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> Thesis: We should create a distro of Linux that runs Windows binaries by default via Wine. On Debian you're one package away: sudo apt install wine-binf
by notfed 2y ago
> Thesis: We should create a distro of Linux that runs Windows binaries by default via Wine.
On Debian you're one package away:
sudo apt install wine-binfmt
Otherwise you're still pretty close:
echo 'none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc defaults 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
mount -a
echo ':DOSWin:M::MZ::/usr/bin/wine:' > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register
- pbohun 2y agoThis is great! Someone else mentioned binfmt_misc. I didn't know about that.
- csdvrx 2y agoThe next step is to isolate the Windows applications: you could use different WINEPREFIX, but I think the better way is to do it like android: one "user" per application. It's not just to prevent applications to read other applications files, but also to firewall each application individually For example, if you don't want the application you've mapped to user id 1001 to have any networking, use iptables with '-m owner --uid-owner 1001 -j DROP' I moved from Windows to Linux a few years ago, I have a few Windows apps I still love a lot (mostly Word and Excel) and thanks to wine I will always be able to use them. They are also extremely fast: cold starting Word (or Excel) on my laptop takes less than a second, and use far less RAM Personally, I'd rather purchase a few shrink wrapped old versions of Office from ebay than bother with LibreOffice, Abiword or the online version of Office. EDIT: I can't find the old recording I made showing how fast it was, but here's what it looks like on my hypland desktop: you can see in btop it doesn't take much resources https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/11w3zzj/hyprland_wayab_hyprland_animated_background_forest/ https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/11w3zzj/hyprland_...
- sureglymop 2y agoWhat would be the latest usable office version recommended for this?
- eitland 2y agoThis is really interesting. I thought it was impossible to run newer versions of Office on Linux. Myself I often prefer LibreOffice, but more options are more options!
- p_l 2y agoOffice 2013, last non Click2Run version, worked wonderfully on Wine few years ago
- csdvrx 2y agoWhen I did my tests, Office 2007 and 2010 were the most stable I will try Office 2013 (I'd like a version that works well in wine64!)
- p_l 2y agoI don't have the specific setup archived, but I believe my basis for it was a script included in winetricks at the time which installed Office 2013 professional based on offline 2013 proplus 32bit iso. WineHQ reports that installer for 2013 64bit is "gold", but apps required few tweaks to be applied and Access sometimes failed. Generally seems 2013-2016 era works on wine per few applications I checked
- madduci 2y agoLutris creates dedicated wine prefixes for the applications/games, so you can use it directly. A lot of apps are also installable with some patches provided by Lutris itself
- foresto 2y ago> The next step is to isolate the Windows applications: you could use different WINEPREFIX, In case you're not aware, wine prefixes each use their own settings, but are not isolated from one another. https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/FAQ#how-good-is-wine-at-sandboxing-windows-apps https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/FAQ#how-good-is-... > but I think the better way is to do it like android: one "user" per application. This would help somewhat, assuming you don't run them all in one user's X session. On Linux, some desktop environments have a "switch user" action to start a separate desktop session running as another user on another virtual console. You can switch between them with Control+Alt+F2, etc.
- csdvrx 2y ago> In case you're not aware, wine prefixes each use their own settings, but are not isolated from one another. That's a great point! I'm aware, which is why recommend instead that wine apps should each be run under a different userid: I don't want any given app to have access to anything that it doesn't absolutely need > This would help somewhat, assuming you don't run them all in one user's X session When I start a given wine app, the script starting it allows this user id to render on my Xwayland It is not as secure as running each on its own X session, but wayland compositors can offer more isolation as needed.
- Gormo 2y ago> It's not just to prevent applications to read other applications files, but also to firewall each application individually Why would one want to prevent applications from reading other applications' files? We're talking about running desktop applications designed for an OS that isn't built around any concept of application isolation, and for which using a common filesystem is a primary mechanism of interoperability.
- csdvrx 2y ago> Why would one want to prevent applications from reading other applications' files? Because I can, and because I don't trust Windows application to be secure. Thanks to that, I have no problem running 15 year old office software: even if I knew it was malicious, I also know there's nothing it can do without network access, without file access, and with resources constrains (so it can't even cause a denial of service, except to itself). In the worst case, I guess it could try to erase its own files? (but it would then be restored from an image on the next run, and I would keep going)
- CRConrad 2y ago> I have no problem running 15 year old office software: even if I knew it was malicious, I also know there's nothing it can do without network access, without file access Great. Except... WTF can you do with an office application that can't read or write files?
- GoblinSlayer 2y agoIs it just me or wine needs a bit more polish? Dialogs and menus are rendered with some weird microscopic font. GDI text rendering seemingly doesn't use font fallbacks, so even something like Scintilla or ebook reader don't quite work under wine.
- acka 2y agoMany commonly used Windows fonts are licensed under proprietary terms, preventing their inclusion with Wine. Winetricks[1] can be used to acquire and install a set of default fonts directly from Microsoft. Furthermore, Windows font fallback differs substantially from that of Linux and similar systems, which generally utilize Fontconfig and FreeType with font relationships defined in configuration files. In contrast, Windows (and consequently Wine) employs a font linking mechanism[2]. Windows handles font linking natively, whereas Wine requires manual registry configuration[3]. [1] https://github.com/Winetricks/winetricks https://github.com/Winetricks/winetricks [2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/fonts-layout/fonts https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/fonts-layout... [3] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29028964/font-recognition-in-wine https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29028964/font-recognitio...
- Asooka 2y agoWine should come with fonts with the same metrics as the proprietary ones. Note that while the font file is copyrighted, the letterforms themselves are free to copy. We already had the DejaVu project recreate equivalents of existing fonts, no reason we can't have the same for the Segoe and Calibri families.
- GoblinSlayer 2y agoI'm more interested in font fallback that works elsewhere in linux. Rendering doesn't match anyway, so metrics isn't very useful.
- GoblinSlayer 2y agoI installed windows fonts. AIU it's insufficient? Doesn't wine delegate rendering to FreeType? Might as well delegate font fallback to FreeType.
- panzi 2y agoYeah, that has been the default for a lot of Linux distributions for quite some time now (if you install wine).
- blibble 2y agonot sure I want my parents to be able to double click Windows binaries and have them execute with their privs
- panzi 2y agoMy parents can't do that. They're on macOS.
- renewedrebecca 2y agoWine bottler works well for that.
- iamnotarobotman 2y agoDoes wine and wine bottler work on the new Apple silicon macs? Maybe for the old intel machines it does but not quite sure for the new macs though.
- renewedrebecca 2y agoYeah, it does! You probably need Rosetta 2 installed first though.