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My Windows XP CD for my laptop is lost. Now that I want to try out Xubuntu although I am very new to it. Yet, what concerns me is that my laptop has got Adobe software (Photoshop, Fireworks), Microsoft office and lots of software that has been running in windows XP. I am wondering if there are any pieces of software that have been blocked or announced to be incompatible with Xubuntu? If yes, could you give me the list for the software please?
Thank you
Kitty.

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  • The answers provided explained well the situation already, but notice that almost any of the Linux "counterpart" of any software is capable also to read documents created using the Windows "counterpart", making e.g. your .doc documents being readable out-of-the-box by Libreoffice in Ubuntu.
    – kos
    Apr 27, 2015 at 16:49

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If yes, could you give me the list for the software please?

Yes. And the answer is: ALL of them are incompatible. xUbuntu or any Linux based operating system is 100% different compared to Windows. Except for some software where the creators decided to make 2 versions, 1 for us and 1 for Windows you can use the same software. Examples of those are Libre Office/Open Office, Apache, MySQL. Libre Office/Open Office are replacements for Microsoft office though it works differently and has other names for similar tasks. Basically it has a Writer program to create documents, A Calc to create sheets and many more.

For Adobe Fireworks see Is there an alternative to Adobe Fireworks?

And yes there is WINE/Play On Linux to support windows software but this has its limits, problems and generally is not a good experience. If you need Windows software you are better of with a Virtual Machine or using a dual boot with xUbuntu and Windows.

My Windows XP CD for my laptop is lost

It is legal to download a copy of Windows XP from the web if you have a serial sticker on your machine. You paid for the license not for the medium the software was on.

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Photoshop and Microsoft Office can be run on Xubuntu with the Wine program. For information about the rest of the programs on your list, just check the programs at the WineHQ Application Database one at a time to see if they will run in Wine. WineHQ not only tells you if an application will run in Wine, it also tells you a rating of how well the application will run in Wine and tips for how to install it.

There is no need to do a reverse search from a list of programs that are not supported by Wine. The way the WineHQ Application Database works is you do a keyword search at WineHQ for the Windows application that you want to install and WineHQ returns links to webpages about installing that application in the search results. In other words WineHQ works the way Google works by doing a keyword search and returning results that are related to the search term.

Wine is a large application and there is a lot to know about how to get the best results from Wine. In addition to the Wine application itself, there are other applications like PlayOnLinux and CodeWeavers CrossOver that extend the functionality of Wine. For more information about Wine see How can I install Windows software or games?.

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