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.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.