RUNNING WINDOWS APPLICATION IN UBUNTU

WINE

“How can I install .exe files in Linux” is the most common questions for beginners in Ubuntu or any linux OS. Here is a solution for it
There are three ways by which we can install windows application on ubuntu

They are :

• Wine,
• CrossOver,
• Cedega

Wine is the base of the project, where most of the work is being done. Wine is currently a “beta” software project, intended mainly for developers, testers, and early adopters at the moment. Despite Wine’s beta limitations, tens of thousands of people nevertheless use “vanilla” Wine successfully to run a large number of Windows programs.

CrossOver (formerly CrossOver Office) is a product made by a company called CodeWeavers that is based directly on Wine with a few proprietary add-ons. Unlike the biweekly Wine releases, CrossOver releases are rigorously tested for compatibility with CodeWeavers’ supported applications in order to prevent “regressions”. CodeWeavers employs a large portion of the Wine developers and provides a great deal of leadership for the project. All improvements to Wine eventually work their way into CrossOver.

Cedega (formerly WineX) is a product from a company called TransGaming. TransGaming based their product on Wine back in 2002 when Wine had a different license, closed their source code, and rebranded their version as specialized for gamers. In the years since Cedega was originally created from Wine, development on Wine and Cedega have continued mostly independently. TransGaming currently gives back very little code to Wine. Cedega is not “Wine with more gaming support” – because Wine has had years of development since Cedega was made, and many games actually run better under Wine than under Cedega. Currently, Wine has more advanced Direct3D support than Cedega, but Cedega still has more advanced copy protection support due to TransGaming’s licensing of (closed source) code from a handful of copy protection companies. Unlike CrossOver, most improvements to Wine don’t get into Cedega due to the license differences between Cedega and Wine.

INSTALLATION PROCEDURE OF WINE

Adding the WineHQ APT Repository:

Open the Software Sources menu by going to System->Administration->Software Sources. Then select the Third Party Software tab and click Add.

Then, copy and paste one of the lines below depending on which version you are running.

For Ubuntu Karmic (9.10):
ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa

For Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04):
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt jaunty main #WineHQ – Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope”

For Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10):
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt intrepid main #WineHQ – Ubuntu 8.10 “Intrepid Ibex”

For Ubuntu Hardy (8.04):
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt hardy main #WineHQ – Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron”

Trusting the WineHQ APT Repository:

After adding the repository, you also need to add the key for the repository to your system’s list of trusted keys. Ubuntu 9.10 users may skip this step.

For Ubuntu 9.04 and earlier, download and save Scott Ritchie’s key (right click -> save as) to your desktop. Then open the Authentication tab, click import key file, and select the key file you just saved (Scott Ritchie.gpg). It is safe to delete this file after doing this step.

Installing Wine:

Click close to finish, and then reload the package information when prompted. If you have Wine installed, the system’s update manager will now inform you of the latest Wine beta release and prompt you to upgrade. If you haven’t installed Wine yet, go to Applications->Add/Remove and search for Wine or just click this link.

INSTALLATION OF CEDEGA AND CROSSOVER

Cedega and Crossover are corporate editions. Hence for their installations their official websites need to visited inorder to get the trail version packages.