Trading Up To Linux – Part 7
By Alan German
One of the reservations many people have about moving to Linux is that they think learning to use the new operating system will be hard and, in particular, that they will be unable to use the Windows applications to which they have become accustomed over many years. Neither of these scenarios is necessarily true. In recent articles in this series, we have seen that modern Linux distros compare very favourably with Windows. Many of the features of the Windows desktop, such as the ability to create on-screen program shortcuts and add quick-launch icons to the taskbar (panel) are present in Linux. The menu system in Linux Mint, with its layout of software categories allowing rapid access to specific applications, is particularly easy to navigate. The Software Manager, with curated applications available from secure repositories, and the Update Manager, offering exceptional user control, give Linux definite advantages for these aspects of computer maintenance.
Linux also has the ability to run many Windows programs, for example by using Wine or PlayonLinux (a graphical front end for Wine). Windows and Linux have very different system software and, while Linux is open-source, the Windows system is proprietary, with its under-the-hood operations not being documented in the public domain. Nevertheless, Linux developers have created a “compatibility layer” that translates Windows Application Program Interface (API) calls to their Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) standard equivalents. In short, this means that many Windows programs can be run in Linux.
While a large number of Windows programs will work quite satisfactorily on Linux using Wine, some will function better than others, and even different versions of the same program may not function in the same manner. The Wine Application Database (AppDB) lists almost 30,000 applications, and assists end users in identifying the ability of Wine to run specific programs. Individual applications are ranked on a five-point scale, from Platinum, for Windows programs that run flawlessly, through to Garbage, where problems are so severe to make the program unusable in Linux.
Microsoft Office is a favourite software package for Windows users and features the Word (word processing), Excel (spreadsheet), and PowerPoint (presentation) modules. These provide an excellent example of the variation of performance for different versions of the same program under Wine. For example, Microsoft Word has rankings across all of the available categories – Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Garbage – as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Wine AppDB Ratings for Microsoft Word
Wine is available through the Software Manager so this is the easiest way to install the package. It’s a command-line utility, so to install a Windows program requires opening a Linux Terminal and typing in some appropriate commands. Fortunately, the structure of the main command is very simple – wine <program-name>.exe. Note that this assumes that the wine command is being run on the folder that contains the Windows executable. If this is not the case, then a change directory (cd) command needs to be added. For example, installation of the Homesite HTML editor from a USB drive to my hard drive on Linux uses the command sequence:
cd /media/toaster/KINGSTON/Homesite wine Setup.EXE
The setup program loads from the Kingston USB drive and the subsequent installation prompts are exactly the same as those that appear when installing the program in Windows, including the need to enter the activation code when this is requested. A category for Wine-based applications, and an associated entry for Homesite, is automatically created in the Linux Mint menu structure. Homesite can then be run on the Linux system exactly as is done on Windows.
When it comes to software like Microsoft Office, PlayonLinux provides a graphical user interface and also pre-built scripts to install several versions of the office suite. PlayonLinux can be installed through the Software Manager; however, subsequently trying to immediately install Office results in an error message that the Winbind package is also required. Installing both PlayonLinux and Winbind resolves this issue.
PlayonLinux is somewhat restricted in the versions of Microsoft Office that are supported. I have Office 2010 which is one of the versions on the supported list. Starting the installation process in PlayonLinux is simply a matter of searching for “Office” and, in my case, selecting “Microsoft Office 2010”. It should be noted that you must own a copy of the software, as a valid 25-character product key is required to be entered as part of the installation process.
As the installation proceeds, a series of dialogue boxes provide information, installation options, and error/warning messages. For example, an initial screen indicates that Office should be installed on the (default) “C: drive” which is effectively a virtual drive in the Linux file system. One interesting “error” that I encountered was a screen that showed a file system check error pointing to the USB drive that was being used to access the installation files for Office. Cancelling and ignoring this error allowed the installation to proceed normally.
Subsequently, more error screens were displayed, seemingly due to an inability of the installer to locate various WindowsXP-KB files. Asking the installer to retry was ineffective as the same screens immediately reappeared. So, responding negatively to the retry query allowed the installation to proceed. Despite such error messages, a final screen indicated “Microsoft Office 2010 has been installed successfully” (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Microsoft Office installed using PlayonLinux
The installation resulted in on-screen program icons being displayed for each of the Microsoft Office modules, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, all of which I use regularly, but also for Outlook and OneNote that I never use. However, it was very easy to delete the unwanted icons, and place those that are useful along the top of the screen, which is my preferred location.
Figure 3. Microsoft Word running on the Linux desktop
The screenshot in Figure 3 shows a newsletter article being prepared in Microsoft Word running in Linux. We can also see the program icons for Word and Excel along the top-left edge of the screen. The icon for PowerPoint is covered by the Word program window. Also, note the Homesite icon in the top-right corner of the Linux desktop. All of these Windows programs are available for use in Linux by simply double-clicking!
Bottom Line
Wine (Open Source) Version 10.0 https://www.winehq.org
PlayonLinux (Open Source) Version 4.4 https://www.playonlinux.com/en/