Wine provides a software compatibility layer for Windows on Linux. It translates Windows API calls to POSIX calls. It works for a lot of Windows software but not all.
Installing Wine on Ubuntu Linux should be trivial, but not if you start googling it. There are numerous complex and sometimes contradictory instructions on the Internet. We present one simple way, and then one slightly more complex way for Linux Mint users. As for the rest, generally following any instruction will work it’s just a pity there is not one definitive way for newcomers.
The simple way to install Wine
sudo apt install wine64
A more complex Linux Mint Approach using the GUI
Somehow the Wine ecosystem seems to have made it complex to install. Googling installing Wine on Linux provides numerous different articles. It’s really hard to distinguish what an ordinary user needs to do to install Wine. Come to the rescue, Ubuntu Software Manager. Search `wine` and there are results, but which one to choose? I wish they would make it easier.
In this tutorial we’ll focus on the first result, which as it happens, also has the most reviews. This one is called:
Wine
Windows API implementation – standard suite
We’ll ignore:
Wine
Microsoft Windows Compatibility Layer
Wine-stable
Windows API implementation (transitional package)
To the maintainers of Wine – and Software Manager on Linux Mint – this is really confusing.
Even the text of the one we’re about to install is confusing. The first paragraph makes sense.
“Wine is a free MS-Windows API implementation. This is still a work in progress and many applications may still not work.”
And here comes the confusion:
“This package provides essential wrappers and convenience tools fro the standard Wine components.”
OK – first question, are there “non- standard Wine components”?
And then
“It also employs the Debian alternatives system to provide the usual command names, e.g. “wine” instead of “wine-stable”.
Huh?
How did we get here?
