Running Windows apps on Linux with PlayOnLinux
Playing Nice
Getting Windows programs to work on Linux is difficult even if you're using the famous Wine Windows-compatibility environment. Fortunately, the PlayOnLinux graphical interface can ease some of the pain.
Linux developers have made great strides in their efforts to accommodate users from Windows environments. You now can play most video and audio formats, even Windows-specific formats, directly on Linux media players. Distribution maintainers package proprietary video card drivers, so a game that requires support for 3D hardware-accelerated hardware is only a couple of clicks away; and, even MS Office files are easy to open, edit, and save thanks to LibreOffice, OpenOffice, and Calligra.
Sometimes opening and importing files created in Windows is not enough, however. What if you want – or need – the exact same program you used in Windows. (Many hardcore Linux users would question whether you really need a Windows application, but let's assume you really do need to run it just one last time.)
PlayOnLinux [1] helps you run your Windows programs in Linux. Although PlayOnLinux might look like a simple graphical front end for the venerable Wine [2] compatibility layer – the classic solution for running Windows on Linux – but PlayOnLinux is actually a bit more. With Wine, you download the application you need to run, guess the configuration that will work, hit Enter, and cross your fingers. Granted, if something goes wrong, the Wine project has a comprehensive database of solutions, and the community is really helpful, but PlayOnLinux has the advantage of removing a lot of the guess work.
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