WinBoat is a new Linux app to run Windows apps with "seamless integration"
WinBoat is a new Linux app to run Windows apps with "seamless integration"
For some reason I read it as WinBloat at first. Cool none the less, will make it easier to make my friends transition.
On my Linux Mint laptop Winboat installed quickly and allowed me to install and run the one program I use that requires Windows. This biggest issues were with that same app's windows when they were rendered on the Linux desktop. They sometimes couldn't be moved, resized or closed, however the same app ran just fine on the Winboat Windows Desktop itself.
The latest version is identified as an alpha release on the UI, so these problems aren't surprising. What is surprising is how well so much of this works for an alpha release, particularly how polished the installation process is.
Looking forward to using Winboat when it progresses to the beta.
The developer explains it should run basically everything unless "it requires strong GPU acceleration or kernel-level anticheat".
That is a lot of use cases people have for Windows only applications.
I imagine this is more for productivity apps, where gamers are going to use proton or wine.
Isn't wine meant for non-gaming apps too?
Sure, but many of those use GPUs as well. Consider things like CAD, photo or video editing. And "office suite" things tend to have Linux-friendly alternatives or are usable through web browsers. I'm sure there will be some niche applications this would be usable for but honestly I can't think of... any.
The only reason I boot into Windows is to use Substance Painter. It unfortunately requires 3D acceleration.
I will try to use it with Adobe Reader. Right now I need a Windows VM to use it because a PDF I use (MorePurpleMoreBetter Character Sheet for D&D) needs all the PDF scripting and it only works in Adobe Reader and getting Adobe Reader to work in Wine is a pain.
I wonder how well this runs AutoCad and adobe
Didn't we already have this same thing with a different name? https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps
From their FAQ
With WinApps you do the bulk of the setup manually, and there's no cohesive interface to bring it all together. There's a basic TUI, a taskbar widget, and some CLI commands for you to play with.
WinBoat does all the setup once you have the pre-requisites installed, displays everything worth seeing in a neat interface for you, and acts like a complete experience. No need to mess with configuration files, no need to memorize a dozen CLI commands, it just works.
For the record, WinApps makes menu shortcuts/etc.
I've tried both. WinBoat is on a whole different level of easy. You just download it, click next about 3 times and you have a working Windows VM providing Windows apps that run alongside your native linux apps.
It doesn't get any easier than this.
Hey, I made that. Fun 😆
Never tried but I read many people complaining that it's very hard to remove/revert
Instead of running compatibility layers, it runs a real copy of Windows using Docker and KVM under the hood.
I take it that it requires a Windows license then, I'll stick with wine.
I'd imagine a pirate's license will work too.
True, they did call it a boat after all.
I'm assuming it's using the dockur/windows the same as WinApps, which seems to be pre-registered ime.
dockur uses the generic keys, f.e. VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T for Windows 11.
https://gist.github.com/rvrsh3ll/0810c6ed60e44cf7932e4fbae25880df
HOLY SHIT!!! i've been needing this for years and had no idea. thank you!
I'll just get a license from the gettin' place like I always have.
I was just there yesterday, shoulda had me pick one up for you.
It's Windows. You don't need a license to run it. I mean you should have it, but it won't suddenly stop working like in old days.
Weird to compare it to Wine instead of Cassowary
https://github.com/casualsnek/cassowary
Since both are just running Windows in a VM
Wine is a translator tho.
I'm guessing that's why it's weird
How it is different from WinApps?
From their FAQ
With WinApps you do the bulk of the setup manually, and there's no cohesive interface to bring it all together. There's a basic TUI, a taskbar widget, and some CLI commands for you to play with.
WinBoat does all the setup once you have the pre-requisites installed, displays everything worth seeing in a neat interface for you, and acts like a complete experience. No need to mess with configuration files, no need to memorize a dozen CLI commands, it just works.
But if it isn't dependant on the command line is it really Linux?
(This is an awesome project, thanks for sharing)
Listen, I only need to know one thing: can it run Paint.\NET?
Because pretty much all my needs are met but
(inb4 anyone says anything: Krita = painting not editing; GIMP = sucks balls; PhotoGIMP = sucks less balls; Pinta sucks balls ever since they switched to GTK4; and pretty much all other options are MS Paint equivalents so also all suck balls.)
I'm with you. I love paint.net. For me it's not even necessarily the feature set, but the fact that it starts up instantly unlike others. Most of the time I'm using it to make a quick meme and having to wait for something like GIMP to open makes me feel like it's not worth making.
Have you tried Photopea? It’s browser based but very good
Can I ask you what "sucks" about GIMP?
Okay, so, please forgive me ahead of time for the following rant. To be blunt, you did ask. 😛
Select > Select None maybe? Anyway, I've had it happen where the option doesn't even do anything.) It completely throws my whole game off and I've never once, even once had it happen until I started using GIMP.+, -, and Shift+Ctrl+E, respectively; while most other programs have it as ctrl++; (and/or ctrl+=), ctrl+- (and/or ctrl+NumpadMinus), and ctrl+0 (and/or ctrl+NumpadEnter). Also, you cannot use tab or ctrl+tab to move to the next or previous tab, respectively, because tab is a excluded key for keyboard shortcuts (I think I was once told it has to do with a limitation in GTK, but that's ridiculous as Pinta has been able to do it for years.) There are countless other inane defaults for the keyboard shortcuts as well, frankly.LMB or RMB to switch between the primary and secondary colors selected. You have to use X.These are only a few of the most severe frustrations, annoyances, and hair-pulling-out moments for me with regards to GIMP. I'd never have even tried it out if Pinta hadn't made the ass-backwards decision to move to the stupidly minimalistic and less functional GTK4 adwaita UI and if Paint.\NET worked. (I can't remember why it doesn't wanna work; I think it has to do with a dependency. I know it's not the .NET framework since that could be handled by Mono IIRC.)
90% of the complaints I've heard about GIMP are just because its UI and workflow are different from whatever tool they're used to. I like GIMP just fine because I learned on it. I don't even like using Krita because I feel like it's 50% gimp with a skin lol
Gimp is heavy in my opinion, no matter the desktop I opened it on It always takes a while to fully open. If I want to make a quick change to an image, crop, draw or write on I don’t want to sit for 5 minutes for the editor to open.
iirc gimp tools weren’t all that beginner friendly either.
I use Pinta and it's amazing for an easy paint replacement.
Could we get something similar to windows?
WSL?
18/f/cali?
Please god, no.
hey, that was good.
Now I wonder if I dual boot linux / windows, why is there no software that can basically use my existing windows installation from another partition to run windows software (like, maybe load it into VM or something)?
You can. You can boot a windows partition in a VM. IIRC it is not really advisable but you can do it.
I actually find that starting a 'raw disk partition' virtual machine for Windows is one of the best ways to run it. Stops it from fucking up your BIOS and EFI when it does an update. You can restart into it when you want the 'native GPU' for games.
Of course, the even better way to stop Windows from fucking up your hardware is to not allow it anywhere near your hardware in the first place...
you can run windows software on a windows partition using wine, but it is extremely brittle, since you're going from a case-insensitive windows file system as well.
Parallels on Mac OS lets you do that with the Windows partition. I know VMware and other virtualization tools let you mount a physical disk into a VM so it should be possible. It's just kinda janky, and Windows doesn't always like it when you switch from physical to virtual.
It would be wonderful to have something like parrallels.
Has anyone got this working on bazzite by chance? Any additional steps necessary? Winapps didn’t work for me, so looking for an alternative
It should work, maybe not out of the box. But if you make sure KVM is enabled. And you have docker, docker-compose, freerdp and iptables installed. And you have added your user to the docker group.
Then the app should work
Why not worked it basically same thing just different interface
wonder if theyll add flathub
While I respect that you want more apps you use into the same package manager. I may be wrong, but its my understanding that they dont accept docker containers on flathub. I don't even know it is possible to run docker inside a flatpak or if its possible if it would conflict with docker on the host. Docker or podman requires kernel features like cgroup which I belive flatpak sandboxes away.
At the very least you need docker or podman and kvm and pass these from the host into the flatpak
I really like having all or most apps in one or max two package managers on my computer. But I think this is a case where you might have to concede installing this piece of software without a flatpak
There is a Windows only video confrencing app that I need to use for work. Would this work ok?
I wonder if it can connect to my laptops webcam and microhpone. I also wonder if there would be a delay in the video and audio streams.
The good thing is, it's all free software (*), so you can just try.
(*) Windows is free, because you almost certainly have a license with your pc which you can use in the vm too if your pc runs linux.
Webcam is just USB device, you can passthru that to the VM and it will work. Microphone is part of your onboard audio device, but it can probably be configured somehow to also expose microphone on an emulated audio device inside vm, but idk
Would this work with MAGIX VEGAS??
Docker based windows seems like an odd choice when qemu exists. Will check it out to see how it bloats on resources. I have a couple work apps that won't work in WINE but are fine in qemu.
How is this different from Wine?
We have Wine / Proton of course and they can run a lot, but not everything is possible. WinBoat is different. Instead of running compatibility layers, it runs a real copy of Windows using Docker and KVM under the hood. The developer explains it should run basically everything unless "it requires strong GPU acceleration or kernel-level anticheat". It uses FreeRDP for showing the apps on your Linux desktop, enabling you to interact with them like you would with any other Linux app.
I don’t want to sound rude, but maybe read the article and not just the headline before asking questions
it runs a real copy of Windows
then just run windows; at that point if you're going to buy a license for windows, why go through hoops?
Who said you gonna BUY a license?
Because I use a paid graphics suite for profit (Affinity, great and pretty decent payment model), and I'm OK-ish with paying (a fair price) for stuff that allows me to make money, but I'd rather live in Linux for most everything else.
I currently use Affinity mostly in a VM, and dual boot for some very specific things, but this seems to be a way to make the experience better.
Also, a lot of people have paid for a license when buying their computer. I'm OK with people sidestepping the strict licensing terms if they have paid for it.
It's not "you have pirated it", but "you aren't using it exactly as we want you to"
If it’s using dockur/windows it has a pre registered ime.
So now suddenly us lemmy linux tech nerds forgot about mass...🙄.
Unless that isn't possible to run, then correct me pls
Because windows is really bad for work, I would want my kde multidesktop multiscreen setup while I earn money spending time in visual studio.
ehh, tried using it . . . and a
happens. I'll create a github issue, but at this point, I could have installed a full windows vm in less time than I spent troubleshooting this issue . . . so there's that