Linux "Support"?

Hello! I'm new around here. I'm fairly new to "D&D" style gaming. I'm currently playing D&D 4e. I just recently heard about Hero Lab and am giving it a try (hopefully the DDI setup will be done soon). I understand that Hero Lab comes with two licenses. It sounds a little restrictive, but I'm probably not the typical customer (having 4+ computers). In any case, I've been planning to wipe my primary laptop and install either Windows 8 or Ubuntu (not sure which version yet - probably either the latest version or whichever version came before the unity UI...10.04?). I'm not completely sure yet.

Getting to the point, it looks like Linux, unfortunately (though not surprisingly), isn't a supported platform. Does anyone have Hero Lab working well in Wine (or have I missed a Linux port somewhere)? Any issues with activation on Linux? I noticed some old threads with mixed results, but I was hoping for some recent experience. I'd also be curious what flavor and version of Linux you're running if you've been successful. If I end up purchasing Hero Lab, this may help me decide what to run on the laptop. I'm wanting to try out Windows 8 for a while (give it a fair try), but I've also been away from non-android Linux for a while and miss it.

FYI, you can purchase up to two additional licenses (for a total of four) for $10 (I think) each. I've done this.

freeAgent said:

FYI, you can purchase up to two additional licenses (for a total of four) for $10 (I think) each. I've done this.

Click to expand...

Good to know. I have now gone through and read the licensing information. I'm not a huge fan of paying per computer (rather than user), but I understand the reasons behind it. It seems like the Lone Wolf guys are really trying to be fair and it's appreciated. Now I'm just hoping that I can get the software to run on Linux. I'll admit prejudice against Windows 8. I may end up liking it, but I expect that I'll want Linux on the laptop. I'm hoping someone here has had some experience running this software in Linux.

Yes, Hero Lab can work under WINE. Before I put Windows 8 on my laptops, I had it running on both a laptop running Ubuntu 12.04 LTE (which I would recommend if you're looking for an Ubuntu Distro) and Linux Mint 13 (which I liked maybe even more). The only problem I had was the PDF plugin was not pretty. But character creation was no problem.

Krimson said:

Yes, Hero Lab can work under WINE. Before I put Windows 8 on my laptops, I had it running on both a laptop running Ubuntu 12.04 LTE (which I would recommend if you're looking for an Ubuntu Distro) and Linux Mint 13 (which I liked maybe even more). The only problem I had was the PDF plugin was not pretty. But character creation was no problem.

Click to expand...

I see. Thank you! That is very helpful. You gave me an idea too - why not have both? I'll have to double-check the capacity of my 2.5" drives, but I think I might have a 500 GB drive. That should be enough to host both Windows and Linux comfortably. The question then is whether to try Ubuntu again or Linux Mint. I heard a friend of mine talking about how much he liked Mint. I might give that one a try rather than Ubuntu. I'm not a fan of the Unity UI anyway. I'd just end up having to fiddle with installing a different GUI (or running an old version).

I assume that from how the licensing was described, Hero Lab would not run on two operating systems, one computer. That means that I will have to go the route of virtualization (probably not on the laptop - its hardware is mediocre) or pick one. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Thanks again for the help!

The Cinnamon GUI is what I liked about Mint, and it's easy enough to install in Ubuntu and replace Unity. I stopped using it because Windows 8 was cheap to upgrade and the fact the latest iteration of Cinnamon dropped support for the ATI Radeon chipset, which meant none of my laptops could use it. Mint 14 was thus a no go for me. Though for fun I did put Mint 12 LXDE on a 10 year old Toshiba satellite, and it works well enough for an old laptop.

JackOfAllGames said:

I assume that from how the licensing was described, Hero Lab would not run on two operating systems, one computer. That means that I will have to go the route of virtualization (probably not on the laptop - its hardware is mediocre) or pick one. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Click to expand...

Hero Lab would see each of your OSes as a different computer, even if they're actually on the same hardware. Each copy of Hero Lab that you purchase is licensed for use on two computers (with the option to purchase license numbers for 2 more computers, for $10 each), so it would take two of those licenses to cover both OSes in a dual-booting computer.

Krimson said:

The Cinnamon GUI is what I liked about Mint, and it's easy enough to install in Ubuntu and replace Unity. I stopped using it because Windows 8 was cheap to upgrade and the fact the latest iteration of Cinnamon dropped support for the ATI Radeon chipset, which meant none of my laptops could use it. Mint 14 was thus a no go for me. Though for fun I did put Mint 12 LXDE on a 10 year old Toshiba satellite, and it works well enough for an old laptop.

Click to expand...

Ah. Very good to know. I'll still look at Mint. If their GUI is dropping AMD Radeon support, I probably won't want anything to do with them though. If it's just the older ATI cards, I may still be fine. I'll just need to verify what the laptop uses. I prefer to stick with similar OSes - I'd prefer not having different Linux distros on different computers and my desktops all have AMD Radeon graphics cards. I'm not happy with the recent direction of Ubuntu (first Unity, then 3rd party search integration enabled by default) so I'd like to take a look at an alternative.

Mathias said:

Hero Lab would see each of your OSes as a different computer, even if they're actually on the same hardware. Each copy of Hero Lab that you purchase is licensed for use on two computers (with the option to purchase license numbers for 2 more computers, for $10 each), so it would take two of those licenses to cover both OSes in a dual-booting computer.

Click to expand...

Ahh. I kind of figured that was going to be the case. Thank you for the clarification.

Does anybody have a How-To guide for getting it to work under Linux? I just got a new computer with Windows 8, which I'm not sure I really like all that much.

If Herolab will work under Ubuntu without too much hassle, I think I'll switch. But if not, I don't want to lose the one piece of software I really like having!

Thank you!