this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
24 points (83.3% liked)

Linux

58470 readers
533 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I spent much of today trying to get WinApps running on NixOS. The VM performance is meh after following all the setup steps in the documentation, and I can't get the RDP part working. I'm not asking for help, which would probably take lots of back and forth commenting. but if I should even try to continue. The steps don't even mention Nix, only how to install dependencies via package managers.

I tried finding videos of Photoshop in WinApps but didn't find any, to see what performance actually looks like. Would it even be decent, or should I just suck it up and do GPU passthrough? Ideally I'd like Photoshop a window part of my linux desktop instead of switching back and forth between OSes. Making something work has been a PITA so far.

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] eugenia@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Winapps is too slow for gpu-heavy apps, like photoshop actually is.

So I went with Gimp 3. It does everything I need. Gimp 2.10 didn't, but the new version, 3, does. Sure it has quirks: e.g. when selecting a layer with bg transparency, it selects the whole layer (including the empty parts) instead of just the parts that aren't empty -- you need to do layers -> alpha to selection to get the contents. Another one: to get transparency when you delete parts of a layer is to add an alpha channel to that layer (otherwise you get a bg color). But if you learn these few quirks, Gimp does everything photoshop does pretty much.

If you have old PSD files that have adjustment layers or smart objects, pass them via Photopea, and export as TIFF. Then load on Gimp3 and move to that for life.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Winapps doesn't do GPU passthrough so performance is just unbearable for Photoshop.

Your options:

  • GPU passthrough
  • Slow performance
  • Photopea
  • Photoshop web
  • GIMP

I went with PS Web & Photopea.

[–] Attacker94@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Don't forget krita, as far as I am concerned they have feature parity with Photoshop, so long as you have no interest in ai features

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Do you use it? Do you know if it has some of the features I need the most?:

  • CMYK with ICC color profile
  • Smart objects
  • perspective distort
  • hair mask refinements
  • perspective cloning
  • 3D text
  • Import 3D objects
  • Smart objects
[–] Attacker94@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

You seem to be a bit more advanced than I am, I have only ever used kritas version of smart objects, & perspective distort, but I don't know about the others you mentioned.

[–] marcie@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Frankly the open source ai projects for krita are better than Photoshop

[–] Attacker94@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

The only one I'm aware of requires a GPU with 6Gb of vram, which sadly I do not have, I would very much like a background removal utility that is run locally

[–] Attacker94@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

The only one I'm aware of requires a GPU with 6Gb of vram, which sadly I do not have, I would very much like a background removal utility that is run locally

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

so long as you have no interest in ai features

That sounds like a major selling point. I’ll need to check that out.

[–] data1701d@startrek.website 4 points 1 day ago

Not great. I even got GPU passthrough working once, but you get weird graphics glitches because it's all being sent over RDP.

I think Cassowary might be better than WinApps, but honestly, at this point, I just gave up on those and just use the VM directly.

[–] somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

A lot of advance features of Photoshops simply does not exist on any FOSS alternative.

[–] somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

I'm actually a Photoshop and CSP users that regularly report missing features to Krita and GIMP. Even Krita dev often ask community which featuers they want from CSP. Some example that GIMP and Krita does not have that I remember:

  • 3D environment (available on CSP and PS)
  • flexible several document views (only on CSP)
  • adjustable anchor resize (only on CSP)
[–] mfat@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Curious if Winboat would work better than winapps.

[–] july@leminal.space 2 points 2 days ago

Personally I recommend it running through wine. Works good.

https://forum.mattkc.com/viewtopic.php?t=336

[–] anon5621@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

Winapps do not make passthrough of GPU or there is no hardware acceleration it rendering in software way only basically if u are using even podman or docker or libvirtd in the end it qemu with windows in which u connect by rdp.

About rdp ,

  1. make sure that OEM scripts was successful executed in windows ,they should appear at C:\oem
  2. Do not forget to clean certificate of freerdp on host system there mention about it on github wiki of winapps
  3. Preferable use something like tiny11.iso