Back in the mid 90s and early 00s, Linux, being a fledgling operating system, suffered from a severe lack of useful applications. This issue was especially critical in the world of business ─ where Windows desktop applications could make or break productivity. To overcome this weakness, a compatibility layer called WINE was created. The name originally stood for Wine Is Not an Emulator (because everyone mistook the tool for a Windows emulator). The name is now simply Wine. Disable focused inbox outlook for mac.
Effectively, what Wine did was to allow Windows applications to run on the Linux platform. It wasn’t perfect, and the supported apps were limited.
Nov 7, 2017 - Wine + 6 Other Apps To Run Windows Programs On Other Platforms. Wine is recursive acronym for Wine Is Not an Emulator. CrossOver is a commercialized, and supported, version of Wine for Linux and Mac OS X. Wine is a compatibility layer between Windows programs and the operating system. It converts Windows API calls to POSIX calls, thus allowing integration of Windows applications to POSIX-compliant OS (Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and BSD).
If you wanted Notepad, Calculator, or Solitaireyou were good to go. But then something interesting happened.
Over time more and more applications were supported until Wine became a must-have tool for many users and businesses (and especially Linux gamers). To date there are thousands of fully supported applications that now run on Wine (check out the for a full list) and that list is ever growing. Granted most of the Wine work is focused on games, but you’ll still find a healthy list of productivity apps available. You might think, because of the complexity of bringing such a tool to life, that Wine would be complicated to install and use.
That assumption would be incorrect. In fact, the developers of Wine have gone out of their way to make the compatibility layer as user-friendly as possible. What exactly does that mean? To make this easier, let’s walk through the process of installing Wine and then installing and running a Windows application with the tool. I will demonstrate the process on Elementary OS Freya and install the latest version of Wine. Installation If you are running an Ubuntu derivative, you’ll find Wine located in the Software Center.
Chances are, however, that version is outdated. Because of that, we want to avoid installing the “out of the box” version offered. To do this, we must add the official Wine repository. This can be done one of two ways, via command line or GUI. Since our goal is running Windows applications, let’s use the GUI method.
Here’s how: • Click on the Applications menu • Type software • Click Software & Updates • Click on the Other Software tab • Click Add • Enter ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa in the APT line section (Figure 2) • Click Add Source • Enter your sudo password • Click Authenticate • Click Close • When prompted, click Reload • Open the Software Center • Search for Wine • Click the Wine entry and then click Install • Allow the installation to complete. Print shop trial version download. Wine is now ready to help you install and run Windows applications. Remember, however, that not every application will work. Most will, but if you’re looking to get your in-house, proprietary solution up and running, you might hit a few snags.
Installing and running an app Let’s install a very popular programmers notepad—Notepad++. You’ll want to download the file from a location that doesn’t include third-party app install options (which can cause the application installation to fail). To be safe, download the Notepad++ installer from. You will find.exe file for Notepad in your Downloads directory. Right-click that file and select Open in Wine Windows Program Loader (Figure 3).
Upon first run, the Wine configuration for ~/.wine will be updated. This can, depending upon the speed of your machine, take a bit of time. Allow this to finish and then the all-too-familiar Windows installation wizard will start up and walk you through the installation of Notepad++. Click Next and walk through the installation process. When the second screen pops up (Figure 4), you will notice a rather un-Linux Folder path. Linux doesn’t contain a C drive as does Windows.
Is this wrong? If you look in the ~/.wine folder, you will notice a folder called drive_c. Within that folder lies three familiar sub-folders: • Program Files • users • windows. As you might expect, this is your C drive. All of that is to say, leave the Folder path as-is during installation. You will eventually come to the Choose Components section of the installation (Figure 5).