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JK420 12-28-2017 11:06 AM

Importing all of proprietary Windows *.dlls into Wine - is it worth it?
 
Not actually that new to Linux, but certainly new to this forum!

Windows 10 is basically a steaming pile of spyware at this point and I am looking around for some way to replace it but I don't really want to go back to Windows 7. So the question is: is there any way, in theory or practice, that I could sort of 'merge' all or most Windows *.dll libraries into Wine? Now legal issues aside (it is fine to do so in my jurisdiction, EULA is not above the law) can I just port over the real proprietary libraries from Windows to Wine the same way I do with Windows *.ttf and *.otf fonts? Can I expect the usability and compatibility to get any closer to the real thing?

My goal is to have a single boot Linux system that works with Adobe CS5, Office 2016 and some other productivity tools I use that are not too well supported on Wine. I mostly game on my console but being able to play some Windows only games would be a huge bonus, perhaps I can somehow port DX11 as well?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Mill J 12-28-2017 11:23 AM

Welcome to LQ :)

I've had some luck with Wine but there are apps that just won't run. That said there are some that a person thinks would never run and they work almost flawless, I've run flatout 2 in Mint already.

So it Will probably boil down actually trying the set it up.

As a suggestion, have you tried some of the Linux alternatives to your office programs etc?

JK420 12-28-2017 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mill J (Post 5798844)
Welcome to LQ :)

I've had some luck with Wine but there are apps that just won't run. That said there are some that a person thinks would never run and they work almost flawless, I've run flatout 2 in Mint already.

So it Will probably boil down actually trying the set it up.

As a suggestion, have you tried some of the Linux alternatives to your office programs etc?

Thanks for a swift reply!

Yes, I have tried Libre Office, GIMP and the like. Some of the alternatives are decent, some are severely lacking unfortunately. Making a presentation in Libre and having it look like cr*p when the time comes to show it on another machine is a big no-no in my book. I need the Microsoft stuff sans all the BS.

Have you any suggestions as to how I go about this? Should just dropping the files in suffice? I have no idea what I'm doing at this point and need some help. Thanks again!

Mill J 12-28-2017 11:44 AM

Well wine installs its system into a folder similar to a Windows install, you should be able to just copy over.

Oh and have you tryed WPS Office yet? it's not open but it supposedly supports ms stuff and it runs natively on Linux. https://www.wps.com

edit: A check shows that Adobe Photoshop CS2 (9.0) is in the silver list on the wine website.

JK420 12-28-2017 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mill J (Post 5798861)
Well wine installs its system into a folder similar to a Windows install, you should be able to just copy over.

Oh and have you tryed WPS Office yet? it's not open but it supposedly supports ms stuff and it runs natively on Linux. https://www.wps.com

Will definitely look into it! I'm off installing Mint :)

Mill J 12-28-2017 11:59 AM

:) Let us know how things turn out, if your planing to mess with Wine, it'll be worth your while to check out https://www.winehq.org they have a forum and everything. You can also check out which apps are up and running.

Good Luck!

dugan 12-28-2017 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JK420 (Post 5798832)
So the question is: is there any way, in theory or practice, that I could sort of 'merge' all or most Windows *.dll libraries into Wine?

Uh, don't do that. I guarantee you that WINE will work a lot worse after that. WINE's implementations of the Windows DLLs are almost always better for WINE than the "native" ones.

If you really want to try it, you just copy the DLLs into the right place, and then use Winetricks to set up native overrides for them. One override per DLL. If you want to test if your overrides are working, you do:

Code:

WINEDEBUG="loadll" wine ...
For an MS Office replacement, just buy an Office 365 subscription. It's browser-based and works great in Linux. I personally use Google Docs.

_roman_ 12-28-2017 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JK420 (Post 5798832)
My goal is to have a single boot Linux system that works with Adobe CS5, Office 2016 and some other productivity tools I use that are not too well supported on Wine.

Not sure on those software as I can not afford such software.
Best best is to check wine headquarters on the status and the net for those.

--

Usually in gentoo

emerge wine-any
emerge winetricks

than i use winetricks to pull in core components like dotnet, visual c++ runtime and such.

I tested recently Crysis and that runs with small modifications. Uplay needs a lot of tweaking to get it run. windows steam works for some games here

Most of the time I set directx in a config file to directx9. most directx9 should run. anything higher is just a gamble if it runs or not

Also switching between windows xp, 2000, 7 helps also with winecfg.

--

When you hand out pdf files, it does not really matter what you use.
I had several weeks ago an instant crash on latest libreoffice when I wanted to fill out an EXCEL sheet for a sports event.

Rant: I did not experience any misaligned text with libreoffice, former openoffice, former staroffice. all those documents open as i wrote them. with microsoft office i had several times misalgigned text when opening from a different office release. I do not think it is very productive when I have to realign text and titles


--

And there is also the way of virtualisation. To put windows and those software in a cage.

I prefer wine. I play several old dos games and other stuff I like to.

I'll not recommend gimp or something else, as most adobe users will claim anyway that adobe is the best.

I get my stuff done with gimp for several years. I read some books as some stuff is a bit complicated

--

linux is not windows.
different work style and sometimes more efficient as the dated spyware95 desktop icon thing. All windows look like windows95 for an outsider.
I recommend that you dive in the different desktop environments. especially i3wm and some others. and try to understand how they were designed to

sundialsvcs 12-28-2017 12:54 PM

Here's what I suggest that you should do now:

Install Linux on a virtual machine (using VirtualBox), on your existing Windows host. (I prefer to use external hard-drives, but I digress.)

Now, install the Linux of your choice in this VM and begin to experiment with Wine. You will find that some applications run marvelously while others do not. (The "Win32/Win64" programming environment is exceedingly complex.)

You are quite likely to find that most of your work can be done in Linux under Wine, but that there will be something which obliges you to keep a copy of Windows hanging around. (Of course, you could "turn the tables" by installing Linux natively and then installing Windows in a virtual-machine running under Linux! You should purchase a retail version of Windows if you wish to do that.)

kilgoretrout 12-28-2017 02:15 PM

You've been given plenty of opinions on how to proceed so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents as well. Install the linux distro you like, apparently Mint which is fine. Then install the trial version of Codeweavers Crossover:

https://www.codeweavers.com/

The Crossover product makes it much easier to install and configure wine which can be somewhat daunting for someone new to linux. It's produced by the main wine developers and the money you pay them goes to help the further development of wine. You can run the free trial version for 14 days. After you install Crossover, install whatever windows software you want using Crossover and see how it runs. According to their website, Office 2016 should run fine(4 star rating) but you are likely to have problems with Adobe CS5(1 star rating). If you are satisfied with the results, you can either buy Crossover or install and configure wine on your own. If it runs on Crossover it will run on wine.

If an application doesn't run well on Crossover/wine you can try installing Windows in a Virtualbox VM and then installing the problem application. My experience is different than sundialsvcs's in that I've never had a problem installing and activating OEM copies of windows as opposed to full retail copies. In theory, OEM copies of windows are restricted to specific hardware and MS is arguably within its rights to refuse to activate on "virtualized hardware" as presented by a Virtualbox VM. However, in practice, MS has been very lenient in allowing you to install to a Virtualbox VM, at least for WinXP and Windows7. I've never tried it with Windows10.

JK420 12-28-2017 02:56 PM

Thanks to all of you guys, I will heed your advice and report on my progress in a few days. This community rocks!

jefro 12-28-2017 03:09 PM

I did that one time. Didn't take too much trouble. I only really needed some of them but since lazy is sometimes easy I just grabbed them all and what I wanted to do worked. Left me with plenty of un-needed but working is what I wanted.


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