1y ago

Is it possible to create an OS that simply automatically runs .exe files through WINE/Proton/Bottles?

I really enjoy Linux but I find myself having to keep Windows partitions around for software that specifically requires Windows.

Proton makes everything easier by automatically running game files through a translation layer, and it "just works" quite well most of the time.

Also VanillaOS can apparently auto-spin a container when you try to open a .deb or AUR package (this is my rudimentary understanding).

Setting up WINE/Bottles, etc. is above my pay grade.

Is it not possible to create an OS that just does the same thing as Steam but for the entire OS?

67 comments

You should be able to configure any desktop environment to open exe files with Wine or a frontend of your choice. By default Wine installs everything to ~/.wine and adds an entry to your applications.
- Well, my experience has always been that when I double click an exe that I get either asked which program should be used to open it or Wine gets used automatically. Which is more or less the same thing Windows does with different file types.
  So, are you just here to bitch and moan or do you want to try it out?
  
  As others pointed out already, most distros will ask you which program you want to use on a file the first time you double click on them, and you can tell it to always use the same program for all other similar files (just like windows btw)...the only difference with windows (regarding exe files) is that you need to have wine installed first (lots of distros have it preinstalled though). You can still do it later by right clicking (again, just the same as windows). I fail to see what's so complex about that.
  You cant have the same expectation with Wine regarding any windows software vs Proton for games, games and softwares can be awfully different, that's why Wine can be a pain to use, and why it sometimes needs more fiddling for some soft than Proton does with games. Also some soft wont work on Wine period. Some softs will work just as simply as games on proton, some absolutely wont.
  I am sure you are aware that windows softs are made for windows, so it is a bit odd to expect a different OS to handle exe files perfectly and make it an out of the box experience, it was never made for that. I have yet to see anyone complain about not being able to run any Apple exclusive app on windows, sure Linux has Wine and Proton, and that's cool... but some people don't use it. So yeah it won't be smooth and yeah it can get complicated, yet it's still better than nothing don't you think ?
  I think all this should answer your post and your comment. Sorry if it sounds like I am scolding you, but to be plain your post is asking why an apple can't be an orange.
  If you need any help with something and don't want unconstructive or vague answers it's better to be specific about your issues and to consider that one problem with an exe file (or anything really) won't be solved the same way as another. And if you don't get something just say it instead of accusing anyone offering advice of being cryptic or unhelpful snobs, you won't get far if you annoy everyone..just saying ;)
  
  I very much agree with that first sentence. I think they forget how much they know at a baseline, and can't skip that when talking to a copy-paste idiot like me.
  
  Linux in general doesn't have any defined purpose, so the whole Archlinux mentality only really exists in that one distro. It's a little unfair to confuse (for example) Mint and Tiny Core.
In Debian and, probably, Ubuntu you may install the wine-binfmt package to get all *.exes running with wine automatically. However I don't recommend doing so because it is very easy to run some windows trojan with this.
- Wine is a bit too good these days
I have to add, please use Bottles Flatpak (or something similar) to run .exe files in an isolated environment.
Bottles has very secure presets and a fully modern stack with Pipewire and Portals. Running .exes there is probably safe.
But starting to run random Windows apps unisolated on your system will open a huge can of worms. Especially with quacked games ;D
- As I said this is not very good behavior, some .exe files may install a program first and then it may create a desktop entry, by default this windows link will only be accessible from within the app library but you can export it. Linux uses .desktop entries, running .exe files is not how you do it.
  Did you already create a bottle? If not do so, use "programs" or whatever you want to run.
  pupgui is needed if you want games, install latest proton GE and use that instead with a "Games" bottle.
  Then if you have any bottle created, close the app again and try to open that .exe again with bottles.
  Things to consider that I have the feeling you might not know
  bottles has a really well made flatpak, this is the only supported version
  flatpak apps have an internal app storage (pupgui flatpak can write there to install the wine engines)
  even if not in flatpak (which you should 100% use, wine is a security hole), WINE will create a fake Windows directory structure and place the .exe there
  so running an .exe is completely different from an appimage (which you should not use unless you need to). This app will likely depend on Windows libraries so it needs to be installed i.e. placed in that WINE directory structure
- No you need some integration for sure. You could create a custom desktop entry, launching that .exe file with custom parameters. Or create or find a filemanager extension.
  Simply that .exe files are often installers, bottles installs them, finds the launch links and converts them to desktop entries.
  This is they way this is done. Stop using stuff the windows way, it simply doesnt work well.
Is it possible to create an OS that simply automatically runs .exe files through WINE/Proton/Bottles?
Zorin already does that out-of-the-box. See: https://help.zorin.com/docs/apps-games/windows-app-support/#run-apps-in-exe-and-msi-files
And if you want to take it to the next level, there's ReactOS, which is basically an opensource reverse-engineered Windows - but sadly it's development is slow and it's hardware support is extremely lacking. But it exists, and does qualify as an answer to your question. For all practical purposes though, Zorin is what you're looking for.
Setting up WINE, in my experience, is as easy as just installing it and running EXEs and MSIs with it. I just set wine as the default handler for those file types, and things mostly just work.
There is some tweaking that is sometimes necessary, but it's easier to tackle that on a case-by-case basis. I hardly have to do anything for the handful of Windows-based tools I keep to work, and there's usually someone online who has already figured out a workaround so I don't have to.
- First paragraph: Everything works great!
  Second paragraph: Well...
  
  They didn't say everything works great...
  They said setting up WINE is as simple as installing it, and then using it to open exe files, which is true. And that things mostly just work.
  Not really a gotcha moment.
  
  [narrator voice: it wasn't "just as easy as" nor did "everything work great"]
Wubuntu? https://wubuntu.org/
- I feel like there is a scary amount of copyright infringement going on to make it look THAT much like Windows 11.
  
  IDK about copyright, but the amount of times they refer to themselves as "Windows Ubuntu" feels like it's probably trademark infringement. A reasonable person could easily read this website and mistake it for an official MS product.
  
  damn! that is quite the impressive windows veneer going on there. did not know about this distro (and I find the win 10/11 UI to be a whole lotta "meh", so not personally interested), but I am sure there are others who would be. interesting link to throw, hand grenade style, into a distro flame war.
Sure, when linux loads are process it follows a standard procedure to see how to run the file. If the file has ELF markers it runs the process via the ELF loader. If the file has #! as the first then it uses a different process to run that script. (I doubt a.out executable format is supported anymore, but that at least used to be an option). There is no reason you cannot hack this process to detect windows executable and then use wine to load/run the application. I'm not sure why nobody has done this, but the basic things have been supported in linux for decades.
- You don't need to hack anything, you can use Binfmt_misc to tell the kernel how to load windows binaries
- I doubt a.out executable format is supported anymore, but that at least used to be an option
  is that why when i compile c programs the default name is a.out?
  
  Sorta, the file might not be in the a.out format anymore but the name has stuck around.
- No shit, DOS box works well enough on Linux it was ported to Windows for older programs, just do the same with power shell.
- You can use the magic bytes to detect it. Pretty sure windows executables have MZ as their magic bytes
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_signatures
- Are you un-ironically suggesting that this person should write a kernel plugin to support pe formated binaries? Especially considering that wine-binfmt is a thing?
  
  i last looked into this about 20 years ago. I concluded I could make it work but I don't use wine enough to bother.
honestly, wine has seemed unreasonably complex to me in the past and i haven't tried since. but Bottles offers a nice easy to use GUI, i do recommend giving it a shot. at least on arch linux it's super easy to install via the AUR.
the only issue is some apps need additional dependencies which can take some searching to figure out what exactly is needed. the arch wiki lists a bunch of them though, and often the error messages bottles shows will point you the right way.
i've gotten almost every .exe to work with it, most immediately, some after a short bit of tinkering.
- The bottles flatpak is the official release so people not on an arch based system can/should use that
  
  Even people on Arch should use it. It ensures better isolation of processes and is the only supported installation method if you ever have issues.
- that said, i did end up finding open source alternatives for all the software i use often, and don't use bottles much.
  
  I've yet to find something open-source that scratches what MusicBee can do, and it's got major performance, usability and visual problems when running through WINE that have been reported.
  It's why I keep a Windows VM around.
- Wine works great 😂
Can you run non native binaries on Linux? Sure, Linux is the Swiss army chainsaw of the OS world. There are multiple ways to achieve that.
Is it complicated? A bit. You're interfacing a binary created for a completely different and alien environment. You'd get the same answer if you asked "why can't l just run Mac apps in Windows like any other .exe?"
The best way to run .exe files is Windows. You have wonderful tools to help you run Windows apps on Linux, but the experience will probably never be as seamless as you want.
- You can run 3 vm instances, 1 win10, 1 android, 1 ios, and within them you can run native whatevers.
  Why would you want to run crap in your nice clean nix environment is beyond me. And nothing will ever improve with this kind of mentality.
  Again, free software stands for freedom, not cheap or of 0 exchange value.
  @Quazatron @helenslunch
  
  You don't have to sell Linux to me, I've been onboard since 95. :-)
  All I'm saying is: if I needed to run Windows apps with zero hassle, I'd use Windows. I don't, so I won't.
Try Zorin OS
https://help.zorin.com/docs/apps-games/windows-app-support/
- Can confirm Zorin has the best out-of-the-box process for getting Windows apps running. I have a family member that's really gotten attached to Zorin because of its familiar front-end, and even though they have some prior Linux experience from earlier years, they've never needed to use terminal knowledge for the basic stuff they've been using Zorin for.
- Zorin is the answer for someone who needs easy mode to install .exe's.
I have the opposite problem, llavafiles (a large language model, packages as a single files) can run on both Linux and Windows. They are written to be compatible with both.
But when I ./file to run it, eine is started automatically!
(The llava file GitHub has a workaround, but still by default it chooses wine for some reason)
What are you trying to achieve?
- Maybe I'm not fully understanding then. Maybe your looking for an application like bottles?
Along with the other suggestions here, Garuda also already does this out-of-the-box.
Give setting it up a try, it doesnt seem hard once you do it.
Also, linux binfmt is powerful magic. My x86-64 machine can run arm binaries like native with qemu, wine integration is also possible but in my setup i let the gui file manager launch exe files with wine.
Install dxvk, vkd3d-proton, and the vcredist files and you can run a good chunk of games in your default prefix by clicking them in your file manager
- What you worried about then?
In my understanding you can run .exe with double click if you install wine and choose it to open any .exe as default, if you have DXVK with wine like fedora do and if the program have all the dependencies in the .wine folder things probably will work.
I think that the magic that happens with Proton is just a hell lot of people debugging and pushing fixes to Proton/Proton-GE and so on for multiples games.
Hijaking the post to ask another thing related to Proton, do Proton uses the binaries of the bin folder most games have? Like the multiples .NET runtimes? Or the windows still need to have it so the game can detect it as installed?
Just install WineHQ

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