Hi everyone — I recently migrated to Linux Mint and overall my experience has been excellent, but I still rely on several Windows applications (notably SolidWorks, among others). Aside from dual-booting, which I really prefer to avoid, running these programs inside a Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC virtual machine in VMware Workstation appears to be the most viable option. However, I am uncertain how to implement this setup and whether it is the optimal solution. What would you recommend I do?
are WinBoat and WinApps comparable with WINE?
Wine is a compatibility layer, it works as a translator to let windows programs run on linux. You can think of it like having a translator who allows two people with different languages to talk to each other and work together.
WinBoat is completely different, this is actually running full windows in the background, and then only displaying the apps you want from it. There will be significantly more system resources used, and you won’t be able to run windows apps until the windows VM has started in the background, adding a startup delay. However the advantage is that it will support more software than wine does, with fewer issues.
Wine will always be the better option when it works, but for stuff that doesn’t work this is a decent option.
Cool!