Can I code for Visual C++ and Visual Basic on Ubuntu?

Question

I want to change my OS to Ubuntu, but I have pending projects in Visual C++ and Visual Basic.

I have not worked with Ubuntu before, so will I be able to carry forward my pending work to Ubuntu? Will it work with the IDEs available in Ubuntu?

Answer 1

IDEs on Linux are generally for projects that work on Linux. If your projects use anything specific to MS (and Visual Basic is one such thing), you won't be able to work on them under Linux-specific IDEs. Even your C++ code might be using many Windows-specific tools, like MFC, C++/CLI or managed extensions, COM... Windows has lots of non-standard, non-portable things. So, answering your question: probably no.

You can install Visual Studio under Linux with Wine, but it will probably be an unpleasant experience: Visual Studio is a big application that strongly integrates with Windows, and Wine might not be able to emulate Windows well enough.

I would advice you to keep Windows until your work on these projects will be finished, dual-boot (install Ubuntu on another partition and boot it when you don't need to work on your projects) or install Windows in a virtual machine inside Linux (f.e. using VMWare Player or VirtualBox). I chose last option and with VMWare it is good enough for me.

Answer 2

The best options would be:

• to use the wine emulator;
• to install windows in a virtual machine (with VirtualBox);
• to use MonoDevelop.