linux mint 10



Some Windows programs run under wine on Linux.

I've never used Mint, but I'm certain it has wine in it repository. Install wine.
Then get the installation program for the windows software you want to install,
often it's named setup.exe. From a bash shell enter this command (use
the real path to setup.exe, or cd to the directory):
wine /path/setup.exe

If it works, it will popup the installation dialog just like on Windows.
 
ok

Cool I will try that thanks which wine should I get there is a lot of them in the package manager or will any of them work
 
... which wine should I get ...

On Fedora, which I use, wine is a meta-package which contains no files. Installing it causes all the other wine- packages to be installed (wine-common, wine-fonts, wine-systemd, ...). It may be the same on Mint.
 
What windows program are you trying to run? Sometimes there are linux applications that can do what the windows application will. Let us know what app you are trying to work with and maybe there is a Linux equivalent.
 
I just want to say that it's really hard to get Windows programs working in Linux. I think you're better off finding alternatives, dual-booting Windows, or running Windows in a virtual machine.
 
I just want to say that it's really hard to get Windows programs working in Linux. I think you're better off finding alternatives, dual-booting Windows, or running Windows in a virtual machine.

You're right about a lot of Windows programs. But many others run under Wine just fine.

Six or seven years ago, I was compiling code for a microcontroller for which only a Windows-hosted compiler was available. Since it was a windows app, this compiler felt obligated to announce errors by popping up windows--extremely annoying! But if I used VNC to run the compiler on a real Windows machine from my Linux desktop, as I sometimes did, the error window would popup on the Windows screen--which I couldn't see--and not in the VNC window. The result was the compiler appeared to hang from VNC vantage point. It would probably be the same from a virtual machine.

However, when I ran the same compiler under Wine, the annoying windows popped up on my Linux desktop where I could at least click on them to get rid of them. In that case, Wine was much, much better than depending on real Windows, unless I had been willing to give up Linux altogether (NO!).

Microsoft clings to the hope that there remains some awful Windows program that each user can't live without which keeps them tied to their bedraggled old Windows desktop. But Wine keeps getting better and keeps handling more oddball corner cases. Someday hopefully we'll be able to run almost any Windows software with Wine.
 
While that may be true in your case, in other cases, running programs under Wine and getting them to run in the first place is really hard (depending on the program). I haven't gotten any of my games running right in Wine and I've tried several times, just as an example.
 
Almost every Windows program can be ran from wine if you can get the right winetrick. That being said, I choose to dual boot for efficiency's sake.
 
Almost every Windows program can be ran from wine if you can get the right winetrick. That being said, I choose to dual boot for efficiency's sake.

I also choose to dual-boot, but only because I couldn't get a lot of my games to work in Wine.
 
Almost every Windows program can be ran from wine if you can get the right winetrick.

That's not been my experience. And I think if it were true, there wouldn't be so many applications rated as garbage in the Wine Application DB.

That being said, I choose to dual boot for efficiency's sake.

To each his own.
But I used to dual boot and I found it to be such an extreme hassle that I was very glad to trade off a little efficiency to get Windows running in a virtual machine that I could access from Linux. Wine is even better--for the apps that it can execute.
 
If you have enough extra cash to have two computers, a decent set up might be to have two computers, one with Windows and one with a Linux OS, and get an input splitter with a physical switch to just quickly change the OS.
 
If you have enough extra cash to have two computers, a decent set up might be to have two computers, one with Windows and one with a Linux OS, and get an input splitter with a physical switch to just quickly change the OS.

That's a good idea, but I wouldn't spend extra money just for that. I think that's a waste when you can just dual-boot.
 
If wine doesn't work for you you can try VMWare and its Unity view (you can have a window like it was part of Linux, not separate machine).
 
My brother's netbook uses Linux Mint and it runs pretty well. He hasn't really complained about any type of slowness or crashes. So I'm kind-of on the fence here with what distro I should install on my own netbook. It's between Mint and Xubuntu but Mint uses GNOME and Xubuntu uses XFCE and I know XFCE is lighter then GNOME but I was told there's a XFCE version of Mint?
 
You can install Wine and just hope that your Windows applications won't choke Wine up. Go to the Software Center and do a search for Wine. Look for a meta-package and click install. After that, run the installer for your Windows application by double clicking on the "setup.exe" or equivalent. If it asks for a program to open the file, look for the Wine program loader and select that, then launch the file. Follow the installation like you would on Windows and hope for the best. :p
 
Same points as everyone above. You can install Wine, which can be fairly badly behaved if you are unlucky...I never have any luck! So I usually just find the linux equivalent of the windows software in the end up, or dual boot, which is a pain for fast switching, or just make a VM in linux to run my windows.
 
You have to install a program called "Wine" on your computer. Once installed you should be able to run executables from windows based computers just fine.
 


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