That’s all true, but I wasn’t saying GNU/Linux distributions should use NTFS. What I was thinking is that Microsoft should be able to improve on the support for it that already exists. I’m sorry I didn’t make that clear.
The thing I’d really like to see is good native support in the Linux kernel for Windows system calls. With that, GNU/Linux distributions would be able to run Windows apps without all the effort currently required, or the hit or miss results we see now. Then again, GNU/Linux distributions would probably be better off by putting a Windows kernel in a sandbox, and running Windows apps from there. No matter how it’s implemented, native support in GNU/Linux for running Windows apps would attract many more potential new users.
The security is not the “linux-way”, but NTFS definitely has it.
It has support for links too. (Just inspect your “home” directory in Windows 7 or newer: you’ll find heaps of links)
This is an interesting project, although it won’t work on my distribution (Solus). It doesn’t use/have the apt package manager, but the linked tutorial about installing Windows in KVM on the website will be very useful for me. If Windows 11 runs well enough in kVM on my computer, I’ll have the solution I need to be able to switch to Solus full time and still be able to play the Windows games I like.
I think you can get around that.
If it has .deb or .rpm packaging, you can undo the package and install it by hand… There may even be a way to convert .deb files to eopkg.
I’m not sure if I need all that integration here, but I’ll have to look into your suggestions. If I try it, and it works well enough, I may be able to get it added to the Solus package repository. They don’t include software they don’t think anyone’ll use, but when I got the USB3 Wi-Fi 6 adapter (It uses a Realtek chipset) I use now, they were willing to include the driver.
There are several Windows games I play. None of them have GNU/Linux versions. They’re the only reason I keep Windows. If I can get Windows 11 to run well enough in KVM, I won’t need my dual boot configuration anymore.
I think the way you do the copy may be imperfect.
I tried now one thing: formatted a pendrive to NTFS.
Choosed a source folder in my Documents, in which I “doubled” a subfolder by creating a simlink to it.
Then copied this to the NTFS pendrive using rsync: violá, the link is there…
There may be games that don’t work in Linux, but…
I’d still try to make them run.
If there’s a way to make a windows-only game run on Linux, Lutris will find it.
I’d try to launch my favourite games via Lutris, who knows, it may work well, and you can ditch Windows. Well, if not, you lost only the time you spent to find the way to run that game…
László, I may have found a way to play a few of the games I like best. They’re available for Windows in the Microsoft app store, but I just found out that I can play them online from the Clever Apps website. Maybe I can create a launcher on my desktop to run them like web apps. I’ll check out that possibility later today. I’d also like to be able to play a few Android games on my computer too, but I haven’t figured that part out yet.
I appreciate your advice. I may do that, but my ultimate goal is to be able to stop using Windows if things go as I expect, even if I don’t remove it. As things stand for me now, the next major release of Windows (Windows 12?) may serve to make up my mind for me. If it turns out to be all AI and cloud oriented, I’m done with it. From my viewpoint, Microsoft is leaning into AI as hard as it is because while they can use it to upgrade several Windows features, including security; at the same time, they can have it collect increasingly more user information to send “home” for “evaluation”. I think it’s fair to say that I’m losing trust in Microsoft. Over the years, especially since the initial release of Windows 10, and the advent of the Satya Nadella era, I had hope that I could trust Microsoft to keep my best interests in mind as they developed and upgraded Windows. Since the release of Windows 11, that trust has been steadily waning. To make a long story short, if I can’t trust Microsoft, I can’t use their OS. Things are as simple as that for me, so I’m looking at ways to be able to transition away from Windows without having to give up anything I enjoy doing with my computer now.
Hey, Ernie
Since I just got W10 up and running in Oracle and KVM, I wanted to add a few things. First, if the games you play require your dGPU, there is additional work to get passthrough on that into the VM. I started to, but kind of gave up. Most of my games are casual and run fine in Linux as I use Crossover by Codeweavers. Think of it as a software that tries to containerize those games with the needed MS files in order for them to run. As such, all of my casual games run well except one developer’s and I am not savvy enough to tweak things to get rid of extreme lag.
I also use a combo of Lutris, Steam w/Proton and specifically Heroic for not only the Epic & Gog stores, but I have installed a couple of those same casual games in it, and they run well.
Playing my casual games in the QEMU/KVM W10, I found the same lag there that I have in Linux using Crossover. If there’s no lag in Linux, there’s no lag in W10 and visa versa.
Playing in Vbox, I have had to tinker to get the screen size right once in the games, and even with full 256 mb vram given to the VM, there is often flickering and still some lag even on games that in Linux (in Crossover) run perfectly and in full screen mode.
Just a few tips, but you are probably better off dual booting Windows for games. I have no issues in either VM using accounting software, excel, etc.
Sheila, Thank you for the input. I can play two of the games I like in my web browser. As for the few other games I want, I’ll try out Lutris. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try to get Windows 11 working in KNM. If all that fails, I’ll look for good substitutes. One way or the other, if the next major Windows release turns out to be what I’m expecting, I’ll try to minimize my Windows use as much as possible, if not all together.
No, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
NTFS is not a “native” filesystem of Linux, so I would not use it for root.
NTFS is closed source, except MS noone really knows how it’s exactly intended to work internally, and the way it works in Linux is based on huge lot of reverse engineereing work, which is still not 100% complete.
I was still on Debian Buster when I made a quick look at Anbox.
It was very promising, some of my Android apps (no games) ran exceptionally well and fast, but the most of my apps didn’t even start. So I left it…
Now I see it’s abandoned, and Waydroid is coming into its place
I’ve been hearing about Waydroid. At some point, I’ll look into it. If it lets me get and play the games I want in a GNU/Linux session, I’ll be a very happy man .
Like the noveau drivers of nvidia… they are actually open-source AFAIK, but nvidia did not release anything necessary for “inventing” good drivers until recently.
On the other hand, their closed drivers meant for Linux worked (for me so far) always well.
To be analog with that on NTFS, Microsot should have released something like ntfs-3g but closed source, which would handle NTFS perfectly in Linux. I’m not aware of such thing
I beleive it still could be done:
However, despite it could work, I would not rely on it, and would not really use it, definitely not in a production system. Just hacking around it seems to be interesting
.