Howto Linux : Run Windows applications with Wine and PlayOnLinux (Internet Explorer, Itunes, Games and much more)

The Goal:

Today Linux has access to a very large amount of applications for any need, and hopefully more and more applications comes with a Linux version.

But unfortunately this is not always the case and you may have to run Windows applications, there comes Wine to help us!

Wine is a great and powerful solution that runs Windows softwares on Linux, with more or less success depending on the application complexity and support.

Recently i discovered PlayOnLinux, a wonderfull solution to install and run various Windows applications using Wine, let's say this the better frontend for Wine !

Let's begin ^^

First step: Install PlayOnLinux

Don't hesitate to take a look at great PlayOnLinux website:
http://www.playonlinux.com


For Ubuntu based distributions:

PlayOnLinux is available in Ubuntu repositories, but i recommend to install the last version using their ppa, here's how:

Add the ppa and install PlayOnLinux and Wine:

wget -q "http://deb.playonlinux.com/public.gpg" -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_precise.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install playonlinux wine wine1.4-i386 -y

Wine and PlayOnLinux are off course available for others Linux systems, just follow your specific system instructions to install PlayOnLinux using their website.

Open PlayOnLinux for first launch

First launch, a wizard automatically runs:

Follow instructions, requirements will be automatically downloaded and installed:

Access to Application Repository

Click on "Install Program" to open the application Repository, first i recommend is to check the box "Testing" to get access to all applications:

Note: You may choose "Refresh" to ensure you have last application repository

Example : Install Internet Explorer 8 (listed program)

Note: Internet Explorer will work for most of thing, but do not hope to get Directx working using Wine.

As i far as i know and have tested for now, the only way to get Directx working on Linux is to install Windows into a Virtual Machine... (eg. using Virtual Box, Vmware...)

Just Select, Valid install and follow instructions, click to click ^^

And finally you can run the Application through PlayOnLinux main screen or shortcut created:

Workings out of the box!

Example : Itunes 10 on Linux

Some screenshots of Itunes 10 running on Linux:

PlayOnLinux has many other possibilities, you can off course install a non listed program and much more, do not hesitate to read documentation on PlayOnLinux Website.

Wine and PlayOnLinux... I said great and Powerful no ? :-)