Trying to run Windows apps on Linux with Wine: Office, Photoshop, Affinity Designer, Autocad

Video Description

Head to https://squarespace.com/thelinuxexperiment to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code thelinuxexperiment Grab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en# 👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Get access to: - a Daily Linux News show - a weekly patroncast for more personal thoughts - polls on the next topics I cover, - your name in the credits YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLinuxEXP/join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperiment Or, you can donate whatever you want: https://paypal.me/thelinuxexp Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/TheLinuxExperiment/ 👕 GET TLE MERCH Support the channel AND get cool new gear: https://the-linux-experiment.creator-spring.com/ 🎙️ LINUX AND OPEN SOURCE NEWS PODCAST: Listen to the latest Linux and open source news, with more in depth coverage, and ad-free! https://podcast.thelinuxexp.com 🏆 FOLLOW ME ELSEWHERE: Website: https://thelinuxexp.com Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/web/@thelinuxEXP Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/TLENick PeerTube: https://tilvids.com/c/thelinuxexperiment_channel/videos Discord: https://discord.gg/mdnHftjkja Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:58 Sponsor: SquareSpace 02:02 Microsoft Office 365 06:46 Adobe Photoshop 09:05 Affinity Designer 10:45 Autocad 12:13 Crossover 13:51 Final Thoughts 17:24 Sponsor: Tuxedo Computers 18:22 Support the channel #linux #windowsapps #linuxdesktop #windows #technews I tried a few methods for Office. First, I went with Bottles, but it is a flatpak app, and as such is sandboxed, and doesn't have access to some system libraries, including Winbind. I then moved on to the latest stable version of Wine, version 9.0. I followed a nice tutorial that felt like it could work, I left a link to it in the description. https://ruados.github.io/articles/2021-05/office365-wine But, after about 20 minutes, I got this error, which, looking at it online, seems to affect Windows users too, except I don't have the tools on Linux to fix the error, since it seems to require the windows control panel to fix. Last thing I tried: installing Office 365 inside a Windows VM, and copying the files over. As expected, pasting all the Office related files in the respective directories in Wine's virtual C Drive didn't do anything, even after adding the few regedit changes mentioned by the online tutorial I found. Next was Adobe Photoshop. I tried using the PlayOnLinux built-in script, just to see, but it failed immediately, because it couldn't download the file. I then decided to create a wine prefix to try and install it using basic Wine Stable. Nothing here, the installer never actually displays any window that I could interact with, it's stuck, and the terminal doesn't show any specific error or missing DLL I could try to fix. Time to install things inside of a Windows VM, and to try copying the files over, because I've been told this can work. I copied all the directories, and I tried running the photoshop executable from Bottles, and... it didn't work either. DLLs are missing from the install, for some reason or another, and can't be found. https://linuxstans.com/adobe-photoshop-ubuntu/ Now, let's move on to Affinity Software, something a lot of people would love to see on Linux. I tried to run that installer with Wine inside of Bottles, but it fails immediately, apparently something like not having an icon in the installer, a required field not being there or something along those lines. Trying to run it with Wine gives the same error, and also doesn't work. Finally, I decided to give a shot to Autocad, another program often cited as a big missing piece for Linux. Trying to run the installer with Bottles failed immediately, a bunch of DLLS are apparently missing from the default Wine install. app under Linux** Now, I'm sure someone will mention here that I haven't tried Crossover, the paid tool made by Codeweavers, the biggest contributor to Wine. And that's why I'll mention them here: in their compatibility database, none of these programs are listed as supported either. The only one that could work is Photoshop CC 2019, that has a rating of 3 stars, which means "limited Functionality". Neither Office 365, the latest Photoshop CC, Autocad 2020, or Affinity Designer or Photo work under Crossover either, and if it there was a single way, even ultra convoluted, to get these working, you know the developers of the PAID option would have built a script to make all the necessary changes, and they'd have advertised it heavily.