One of the most common problems when moving from Windows to Linux is not being able to use the programs we are used to. It is true that more and more software is available for Linux, and that the most common programs (such as Chrome, Spotify or VLC) have their respective versions on this system. However, there are other programs that do not have a version for Linux, such as Office or Photoshop. In that case, we will either have to look for alternatives (which exist, such as LibreOffice and GIMP), or resort to a tool that will allow us to run any Windows program or game on Linux: Wine.
Wine was initially born as a project that sought to create a Windows emulator. Its acronym was initially ” WIN dows E mulator”, although seeing its evolution, and the way it works, this acronym was updated by ” Wine Is Not an Emulator “. In fact, it is not an emulator, but rather this program consists of a loader of binary programs together with a set of development tools that allow the code of Windows applications to be ported to Unix in real time. In addition, it comes with a large number of libraries and libraries by default so that we do not have dependency problems.
Main features
This program is capable of running without problems any program designed for any version of Windows , from 3.x to Windows 10. Of course, it is only compatible with Win32 programs (both 32-bit and 64-bit), so it does not we will be able to run the UWP apps from the Microsoft Store, at least for now.
Among all the variety of libraries, libraries and resources , we can find practically all the interrupt libraries for programs, which allows making INT calls in real time. In this way, programs do not know that they are running on a non-Windows operating system, they just run. And they do it the same as in him. If any program, or game, has special dependencies (for example, a specific DLL) we can easily add it to Wine. All the libraries are found in the directory “~ / .wine / drive_c / windows / system32”, which is equivalent to the Windows System32 directory.
Of course, Wine has support for a large number of graphic resources . Programs can be drawn both in an X11 graphical interface (the desktop) and from any X terminal. It is compatible with OpenGL and DirectX technologies and has full support for GDI (and partial for GDI32). It also allows and manages several windows at the same time (of the same program, or different ones) and it is compatible with the msstyle Windows themes.
It is also compatible with Windows sound drivers , and has access to PC ports, Winsock TCP / IP, and even scanners.
What programs and games can I run with Wine?
Unfortunately, despite having great compatibility, Wine is not capable of running 100% of Windows programs and games on Linux. And some, although they can be executed, do not work quite well. To know if a program can be executed, or not, in Linux, we can access this link . There we will find a large database that will allow us to know if a program works, it will work, if it does not, or how it works.
In addition to being able to manually search for any program or game, we will also find a list of the Top-10 that work best. The “Platinum” games are those that work identically on Windows as they do on Linux, the “Gold” ones that work well, but require some special configuration and the “Silver” ones, those that work, but have little problems. The “Bronze” or “Trash” programs or games are the ones that don’t work.
Get the most out of Wine with these programs
Wine, in the end, is the most important part of being able to use Windows programs on Linux . However, its setup, especially for programs that are not platinum-rated, can be somewhat tedious. Fortunately, there are programs that, although they are also based on Wine, help us to configure each of these programs automatically so that we do not have to do anything else.
PlayOnLinux: programs, games and much more in one click
Installing and configuring Windows programs and games for use on Linux is the worst. If we do not have a lot of knowledge, we can lose a lot of time and, furthermore, we will not get everything to work completely well. This is where PlayOnLinux comes in . This program, free and open source, seeks to help us with the installation and configuration of programs and games to make them work on this operating system.
PlayOnLinux offers us a complete database of programs with their corresponding optimal configurations so that we only have to select the program we want, load its installer and let it complete the start-up process. Nothing else. When the installation is finished, we can open the program or game and start using it.
We can download this tool for free from its website , or from a terminal with APT.
CrossOver: Wine + PlayOnLinux, but paid
Although in Linux we can find many free programs and games, there are also commercial, paid programs. And CrossOver is one of them. This program is based on the same concept as PlayOnLinux, but with the difference that, instead of having the community behind it, it has a company. This program also has a database of many programs, which we will be able to install and configure in Linux as if it were Windows. We will be able to load the installer of the program we want, and CrossOver will be in charge of creating its isolated space on the disk, with its instance of Wine and all the dependencies.
We can buy this program from this link . It is important to know that all the money obtained through this program is destined to the development of Wine. Therefore, we could consider it the “Donation” edition of this program.
Steam Play, the “official” option to run games on Linux
One of the weakest pillars of Linux is games. Although there are, the number of titles (especially triple A) available is very low. In addition to being able to configure many from Wine and PlayOnLinux, Steam has its own configuration system that allows us to play Windows games from Linux: Steam Play .
Although the list of games is somewhat reduced (although it is expanding little by little), this platform will allow us to play the games that are available without any complications.
Download and install Wine
There are many ways to install Wine on Linux . Its developers have specific binaries for each distribution, as well as complete repositories from which we will be able to download and update the program from the terminal.
For example, to install Wine in Ubuntu, what we must do is open a terminal and execute the following commands:
Enable 32-bit architecture:
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
Download and install the key:
wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key && sudo apt-key add winehq.key
Update repositories:
sudo apt update
Install Wine:
sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable
On the Wine download website we will be able to find all the necessary steps to launch this program on other Linux distros.
