linux mint 10

[willguinn]

How to install windows programs

[KenJackson]

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.

[willguinn]

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

[KenJackson]

... 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.

[willguinn]

Thanks

[grim76]

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.

[KenJackson]

Sometimes there are linux applications that can do what the windows application will.

Yes, indeed. Good point.

Here is a table of Linux equivalents of Windows software that I found helpful.

[lucasbytegenius]

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.

[KenJackson]

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.

[lucasbytegenius]

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.