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i am desperate to find a device like playonlinux/wine that successfully plays windows devices that i can use for creating art,music anbd so on.

but the only things that seem to install and load via POL are built FOR POL in my experience so far.

almost every (for me) useful windows device i've tried usually fials on install, dosnt fully install,or i keep getting the dialogue box that sneeds me top browse for something to open it, and many times there dosnt seem to be anything.

couldnt the brwose function just navigate you to a virtual windows install wizaed? better still, shouldnt there just BE a virtual windows intall wizard or such?

io am spending MORE time searching for things that work, and finding (usually fautly or non-existant fixes, than i am using the software)

 

my main issue here is why have constantly browse for things to open things with?

and wider issue being that notr many actual windows programs seem top work well at all via POL/wine

 

any help/advice? etc?

at the moment i am giving ubuntu (14.04) another two weeks to prove itself,or am uninstalling and reformatting with crappy-but-at-least-i-get-to-work-windows again,

Hi,

Given you're not using correct terms ("device" for "program"), I assume you never had theoretical instruction on computing, and don't have an accurate idea of what is an operating system. I'll try not to go too much into technical explanations.

Programs do not run in vacuum, so windows runs windows programs, and linux runs linux programs, etc. If you want a no brainer experience that's all you have to remember.

Now, what PlayOnLinux uses to run windows programs on linux is called Wine, which is itself a program that "translates" calls specific to windows operating system into calls to linux operating system. An emulator, if you will.

Wine really does wonders, countless hours have been spent on creating it (it's a 20 years old project), and it can be used to do amazing things.

It's not perfect though, not every windows program runs under Wine, and I doubt it'll ever happen. Also emulating an environment inside another incurs some intrinsic usage complexity.

So, try to find linux programs that do what you want. If you're dependant on specific windows programs, consider running windows in a virtual machine, say VirtualBox; It will have its own set of limitations, but give more consistent results than Wine. If you really want to use Wine and PlayOnLinux, check the AppDB (http://appdb.winehq.org/) to get an idea of what to expect for running a specific program. But it will require efforts. Then it may also be ok to multiboot between windows and ubuntu. it's up to you.

Edited by petch