Unfamiliar software has been a frequent excuse for Windows users not to switch to Linux. A lot of work is being done to undo this reasoning, not by bringing closed Microsoft software to Linux, but by bringing the benefits of open-source Linux software to Windows. Cross-platform versions of most popular Linux desktop applications are available today, including the GIMP image editor, StarOffice/OpenOffice office suite, the Mahogany e-mail client, the Amaya WYSIWYG Web Editor and many web browsers, including Mozilla and Opera. These all run on Linux and Windows, and some even support Macintosh.

GFX: Porting Gothello, An exercise in porting Linux applications to Windows is made easier using GUI toolkits like GTK+.