> mainstream apps (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Adobe Photoshop) then Linux is completely off the table Not at all. First of all, the vast majority of people who use

> mainstream apps (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Adobe Photoshop) then Linux is completely off the table Not at all. First of all, the vast majority of people who use the Office suite use only basic features, for whom, LibreOffice or OnlyOffice are more than capable replacements. Second, classic versioned releases of MS Office (eg Office 2016, 2019 etc) also mostly work fine under stock Wine. Third, now even M365 versions of Office also have started to work via Bottles[1], so advanced users who need it can still install it on Linux if none of the alternatives suit them. As for Photoshop, it's a similar situation to the above. Vast majority of the users don't even use all the fancy features of Photoshop, so GIMP (with optionally, the PhotoGIMP[2] mod), Krita and Photopea can already satisfy most needs. Advanced users can use alternatives like Affinity, which actually works really well under Linux[3]. Also keep in mind that Affinity is also becoming an increasingly de-facto option for even people on other platforms, as people are fed up with Adobe's shenanigans and are leaving in droves. Finally, if for some reason you still really need Photoshop, you can either run the classic versions just fine under stock Wine (up to CS6-ish, maybe newer) or even the latest CC versions via thirdparty script[4]. [1] https://itsfoss.com/news/bottles-microsoft-365-early-look/ https://itsfoss.com/news/bottles-microsoft-365-early-look/ [2] https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP [3] https://github.com/ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer https://github.com/ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer [4] https://github.com/bpawnzZ/photoshopCClinux-lightroom https://github.com/bpawnzZ/photoshopCClinux-lightroom