Which is more stable Wine or PlayonLinux for Windows applications

[Palaksi]

I am using Wine on Linux Mint. I am trying to install a LAN messenger. It installed properly and also I can login. But when I launch it and try to send a message to someone it crashes with some error. My friend told me to have a look on PlayonLinux. This is another emulator to run .exe files on windows. I need help to choose the same. Will this work or there is something I can try on Wine.

[DanielV]

PlayonLinux is nothing but a similar to Wine. It works on Wine only. If that application which you are trying to install is not working on Wine, then it will also not work on PlayonLinux. I am sure there are some alternative for that. You can try searching for more Wine alternative

[mickey demaio]

Why don't you try VirtualBox. This comes in software manager. You can simply install Windows in that and then install the messenger you are talking about. You can then use that for communication. I have a accounting tool that only works on Windows. And I am working on Ubunto. So I had installed VirtualBox and installed that software on it. It worked nicely and do not lag. You need a bit higher amount of ram to use VirtualBox and depends on the type of Windows you have, the performance differs.

Wine is just a emulator and it works for many applications. But most commonly Yahoo crashes on it and some lan messenger also. The reason is that they use some kind of script which is installed by Internet Explorer. I had never tested that, but you can try installing IE first and then install other stuff on Wine. That might work. If still it crash then there is no solution available. You will need to contact the tech support of that application provider and ask them about open source support on tool you are using.

[Bao]

There can be some internal library issue. Did you properly checked on Google about that. Whatever .exe application if you are using, if it depends on some Windows internal libraries then you have to add that also on the virtual drive. It is better if you can contact the tech support for more details.

[Khemchand]

Many open source operating system lack support for .exe files. I had checked and now I am a bit worried about the my decision of using Ubuntu or Mint. I had purchased IDM and want to use it. But due to some issue I cannot use IDM on the video window of a website. I had checked Wine configured a older version of Firefox and did many troubleshooting stuff. But nothing worked out. I even contacted the IDM support but the said there is no support for Linux. I hope there is some patches and updates in future which will make a open source distro more stable. I had also tried hard to run Yahoo but now quiet the same. There is some issue with Wine. It is better if you install those stuff on VirtualBox. That is much more stable an gives you Windows environment inside Linux. A good for testing product and you can use it blindly without any antivirus support. I am going to configure VirtualBox on my system but need to upgrade my hardware.

[Dinesh Dubey]

I am using VirtualBox OSE. This is another visualization tool that can help to run .exe files. It is not all complicated to configure it. You just have to provide proper storage and ram allocation. This thing is best for using different .exe files.

[Maq.H]

Even though there are such advance version of Linux distro, we are still not able to get a proper solution to run .exe files. I am sure if there is a perfect emulator that can run .exe files well without crashing we can never need Windows. Ubuntu is a good os and quiet smoother to some extent. It works easily and do not provide any freezing issue. I too tried to configure IDM on it, but still the browser freezes. I cannot locate any support on the same. It is best you use a video plugin on Firefox to get those video files.

PlayonLinux is just another version of Wine. It uses Wine to create a virtual space to run .exe files. I had tested many things, but they too crash and do not respond so properly. I am going to try that IE thing. If that worked it would be a great help in using Yahoo Messenger on Linux.

[Florence_USA]

I am not sure but still Linux lack a better support for .exe files. There are emulators but they are not at all stable. Those apps which works initially through Program Files directory only do not need any kind of additional support. But those applications which rely on shared component can create crashing issue.

[Edwards]

You are right. There are certain files which depends on certain Windows shared component. This component are not at all present on Linux which led to system crash. There are some things that you can go for. Last time I had installed IE which worked well, but it was slow. You have to keep a habit of using inbuilt software in Linux. You must ignore third party windows resources which might waste your time a lot in installation. PlayonLinux and Wine are one and the same. If you do not install Wine, I am sure PlayonLinux will not work at all. This is good for running games. I am playing Counter Strike and that worked really well. It did not crashed and at minimum settings I can play this lan game.

[Ambak]

It is fine to use the integrated tools. You can get Firefox, Opera, etc on Linux. But some tools do not work. I am quiet happy still using Linux Mint. I ignore other stuff. Somehow there will be options in future which will help you to use .exe files in more effective way.