this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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7zip is better anyway I don't understand why people still use WinRar. Then again I don't understand why people still use Windows either.
Not everything is a competition. If people want to support WinRAR after the developer maintained it for more than 30 years and helped out millions of people, that's just fine.
I'm glad you can have a Windows-free existence.
Some things just don't function well on Linux, but there are lots of us who are 99% Linux and don't use Windows unless we have to.
I have to use a windows box when I initiate my Reolink security cameras as an example. Haven’t been about to figure out a way to do the initial setup on them without and I couldn’t get it to run on Linux. Honestly been less of a time consuming pain to just have a windows box with the software. It’s only plugged into the isolated LAN anyway so whatever.
Like what exactly ?
CAD softwares, Tally, any Autodesk tools, Adobe software not counting specifically made business softwares years ago. I couldn't get Office running with wine ever.
My 3080ti graphics card. To my knowledge, NVIDIA drivers are still a mess on Linux, and any suggestion to "just switch to AMD" is neither helpful nor appreciated; as if dropping $500+ for a new graphics card when my current one works perfectly fine is in ANY way a valid solution.
Nvidia drivers and gaming compatibility have grown leaps in the last year. I'm using dual monitors on a 2070m in a laptop, one of the historically most incompatible setups. I am running cachyos. I was able to simply install the OS and start playing my entire steam library, all without any modification. I play plenty of modern games. I don't have any AAA FPS with anticheat though, which I hear don't work at all.
I had issues with the live boot having 3 monitors. I just unplugged 2 and installed, grabbed the suggested driver, no issues since.
Been playing everyday for about two years with my 3060ti without much issue. There's still the odd hiccup on occasion, but it's usually solved by picking a different Proton version. Most games "just work," generally without any changes.
The nVidia drivers haven't been "a mess" for quite a long time, so if that's what is holding you back, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. ProtonDB has a massive and growing list of games that run on Linux, and you can see what people did (if anything) to get those games working.
I will caution you, however, that if any amount of tinkering makes you inwardly cringe, you might want to think twice. Linux is generally easy to use, and it's only getting easier, but there will be times you'll have to add Launch Options to a Steam game, install a mod differently, or use the command line to do something.
Nvidia works fine on Linux. I have an nvidia card at home, and I support a bunch of them at work. It's easy. https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/tesla/driver-installation-guide/latest/index.html
Use the network installation to add the deb or rpm repo, then choose whether you want the open or proprietary drivers. Install the package and that's it, your package manager will handle the dependencies.
You may need to create and enroll a dkms key if you have secureboot enabled and you haven't done that already, but that's the only wrinkle.
How do you stop them from randomly uninstalling themselves? A bunch of guys use Ubuntu at work and the Nvidia drivers would randomly nuke themselves occasionally when the device is turned off and they'd have to force CLI mode and do a reinstall.
I've never seen that happen. But the transaction that caused it should be in the package manager log.
Thanks, I'll check those logs out the next time it happens.
I was going to say. That's never happened to me in Debian, Fedora, PopOS, Linux Mint, EndeavourOS, CachyOS, Nobara or Bazzite. Is this a Ubuntu only issue?
We use Ubuntu at work and I've never seen it. At home I use Debian and I've also never seen it there on my desktop, laptop, or server.
For what it's worth, we're using a mix of Ubuntu 20 LTS and 22 LTS.
i know what some of these words mean but i think i'm going to need your advice in the near future. Thanks!
I got a 3060 which works fine i guess the 3080 should too
Autocad
For me personally about 30% of my video game library, which don't function even with the various compatibility tools.
But when I started my YouTube channel I was using Openshot, which does not work on Linux, or at least it didn't for me. My old Lenovo Legion was largely incompatible with Linux too, as I tried a dual-boot with two different distros and still had to debug it all the time. (Thankfully not a problem on the Acer that replaced it.)
Linux is great, but it's not yet compatible with everything.
I used to work in tax and there isn't a functional professional tax prep software that i could find that works on linux.
I work in automotive, if you try to flash an ECU on Linux you are GOING to brick a likely 1000$ ecu. Some stuff, especially in the corporate/business environment, simply will only work with windows. If people don't like it they should get to coding instead of telling people who need windows for their livelihood to "just use something else" 😂 yea sure let me contact HP tuners and just have them make a whole new software special just for me!
Do you have to remove your bottom two ribs to shill for adobe or do they send you to special stretching classes?
Adobe is a shit company, and I'm not giving them any money, but the fact is their programs have features that the alternatives don't. I'm looking forward to the day when they start supporting Linux or an alternate program family steps up with all the features I need.
Or WinZip. I work for a company that literally has the licenses for every computer they own. Why? 7-zip is free.
I could think of stronger password protection options. Maybe some kind of UI. Maybe a way to certify creators of the zip so they can filter out malicious zips in emails. I dont know what WinZip offers but company compliance is a goldmine.
Yup. The ability or willingness of a software maker to remove or agree to an indemnification clause is sometimes of paramount importance for some organizations.
It’s sank more than a few promising projects at my org.
Winzip, i think, is owned by Corel I think. Almost as evil as Adobe. In India over here a lot of small businesses use it and it is unaffordable for them to get such creative suites. Corel constantly sends notices to the ones using cracked copies and force them to buy it for 3 years to avoid legal damages.
I'll never understated why they don't go open source.
Name recognition counts for something in the choice about helper apps.
Sometimes venerable old utilities you know from back in the day are bought out and turned into malicious shit. I don’t discount that.
However when you go looking for a little helper app for something simple, there’s an ocean of weird little offerings out there and many of them are malware.
I’d rather roll the dice that a venerable old classic hasn’t been bought out. This fact is probably quite Google-able. As for the long list of other unzip utilities.. how am I supposed to know? Reviews and ratings are all fake. Many Reddit recommendations are fake.
Just saying this is one angle on why people might continue using really old tried and true programs.
I use it on occasion, since it will deflate 100+GB zip files much faster than 7zip will. (7z is single threaded for pkzips)
It's been more than a decade since I used it to compress anything though. LZMA2 rocks.
Deleted Windows from every computer I ever owned.
Then because of a certain chain of events came the time to look into working from home. Boy oh boy, I guess it depends on the type of work you do but for what I'm qualified for they absolutely do not vibe with anything except Windows. I couldn't even find many that would at least let you use Mac.
I begrudgingly installed Windows 11 on my machine again the other day for this very reason. I'll still dual boot of course but man, I'm really not happy about it.
Also, Windows are complete dicks about letting you make a bootable windows USB gotta either use apps not in your distro directory or use another Windows computer to make one. Wtf is that shit about? And I had to spend like 2 hours making windows suck less.
It reminds me of how apps are starting to treat me for using Graphene OS
Are you working for yourself? Its hard to tell with how you put this.
I only work remotely, and I will never use windows to do it. The places I work for must provide the windows, and I remote into them from Linux. I vastly prefer this model. I do not want their software on my computer as I never want to be liable. The business likes it because it is far more secure to not give me a laptop and have to fuck around with a VPN.
As for the other issue: There are projects that will build the USB for you, where you provide the windows ISO you want, and then it removes all the crap and telemetry before install. There are ways to make the USB without windows, although I am not sure what you mean by "outside distro directory".
I just found woeusb the other day, if you need to make a windows USB from Linux in the future.
Nostalgia probably
Nanazip is the preferred Windows tool.
Preferred by who?
Personally I'm not a fan of the 'modern' windows UI, lack of a menu bar, added sponsor button, lack of 32-bit support, lack of windows <10 support, or the fact that it's an msix-installed 'app' rather than a normal program.
Windows users.