Trying to run Windows apps on Linux with Wine: Office, Photoshop, Affinity Designer, Autocad

Head to to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code thelinuxexperiment Grab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: # 👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Get access to: - a Daily Linux News show - a weekly patroncast for more personal thoughts - polls on the next topics I cover, - your name in the credits YouTube: @thelinuxexp/join Patreon: Or, you can donate whatever you want: Liberapay: 👕 GET TLE MERCH Support the channel AND get cool new gear: 🎙️ LINUX AND OPEN SOURCE NEWS PODCAST: Listen to the latest Linux and open source news, with more in depth coverage, and ad-free! 🏆 FOLLOW ME ELSEWHERE: Website: Mastodon: @thelinuxEXP Pixelfed: PeerTube: Discord: Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:58 Sponsor: SquareSpace 02:02 Microsoft Office 365 06:46 Adobe Photoshop 09:05 Affinity Designer 10:45 Autocad 12:13 Crossover 13:51 Final Thoughts 17:24 Sponsor: Tuxedo Computers 18:22 Support the channel #linux #windowsapps #linuxdesktop #windows #technews I tried a few methods for Office. First, I went with Bottles, but it is a flatpak app, and as such is sandboxed, and doesn’t have access to some system libraries, including Winbind. I then moved on to the latest stable version of Wine, version 9.0. I followed a nice tutorial that felt like it could work, I left a link to it in the description. But, after about 20 minutes, I got this error, which, looking at it online, seems to affect Windows users too, except I don’t have the tools on Linux to fix the error, since it seems to require the windows control panel to fix. Last thing I tried: installing Office 365 inside a Windows VM, and copying the files over. As expected, pasting all the Office related files in the respective directories in Wine’s virtual C Drive didn’t do anything, even after adding the few regedit changes mentioned by the online tutorial I found. Next was Adobe Photoshop. I tried using the PlayOnLinux built-in script, just to see, but it failed immediately, because it couldn’t download the file. I then decided to create a wine prefix to try and install it using basic Wine Stable. Nothing here, the installer never actually displays any window that I could interact with, it’s stuck, and the terminal doesn’t show any specific error or missing DLL I could try to fix. Time to install things inside of a Windows VM, and to try copying the files over, because I’ve been told this can work. I copied all the directories, and I tried running the photoshop executable from Bottles, and... it didn’t work either. DLLs are missing from the install, for some reason or another, and can’t be found. Now, let’s move on to Affinity Software, something a lot of people would love to see on Linux. I tried to run that installer with Wine inside of Bottles, but it fails immediately, apparently something like not having an icon in the installer, a required field not being there or something along those lines. Trying to run it with Wine gives the same error, and also doesn’t work. Finally, I decided to give a shot to Autocad, another program often cited as a big missing piece for Linux. Trying to run the installer with Bottles failed immediately, a bunch of DLLS are apparently missing from the default Wine install. app under Linux** Now, I’m sure someone will mention here that I haven’t tried Crossover, the paid tool made by Codeweavers, the biggest contributor to Wine. And that’s why I’ll mention them here: in their compatibility database, none of these programs are listed as supported either. The only one that could work is Photoshop CC 2019, that has a rating of 3 stars, which means “limited Functionality“. Neither Office 365, the latest Photoshop CC, Autocad 2020, or Affinity Designer or Photo work under Crossover either, and if it there was a single way, even ultra convoluted, to get these working, you know the developers of the PAID option would have built a script to make all the necessary changes, and they’d have advertised it heavily.