Maybe with WINE?
I know we don’t have a Linux version, but with the current political sabre rattling, what happens if we lose access to MS and Apple OS systems? (Notice how logins and updates to those are handled via the internet?)
Pretty sure Linux is easy to install now, but not much good to me if I can’t use my writing software. Not a problem right now, but planning for a mainline UK/EU future, just in case.
A good point on the stability of OS, and exactly as I thought. So, I set up Linux on a second drive (in my case, a second NVME drive on the motherboard). Now, if there’s ever an issue with windows, I can use the boot menu to boot up Linux. I also have a Linux laptop, so I can lay in bed and do some work, while also knowing my laptop is more secure than a windows laptop (and faster and smoother as well).
I do use PA on Linux, but it takes a bit of a workaround. You’ll need Crossover for Linux (approx $24 per year). After you’ve installed Crossover, you run the PA installer and it will install as a generic bottle (Crossover term for a self contained app). After that, PA will have both an icon in the Crossover app, and on the desktop/home menu.
Some caveats, though. Any file explorer dialogue is “windows based”, so you’ll need to manually find the Home folder and work from there. Also, there is the occassional crash, though they haven’t happened as much for me lately.
One bonus workaround I found is to use Insync, which can act as google drive on all 3 major OS. This allows me to work on PA on a windows desktop, then later pick it up on the Linux laptop. Insync costs $40, but it does work flawlessly, and you can set the Insync PA folder as a “favorite” in Linux and get faster access to your documents. The only “hiccup” I found is that, if you have your Insync PA folder on a secondary drive from the Linux install, Insync may or may not recognize that drive as accessible on boot, giving an error and having you manually locate the folder. So, in the case of my laptop, having the Insync PA folder on the second IDE drive had issues, of which Insync doesn’t seem to know how to address. If your Insync PA folder is on the same drive that you installed Linux on, then it works just fine.
Hope that helps! Feel free to ask any more questions you need to. I’ll try to help from my experience.
It does work with Wine and with PlayOnLinux which is a customised version of Wine. There are several posts on the German Papyrus community forum describing how to make it run.
Other than that, I’m sure that the makers of Papyrus would be able to release a native Linux version in a relatively short time because the underlying Qt framework is inherently cross-platform.
That is good news, from both of you. I’d never heard of PlayOnLinux, or Crossover.
I used Linux quite a while in the mid90s and early 2000s as a games AI developer. I would create code that could be cross-compiled for native Win and Linux games. Did a lot of work with the Quake engine among others.
I have spare laptops around the place so it’s time to get my (now ancient) brain back into the OS and find a distro I like. Probably Ubuntu/deb based as that seems the most open-source and full-featured/complete version I’ve seen.
Papyrus is the main thing I need now. I can live without many other programs I use and simply refocus those parts of my workflow.
A native Linux compile would be lovely. I know the devs won’t like forking the code, so hopefully it’s just compiler switches like I used 20 years ago. 
(My German is passable, thanks to the other half our family being Wolfsburgers, so I will check those forums once I’m up and running)
If it’s helpful, Linux mint is both Debian and the most popular distro out right now. It’s also the easiest for those who’ve become used to Windows. A good website to keep up to date on distros is Distrowatch.
Hope that helps!
Thanks. I installed Mint and PlayOnLinux tonight on an old laptop. I will try Papyrus out on it this week and see how it goes.
Wouldn’t work with my original PlayOnLinux installation, but found another one in the Mint software manager that must have been more up to date, (PlayOnLinux4 - from a different mirror) or better configuration.
Ran the command-line checks on the WINE config as recommended on the German forum and it passed.
Install went smoothly after that. Have to choose the 64-bit Image option. It even created a desktop shortcut for me afterwards.
Thanks for the useful tips, guys. 