What's your experience with WINE?

[gbhollr]

I've only been diving into using Linux for half a year now and there's still a bucket load I've yet to uncover and learn to do.
Case in point? WINE, which I now is a compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows apps and games in Linux and
there is a much more refined (and paid) version of it called CrossOver.

However I also heard that this software isn't 100% compatible with ALL apps and games and the only first-hand experience I had was
testing CrossOver in a live boot of Ubuntu Gamepack. I tried to install Adobe Creative Suite, Clip Studio as well as one of my old games.
Only Clip Studio installed but when I started it, it crashed.

That's why, at the moment, I'm sticking with Windows for the time being especially since I need Adobe for all my productive work and the majority of my games are
Windows games I bought from GOG.

But I am willing to try again although I'm interested to hear about anyone else's personal experience with WINE and/or CrossOver.

[JayM]

Before trying to run a Windows app in wine you should always visit https://www.winehq.org/ and search the application database. Some versions or particular apps work great while other versions don't work that well.

I've never heard of CrossOver and am not in favor of paid-for (and presumably closed source) apps on my Linux system, particularly when wine(or Play on Linux) does what I need for those very few Windows apps that I still use. For anything else that insists on being run in real Windows there are VirtualBox VMs.

[Gerson]

My experiences with WINE were always bad. No experience with MX and in other distributions was terrible, for that reason I use VirtualBox with W7 for programs of my profession that only exist for Windows or MAC and thus they work for me without problem.

[thomasl]

Very positive. If it works, it works very well. And it works surprisingly (for me) often.

To elaborate: wine is basically a layer that "translates" Windows API calls to their nearest Linux equivalent. Software that uses/needs API calls that are not easily or not at all translatable will either not work well or not at all. Many Windows developers are these days specifically including code to make their software work on wine but anything that needs a driver or direct access to the underlying hardware won't work (as a general rule, there may be exceptions).

I am using around a dozen Windows apps on wine for which I have, so far, found no real replacement (or where a change to my current working practices is not yet feasible). These include IrfanView, foobar2000, PopTrayU, my email/newsreader client and an Office package (not MS) and couple of smaller utilities. These are virtually perfect. Quite a few others are not completely OK but still quite usable.

One caveat. I tend to use software that does not need installation, ie portable software. In my experience, big packages which need installation are more prone to causing trouble than this type of software (again that's a general rule, there are exceptions).

Try it. It may work well. And it is regularly updated.

[chrispop99]

My experiences with WINE are that the things it works well with, such as office software, already have viable Linux alternatives.

As others have said, a Windows install in a virtual machine may be a better solution.

Chris

[manyroads]

Me... "no like"

[timkb4cq]

There are a few Windows programs I use Wine for, but I keep a Win7 VM because my preferred Tax Software is a no-go in Wine.

[jonnken]

There are a few Windows programs I use Wine for, but I keep a Win7 VM because my preferred Tax Software is a no-go in Wine.

I like this solution...Win7 VM. I wonder to what extent running VM...requires a heftier faster computer, than what I have, a Dell D630 Duo Core2?

[rc racer]

However I also heard that this software isn't 100% compatible with ALL apps and games

This does seem to be the problem with WINE. I have only tried two window programs using WINE and only one of the programs worked reasonably well. So obviously I'm not an expert using WINE and I'm not much of a gamer so it is not a big deal to me. "However, I have found good alternative applications to windows programs in the Linux repositories. If you are a big gamer you might like to try steam. I hear it has really improved the gaming experience for Linux users. I hope Linux works out for you. I love it

[dphn]

I'm using two Windows apps on one of my machines via wine. foobar2000 and the great burning application AnyBurn. Both works great but CD-Ripping via foobar is not possible.

In my opinion there are no native Linux programs good replacements for that apps. For example I'm ripping Audio CDs with asunder but only foobar2000 can create flac files with a correct embedded cuesheet in it. There are good files for archiving. Two native Linux players can read embedded cuesheets (deadbeef and qmmp), but no one can create such files. Maybe theres a solution with abcde and mkcue on the command-line.

Burning with Anyburn works great. Such a small app and a wide range of functionality, a bit similar to ImgBurn but better. Ok, k3b is a also a good app, but I would not install so much KDE dependencies on a GTK based Desktop like Xfce.