Debating between upgrading to Win11 or switching to Linux. Will RM11 work in Linux and if so which distro is recommended?
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I believe some users have reported successfully used an Windows Emulator - but that is NOT recommended or supported by RM.
I would still with having a Windows W10+ machine (or mac)
I looked at previous posts but did not find any related to RM11. Wondered if it played nicer than previous versions. Thanks.
Should be no difference with a Windows emulator - neither better or worse than previous versions.
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out of my area expertise but I would guess any recent ver of RM would operate the same on an emulator would be my guess
Emulation, like WINE or Bottles will not work for any recent version of RootsMagic, it works only for RootsMagic version 7 and some older.
The only way to run RootsMagic Version 8 or greater (8, 9, 10 and 11) on Linux is with a Virtual Machine. Setting up a virtual machine on Linux of a supported operating system.
Running a Virtual Machine of Windows 11 on Linux is possible even on a computer that canāt run Windows 11ā¦.because it can simulate the necessary hardware, like TPM 2.0.
A good VM install tutorial can be found by a web-search like:
sysguides install-windows-11-on-kvm
I hope RootsMagic can make a future version with Linux support.
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Thanks for the useful information. I also wish RootsMagic could be ported over to Linux.
I am not with RM but since they have the RM team/ developers have their hands full with Windows and Max and have limited resources I do not think it would be wise from them to take resources from those two platforms. I totally understand the wish - but the ask for this to become reality not so sure.
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Count me as a +1 for Linux.
Since Mac is basically Unix at this point it should not be hard to have a version that runs on Linux.
Iām still on Windows 10 (I paid for the year of extra support) and am migrating to Linux a little at a time.
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I still keep windows around for Rootsmagic and FTM. If you do not want to dual boot you could always run w11 in a VM. If you do go w11, get a w11 pro license and you can setup the system with a local account and only use it for RM. W11 keys can be had as low as $10.
I have been using Linux for more than 25 years and it irks me that you still have to keep windows around for one or two apps. Otherwise, I use Linux the rest of the time.
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RM11 definitely does not work on WINE. Every new version of RM since 7 Iāve tried and failed. Every time thereās a new WINE version, I test all over again, trying different combinations of Winetricks components looking for the magic solution. I no longer actually expect it to work, but I figure itās worth some of my time to try.
Itās disappointing, because being able to run it in Linux was one of the main reason I chose RM when leaving Family Tree Maker back when that was supposedly going to be discontinued. That was the same time I was committing to ditching Windows.
RM is the last one thing that I still keep a Windows VM around for. Iām still running RM8 in a Windows 7 VM on Virtualbox. I plan soon to switch to a Win10 VM and buy the latest RM. I doubt that Iāll ever touch Win11.
I too wish the RootsMagic crew would write a native Linux version (or at least a Windows version that would work with WINE), but I know the Linux community is still too small to be worth the investment. Maybe someday. Linux has been growing lately with growing frustration with Microsoft and other countries concerned about digital sovereignty.
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I used Linux back in the early 90 to mid 90s - The main reason I switched to Windows was I need office products -at that time there were many distributions. I even met Linus Torvalds in person around the time when he spoke at a local college (wife was recent graduate)
I have been unable to get RM11 to run with WINE. I have not tries using bottles yet
I didnāt mention it in my post 4 days ago, but purely coincidentally Iād installed and tried Bottles for the first time earlier that day. Iād seen news that they added a new feature called āEagleā, still in beta, that analyzes windows programs to give information about how theyāre built and what dependencies you might need to install to make them work. At least thatās the idea. It seemed like something that might help figure out how to get RM working in Bottles, and probably in base WINE as well.
But I was disappointed in how helpful it really was. It did tell me some things about the graphics APIs it uses and DLLs it loads. And it suggested DXVK, which Iāve already tried numerous times in WINE with Winetricks. It gave me a few other options to toggle on or off. But after playing around with all that, I was sill left with the same outcome. I can change the nature of the failure, but it still fails to run correctly no matter what.
Itās a neat feature, and I like Bottles in general now that Iāve seen it. Iāll keep it around for any other WINE-related things I might want to try. And maybe when Eagle is further refined, it might actually help with RootsMagic. But my past few years of experience leaves me with no optimism. It was worth a try, though.
Not a Linux guy, but wondering if you folks are installing a component that RM version 8-11 uses, which is webview2? My search led me to this winetricks github issue where further down the page thereās mention of doing so and then running Edge browser. A couple weeks ago, there was a related patch added to the bottom, most recent post of that thread. Just throwing that out if it hasnāt been played with by any recent RM users who dabble. Good luck!
Thanks for the webview2 suggestion. Thatās a brand new winetricks verb, so a good thing to try. Unfortunately, for me at least, it doesnāt make any difference. I just added that to my list of typical verb combinations and pretty much get the same kinds of errors as before. It was worth a try, anyway.
It is no longer true that the Linux community is too small to be worth it. Actually itās growing by leaps and bounds. There are huge problems with Windows 11, and most people canāt even install it. 20 million people moved to Linux just in December, mostly to Mint, Zorin and Ubuntu. The first two are forks of Ubuntu. Mint and Zorin are especially friendly for people coming from Windows as the interface is set up to be similar, and both are very user friendly. Ubuntu is user friendly but the interface is odd and ugly. As a matter of fact computer manufacturers are moving rapidly to shipping with Linux installed by default - usually Ubuntu, charging extra for Windows. I put a long post elsewhere on this forum and Iām not going to repeat it, but basically, Windows 11 is close to useless to the user and not very manufacturer friendly either. The reasons why are in a nutshell that Microsoft is self destructing rapidly. Noone wants their products, their AI investments didnāt work and theyāve lost hundreds of billions. Meanwhile, due to the security problems with Windows 11, European governments are rapidly converting en masse to Linux, usually some version of Ubuntu.
In addition, Linux operating systems are as user friendly as Windows used to be. Theyāve matured in the past 15 years.
I now have three laptops. Two are very old and are still running Windows 10 in part because they are not supported by Windows 11. One is brand new and is running Windows 11 because it came that way and because Microsoft no longer supports Windows 10.
I have found Windows 11 to be very difficult to cope with, even though I like to consider myself to be pretty expert when it comes to things computer. I did have a 50 year career in IT. This is a RM forum, not a Windows 11 forum, so I wonāt go into all the fights I had to have with Windows 11 on a brand new machine to get it configured to my satisfaction. But itās not a pretty picture. Indeed, itās downright ugly. And itās not GUI changes that are the problem. Rather, itās deep and serious changes in the way Windows works that are to my detriment (in my humble opinion).
Itās hard to get at the real truth as to how many individuals and businesses are abandoning Windows because of Window 11 . Itās definitely a lot, but I donāt know if itās enough to cause Microsoft to change directions or if itās enough to put Windows itself out of business. As I said, itās hard to get at the real truth.
In the meantime, whatās forcing me to stay on Windows 11 is the apps, with RM being such an app. I actually have a very long list of apps that are critical to my daily workflows that de facto are Windows only or at least donāt have a native Linux version. So as much as Windows 11 no longer meets my needs as well as did previous versions of Windows, I have to stay with Windows 11 for now and just continue the good fight to configure it in such a way as to make it tolerable. And in the other meantime, I agree that the RM developers need to be cognizant of this situation and at least be thinking about what it might take to make RM run natively on Linux. Iām not talking about Windows emulation. Iām talking about RM being able to run as a real native Linux app.
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I resisted leaving Linux in the 90s ā could not afford two PCs or hardware thereof. I needed MS products back then as I do today. So sadly I am forced to stay with windows for the foreseeable future. Most large business do not have that many options so that is large part of it I suppose.
I believe a dose of realism (hard reality0 needs to be introduced to any āwishā for a native Linux version of this or any other commercial software.
Question: Why do the vast majority of commercial software organisations not develop/compile Linux native versions of their āpaywareā software?
Simple Answer: Because they fully recognise that the vast majority of Linux users have little interest/intention of paying for for licences to install and run commercial software; and nor do they expect to have to pay directly for software support/upgrades. Also, a relatively small proportion appear to be atttracted to the prospect of registering their personal details with commercial organisations to license ther software. A significant minorirty of Linux users may make voluntary contributions to open source/freeware software development, but do tend to be selective in making decisions about which projects to support. Also, some of the more āethicalā Linux distros donāt support/deliberately obstruct the installation of non-free software which increases the complexity.
In short, the initial financial investment, increased staffing and associated ongoing support costs; when weighed against the potential return through commercial license/upgrade sales on such investments could not justify commiting to any such developments. Whatever way you look at it, it simply makes no business sense.