MX Linux Forum

I do not use any windows programs. What do you use wine for?

Just curious.

To pair with a nice meal!

I don't even use it for that

I have to use WINE for some windows applications that have no linux alternative.

The old Windows program Imaging runs well under Wine and is very good and fast at opening 2540 dpi tiff files as well as old fax files. If you have old Windows cardfiles they open in Wine but not in Windows. I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to open my old .mht files as well as IE 6 did.

the Run some older windows software, now that I'm using an Linux System.
:)

there are Alternatives that are avialble these days, and some of them are quite good.
Thus there is less reason to use those oldies, except for my memory, that reads that they were an great idea.

these days, the wine thing is used more for running games, mostly.

Xenu Link Sleuth - for checking websites for broken links on huge (> 10,000 pages) websites. Great for when the 500 link limit makes Screaming Frog not usable on a particular website.

CSS HTML Validator - for cleaning up HTML soup in files created by others in visual web page editors like FrontPage.

IrfanView - a lightweight image editor. I've since become comfortable with Gimp.

Hikvision iVMS-4200 Lite

Any Windows software I want to use that doesn't have a Linux alternative.

Mostly for gaming

I use Wine for a few programs for which
a. there is no alternative solution under Linux
b. that are significantly more convenient than Linux alternatives

I use Bottles for obscure programs only available for Windows.
If I couldn't run them in Linux I would have to keep Win PC just for this two (my hobby related) apps...

I often use Faststone image editor for quick work on digital photos, and Irfanview for printing JPEGs to resize and fit in a page properly.

Geek3579 wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 8:11 am I often use Faststone image editor for quick work on digital photos, and Irfanview for printing JPEGs to resize and fit in a page properly.

You can also directly use XnViewMP. instead (via MXPI). (I used Wine for XnView, Irfanview, mostly before)

I remember Irfanview. It was one of my go-to apps back in the day.

I have quite a bit of Windows audio software on my main systems, mainly old gems that I like to preserve because they can be great in just the right situation :) - but out of those, I don't think any Windows software gets more Linux use here than Tokyo Dawn Records Limiter 6 GE, by far. Anything that I do that gets finalized into a listenable form goes through that one.

I use Wine for a Windows genealogical program ( Ancestral Quest 16 ). These is Gramps software for genealogy in the repositories, but I don't like how it's set up. Ancestral Quest 16 runs absolutely great with wine on MX Linux OS. No problems.

Edit:

I have had success downloading Wine from their website as the repositories in Linux are usually not up to date with the latest version.


Click this link to find which Applications work with Wine and their Windows App status:

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager. ... nding=true


Click this link to install latest Wine version and how to do install. I just copied and pasted the commands into a terminal and it installed without a problem: ( These commands actuall work )

https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/w ... ian-Ubuntu


Hope this helps.

txm0523 wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 1:48 pm I use Wine for a Windows genealogical program ( Ancestral Quest 16 ). These is Gramps software for genealogy in the repositories, but I don't like how it's set up. Ancestral Quest 16 runs absolutely great with wine on MX Linux OS. No problems....

You can also try, Ancestris (powerful too) into the MX repository , or https://www.ancestris.org/index.html#

@oops Thanks for the tip. I looked at it. Don't like how it's formated though. I prefer Ancestral Quest 16, it's a continuation of PAF 5 ( which was discontinued ) many years ago. I guess once you're used to using a program that's formatted the way you like it, you kinda stick with it. Anyway, I spoke with Support at Ancestral Quest last year and asked if they were going to port it over to Linux OS. Not yet. But I did provide instructions on how to use their software with Wine and Debian based Linux OS. It should be listed in their Forum. Always trying to get MS based apps to port over to Linux OS. That's just me.

txm0523 wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 7:51 pm @oops Thanks for the tip. I looked at it. Don't like how it's formated though. I prefer Ancestral Quest 16, it's a continuation of PAF 5 ( which was discontinued ) many years ago. I guess once you're used to using a program that's formatted the way you like it, you kinda stick with it. Anyway, I spoke with Support at Ancestral Quest last year and asked if they were going to port it over to Linux OS. Not yet. But I did provide instructions on how to use their software with Wine and Debian based Linux OS. It should be listed in their Forum. Always trying to get MS based apps to port over to Linux OS. That's just me.

I'm not familiar with "Ancestral Quest 16," but I've tested several types of software like this on Linux, and once you get the hang of it (it's quite long), Ancestris is very powerful (Java concept). (you can also import others .ged files, and correct some formatting (before or after), with some pluggins) . Personally I prefer staying with gedcom 5.5.1 & utf8. I have tried gedcom-v7.0.xx but I don't like it. (a nice tool too with linux is Jedit for the gedcom files : https://www.jedit.org/)

I use chess software, for example, Chess Base.

I use WinMerge for backups: checking the folders, comparing files and merging/copying them if needed.
I could not find a good single replacement, but I'm trying to switch to FreeFileSync using Meld as a comparison tool.

SQLyog and some CRM client.
I would love to run Xara (Photo & Graphic Designer), but it's unusable so I have to keep my old win10 VM.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

Odd the Post Answered itself by the itself at the opening question. "Quote I don't use any windows Programs" ? What is wine used for.
wine - Wine is Not an Emulator ! it is a designed application or compatible layer of software allowing applications as to Perform running Windows programs to operate close as or matching operations. On top of the Linux Operating Systems Platform.

Mac has parallels another similar like application layer of Software designed to run MS windows programs on the Mac platform of operating systems.

So Install Wine / install windows programs and run as you would on Windows.
Problem is, it is not 100 percent that all windows applications game etc will not all successfully run exactly the same as they where in comparison as run on Windows platform.

basically that is the gargon phrase of what wine is. and its use. user experience and rumor access "Mileage may Differ".

Lutris with StarCraft2

I personally use Wine and it is a very big part of AV Linux to run Windows Audio Plugins in Linux Recording Programs. Why would you want that? Plugins provide effects like Delays and Reverbs etc, they emulate old vintage tube gear, they provide guitar amplifier simulations, synthesizers, samplers, analysis tools and countless other ways to work with sound and extend the capabilities of Audio Recording Programs. While it's a fact there are many great Plugins on Linux and more being developed every day the truth is Windows has tenfold the choices of Plugins and people who are coming to Linux from Windows often don't want to lose the Plugins they are used to with known functionality so for various reasons having this functionality from Wine is sought after and pretty much expected in an Audio Distribution.

I don't use WINE because in my experience it can never run a program made for Windows that there is no LINUX alternative like for one example is my R7 Uniden radar detector has software to update it only made for Windows, Apple, and nothing for LINUX. I use a Windows Laptop to update my radar detector which is the only thing I use that old Laptop for because of what Windows has manifested into. I like the idea of the idea of WINE but in my case it's useless since it can't run the program I need it to run. This is a disadvantage of LINUX that has yet to be overcome.

Mauser wrote: Sat May 31, 2025 3:51 am I don't use WINE because in my experience it can never run a program made for Windows that there is no LINUX alternative like for one example is my R7 Uniden radar detector

I can imagine that Windows software meant to update a peripheral would be difficult; it probably depends on if the software expects a USB or serial connection to the device, but I'm guessing WINE can be edited to handle that if you have the wherewithal. Personally I think WINE is useful for Windows software that has no Linux alternative. Games are always an easy example. I like Silent Hill 2, Dune 2000, Fallout 3, and Alone in the Dark 1. But I also like WINE because it gives me an opportunity to run Notepad++, which is just a nice text editor and the Linux spin-off NotepadNext is just nowhere near as useful. I may be the only person you'll ever know who has Notepad++ as a Lutris entry.

I've seen it used as a suffix for the partial-name "Ead".

(ohhhhhh, that was baaaaad)

atomick wrote: Tue May 27, 2025 6:35 pm Odd the Post Answered itself by the itself at the opening question. "Quote I don't use any windows Programs" ? What is wine used for...

No, it did not "answer itself". Apparently you did not read it very well. I know what wine is and what it is used for. I didn't say "What is wine used for" I asked what you use wine for. As in users.

I was just curious what programs people run with wine...

I tried it for Winbox for setting up Mikrotik Routers, but it failed to find any of my networking hardware because the firewall was blocking it. Works flawlessly when Firewall is off, but that's not how I operate, so I started opening ports but the volume of ports I had to open kept growing so I canned it, uninstalled and removed the .wine config, then installed a seriously stripped down Win VM with network pass-thru. It's ugly, but it doesn't leave my front door wide open.

Other than games I have Medieval Cue Splitter, Exact Audio Copy, VidCoder (because handbrake needs some handholding), WinX Youtube Downloader and WinX DVD Ripper. There is also Foobar2k in holding pattern for the day when universal media hotkeys actually works with wine.

Other than annoying payroll, tax, government etc software that only works on windows everything else works natively.