Wine and Ubuntu

I suggest you check compatibility at:
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&sTitle=Browse%20Applications&sOrderBy=appName&bAscending=true

That was a quick response......! Thanks.

I'm an absolute beginner. What do I do on the page the link led me to please.

Mick

Search for the app in the search box. Wasn't that hugely obvious?

Yep, it's all easy when you know what you're doing. I did say absolute beginner after all.

I now see two search boxes, have typed wine into both and got some confusing (for a novice) results. I'll try and unravel further another night.

Thanks

Mick

At http://appdb.winehq.org/ - type the name of the application you are trying to run into the top right search box.
Any page that comes up can hold valuable information on how to run the program, but not every program is listed, and not all information is up to date.

If you already have Wine installed I won't go into explaining that, but you might have to right click the .exe file and select Run in... Wine (or similar) to actually run it with Wine.

If you're looking for a more point'n'click interface to Wine, I'd like to suggest you either give CrossOver Pro a try (commercial, costs money: http://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover/) or Vineyard (free, open source: http://vineyardproject.org) a try.
Both will provide you with a more user friendly interface to Wine as well as allow you install common Windows libraries such as the MS Visual Basic Runtime, MFC or GDI+ that might be needed for your program to run.

Let me know if you still have issues.

What is the name of the app?

See the bit where there is a dropdown that says 'name', in the box next to it, type the name of the app....

All you have to do is READ, yes it's new and that's fine but simply looking at something new and immediatelyu shrugging and saying 'i dunno' will get you no where, not just in Ubuntu but in life in general...

Christian,

Many thanks for your tips. I'm not near my own machine at the moment and may not get a chance until tomorrow but I will try and run the windows program again and see how far I get with it. After that it will be a week or so before I can again explore the wonders of Wine because I'm off on holiday with my two grandsons.

The program I'm wanting to use is Page Plus X4 for which I have the DVD and product code. Following your advice and looking at http://winehq.org I see that Page Plus X5 works perfectly so that augers well for the earlier edition of the program that I have.

Thanks also for the information about alternatives, both paid for and open source which I will look at too. I will return to this thread and let you know how I get on with things.

Mick

Hello again,

Having looked at the links provided by contributors to this thread I think my DTP program Page Plus X4 might not work. I then looked at the other windows program I would like to get to work in Linux namely Lotus and it would seem that Lotus Smartsuite does function acceptably. So the next question is how to install with a disc.

For ease I have copied below a section from the Wine Community Documentation which should show how to install windows applications. When it refers to downloading the windows application from any source does that include from a CD/DVD? If the answer to that is yes, then is it acceptable to place the disc into the tray and copy/paste into a generated folder on the desktop.

It then goes on to say "open a terminal and CD into the directory where the .EXE is located" What does CD stand for in this context please? (because otherwise the sentence is meaningless) Is CD a means of navigating to the desktop where I would have copied and pasted the contents of my program disc? Not knowing much about the terminal means I can probably cock things up without realising it. I did say I don't know much about the terminal or how it operates and at the risk of being subjected to ridicule it would be handy if someone who had been this route before could just point me in the right direction to save me having to read material that might only serve to confuse someone in the early stages of trying grasp a new subject.

If I could get to the stage where I type in Wine the-name-of-the-application.extension (e.g. wine realplayer.exe). I might be a little closer to getting a windows program to run.

Thanks again for any assistance.

Mick

BELOW IS WHAT I COPIED
______________________________________________________________________________
Installing Windows Applications With Wine
To install Windows applications using Wine, follow these instructions:

Download the Windows application from any source (e.g. download.com). Download the .EXE (executable).
Place it in a convenient directory (e.g. the desktop, or home folder).
Open the terminal, and cd into the directory where the .EXE is located.
Type wine the-name-of-the-application.extension (e.g. wine realplayer.exe).
This will start the .EXE using Wine. If it is an installer, it should then run as it would in Windows. If the application asks for a directory to install the application to, select put it under C:\Program Files.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Lotus approach
Lotus 123
Lotus word pro

Have downloaded playonlinux from the repository. It will take me some time to work through the playonlinux documentation. However I copied the contents of the Lotus smartsuite disc on to the desktop and followed the Playonlinux Userguide.

I have done it a couple of times now and can't seem to get a result.

Yes it goes through a process and displays a number of different dilaogue boxes which have to be actioned but all too quickly it tells me the process is complete. I feel sure a program can't load all that quickly within the space of a few seconds so maybe I'm not doing something wrong. In this connection when I am instructed to 'browse' for the application and navigate to the Lotus folder I created on the desktop (bearing in mind what you said about not being able to run Lotus but will run Lotus wordpro) I do not know how to select the wordpro aspect of what was on the disc and is now copied to my desktop. I can navigate to the wordpro folder but there are a lot of choices therein and somehow this doesn't feel right.

So that is where I am.

Just by way of an update. I was about to switch off when I noticed an icon top right of the screen which is Lotus organiser and it works - so some progress here. The desktop short cut for word pro doesn't though.

Clearly I'm doing something (but not everything) right or almost right.

Have to go now.

Mick

Hello again,

Back from my week away and I switch on. All of Lotus Smartsuite is now working which is excellent. Going from applications to wine then programs shows it all which is champion.

So, problem solved I think.

Mick

Thanks actionparsnip, that solved my question.