i've given up on windows, and i'm enthusiastic about not dealing with its security issues ever again. having said that, i have a large-ish handful of windows apps that i would still like to be able to use in lieu of seeking out adequate replacements for everything i use regularly.

what are the benefits of running a windows app in WINE vs. running a VM with windows in it?

i'm looking at the "compatible apps" list for wine and seeing some gaps that friends have told me don't actually exist... for example, Photoshop. guy says he runs it in wine with no problems, wine page doesn't list it as "supported".

alternately, what kind of performance hit would i be taking running a VM with windows in it? i know that i can scale resources to help it out, but if i were (for example) running XP on a machine and then i wiped that machine, threw ubuntu on it, and ran winXP in a VM, how much worse would the performance be under the best of circumstances? i'm assuming 1:1 is not quite what i'd be able to reach, but how close would it come?

it's not a terribly strong pc (or modern... it's a single core w/ a couple gigs of RAM), and there's nothing fancy about the hardware. i'm aware that drivers might possibly be an issue, but i figure with onboard video and sound i'd just burn those bridges when i came to them.

i've got some linux experience, but it's been years since i've had a machine running anything other than XP. i'm not scared about the process or worried that i'll muck something up, i'm mainly just trying to gauge how existing windows software actually runs under these solutions.

also, i'm considering Ubuntu. i've heard some other linux suggestions as well (mint, for example, which is debian-based). are there any inherent benefits with regards to running winXP-apps via the methods described in any particular flavor of linux?