personally when I have a few dozen data points and I want an X/Y plot with a line, I find a spreadsheet is a better tool than MySQL.
      - anthk 4y ago
        Gnuplot.
      - oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
        Yup, I pretty much guarantee that Google Sheets is not intended for people who need X/Y scatter plots. I would theorise that 99% of Excel users don't require that feature either.
    - Takennickname 4y ago
      MySQL and Jupyter don't have data visualization. Or are you saying the options are a) use google sheets, or b) learn to program
      - empyrrhicist 4y ago
        Jupyter absolutely includes data visualization, or rather all the major languages it supports do. But honestly, yes. Complicated work in excel is programming, it's just completely undebuggable since the logic is spread out invisibly in multiple grid dimensions, sheets, and macros. Give me a Jupyter notebook written in a language I don't yet know any day before you give me a complicated excel monstrosity.
        tracker1 4y ago
        Not a Python guy at all, but a couple of my coworkers use Jupyter notebooks a lot, and it's definitely very cool.
- fxtentacle 4y ago
  I need to send out Excel files to clients and they need to display 100% perfect when the client opens them with their Microsoft Excel. So using Google Sheets or LibreOffice is a risk, because while they work 99% of the time, they tend to break with power-user Excel features like integrated resource links.
sofixa 4y ago
> I sadly still need to use Excel in a VM sometimes, because the text import crashes in Wine. Wouldn't Excel Online be enough to do the trick? It's supposedly feature complete.
- wizzwizz4 4y ago
  It's far from feature-complete. If Excel Online is good enough for you, the faster, more stable LibreOffice Calc is good enough for you. People use Microsoft Excel for the stuff that just nothing else does.
  - sandworm101 4y ago
    Or the stuff that no other software wants to do. Macros that can upload your financial records to a Latvian server after a single click in an email? Nobody else wants to do that.
- dagw 4y ago
  It's supposedly feature complete. It is not. For one thing it is missing macros, power pivot, many solvers and support for third-party add-ons. It also screws up some visual things like text placement and the like.
- thesuitonym 4y ago
  Don't try to understand the mind of a chronic Excel user: Their minds are as unknowable as an octopus' mind.
  - mywittyname 4y ago
    I think it's more that Excel is incredibly capable. People who reach the status of Excel Power User are akin to F1 Drivers who need every seemingly absurd capability found on their steering wheels.
    - thesuitonym 4y ago
      Oh for sure, people use Excel to make the world go round. But for plebs like me, trying to understand it is just a path to madness.
mcv 4y ago
Games were the main reason I came back to Windows after trying Ubuntu with Wine over 15 years ago, then quickly switched to Mac, and when I was unhappy with Apples direction, Windows the unfortunate but obvious place to come back to. Should have gone to Linux instead. I still need to check whether all my favourite games are supported on Linux. Also, a lot of my games are from GOG rather than Steam. And I need to choose a good distribution. My laziness and indecisiveness is holding me back. But I really think the time is right for something better. An OS on a Linux-like foundation, with an Apple-style UI (but better, because plenty of stuff there still doesn't make sense), capable of running all games. Probably developed and polished by a big hardware manufacturer trying to eat Apple's lunch. There's System76 of course, but they're small. I want something that's for everybody. A new standard to draw everybody away from the increasing piles of crap from Apple and Microsoft.
- StrauXX 4y ago
  In case you don't know the site: ProtonDB offers crowd sourced reports on how well games run with Proton/Wine. With some playing around, you can run GoG games using Proton.
- eloisant 4y ago
  Nowadays you don't need to mess with Wine manually, there are a lot of tools to install Windows binaries just like they were Linux binary. You'll even forget you're using Windows versions. You can check ProtonDB for compatibility. The information is valid even if you have the GOG version of the game. For games that are not on Steam there is WineDB but I find that the UI isn't as nice as ProtonDB. Steam has a Linux launcher and let you install Windows binaries directly. For GOG or Epic games there is Heroic launcher which is very easy to use. Don't overthink your distribution choice, just go for one of the major general purpose distribution (Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, etc) and you'll be fine no matter what you pick.
  - mcv 4y ago
    Will the GOG version of the game work as well as the Steam version even if GOG doesn't list it as a Linux game while Steam does? Also, I think the choice of window manager might matter more to my experience than the choice of distribution. I find some Linux wms too clunky, too Win95.

miyuru 4y ago

> I sadly still need to use Excel in a VM sometimes Any reason for not using Google sheets or similar?

samtho 4y ago
Sometimes it’s not up to the user if the company they work/contract for requires it.
dzink 4y ago
It is woefully behind if you have real number crunching to do.
- YurgenJurgensen 4y ago
  If you need to be doing 'real number crunching', you probably shouldn't be using any spreadsheet. Excel is not MySQL or Jupyter.
  - michaelt 4y ago
    I think the Google Sheets devs would agree with you that spreadsheets shouldn't be used for anything serious. That's why it's missing such basic features as an X/Y scatter plot with a line - which is trivial in any other spreadsheet program. Personally when I have a few dozen data points and I want an X/Y plot with a line, I find a spreadsheet is a better tool than MySQL.
    - anthk 4y ago
      Gnuplot.
    - oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
      Yup, I pretty much guarantee that Google Sheets is not intended for people who need X/Y scatter plots. I would theorise that 99% of Excel users don't require that feature either.
  - Takennickname 4y ago
    MySQL and Jupyter don't have data visualization. Or are you saying the options are a) use google sheets, or b) learn to program
    - empyrrhicist 4y ago
      Jupyter absolutely includes data visualization, or rather all the major languages it supports do. But honestly, yes. Complicated work in excel is programming, it's just completely undebuggable since the logic is spread out invisibly in multiple grid dimensions, sheets, and macros. Give me a Jupyter notebook written in a language I don't yet know any day before you give me a complicated excel monstrosity.
      - tracker1 4y ago
        Not a Python guy at all, but a couple of my coworkers use Jupyter notebooks a lot, and it's definitely very cool.
fxtentacle 4y ago
I need to send out Excel files to clients and they need to display 100% perfect when the client opens them with their Microsoft Excel. So using Google Sheets or LibreOffice is a risk, because while they work 99% of the time, they tend to break with power-user Excel features like integrated resource links.

sofixa 4y ago

> I sadly still need to use Excel in a VM sometimes, because the text import crashes in Wine. Wouldn't Excel Online be enough to do the trick? It's supposedly feature complete.

wizzwizz4 4y ago
It's far from feature-complete. If Excel Online is good enough for you, the faster, more stable LibreOffice Calc is good enough for you. People use Microsoft Excel for the stuff that just nothing else does.
- sandworm101 4y ago
  Or the stuff that no other software wants to do. Macros that can upload your financial records to a Latvian server after a single click in an email? Nobody else wants to do that.
dagw 4y ago
It's supposedly feature complete. It is not. For one thing it is missing macros, power pivot, many solvers and support for third-party add-ons. It also screws up some visual things like text placement and the like.
thesuitonym 4y ago
Don't try to understand the mind of a chronic Excel user: Their minds are as unknowable as an octopus' mind.
- mywittyname 4y ago
  I think it's more that Excel is incredibly capable. People who reach the status of Excel Power User are akin to F1 Drivers who need every seemingly absurd capability found on their steering wheels.
  - thesuitonym 4y ago
    Oh for sure, people use Excel to make the world go round. But for plebs like me, trying to understand it is just a path to madness.

mcv 4y ago

Games were the main reason I came back to Windows after trying Ubuntu with Wine over 15 years ago, then quickly switched to Mac, and when I was unhappy with Apples direction, Windows the unfortunate but obvious place to come back to. Should have gone to Linux instead. I still need to check whether all my favourite games are supported on Linux. Also, a lot of my games are from GOG rather than Steam. And I need to choose a good distribution. My laziness and indecisiveness is holding me back. But I really think the time is right for something better. An OS on a Linux-like foundation, with an Apple-style UI (but better, because plenty of stuff there still doesn't make sense), capable of running all games. Probably developed and polished by a big hardware manufacturer trying to eat Apple's lunch. There's System76 of course, but they're small. I want something that's for everybody. A new standard to draw everybody away from the increasing piles of crap from Apple and Microsoft.

StrauXX 4y ago
In case you don't know the site: ProtonDB offers crowd sourced reports on how well games run with Proton/Wine. With some playing around, you can run GoG games using Proton.
eloisant 4y ago
Nowadays you don't need to mess with Wine manually, there are a lot of tools to install Windows binaries just like they were Linux binary. You'll even forget you're using Windows versions. You can check ProtonDB for compatibility. The information is valid even if you have the GOG version of the game. For games that are not on Steam there is WineDB but I find that the UI isn't as nice as ProtonDB. Steam has a Linux launcher and let you install Windows binaries directly. For GOG or Epic games there is Heroic launcher which is very easy to use. Don't overthink your distribution choice, just go for one of the major general purpose distribution (Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, etc) and you'll be fine no matter what you pick.
- mcv 4y ago
  Will the GOG version of the game work as well as the Steam version even if GOG doesn't list it as a Linux game while Steam does? Also, I think the choice of window manager might matter more to my experience than the choice of distribution. I find some Linux wms too clunky, too Win95.