Garbage Collection

To get rid of a Windows application you have installed on Linux, you might think it would suffice to delete the corresponding directory below .wine/drive_c/Program Files.

Don't do this because Wine will still list the application as installed. Instead, run Wine's own Uninstaller. To launch the uninstaller, press Alt+F2 within openSUSE and type uninstaller. Then, click Run (or Launch), and you should see the window in Figure 8. When you get there, select the software you want to delete and click Uninstall.

Figure 8: Wine gives you a graceful approach to uninstalling Windows programs.

Conclusions

Wine is not a panacea, unfortunately, and many major programs still refuse to cooperate. Your best chances are with games (see Figures 9 and 10), but you might need to do without popular accounting packages, CorelDRAW, the latest version of Photoshop, or iTunes, for example.

Figure 9: Some Windows games, such as Adventure Runaway, …

Figure 10: … will run on Linux thanks to Wine.

A better alternative might be to look around for a Linux program that provides similar functionality. In the case of Photoshop, why not try GIMP or Krita? And OpenOffice has long been a more than adequate replacement for Microsoft's Office suite. If you check out the list of packages in your distribution's package manager, you might be surprised at the number of comparable programs, or even programs with superior features, that Linux offers.