How to run Windows apps on Linux
There are many different options available, whereas the most prominent one might be Wine – "a compatibility layer capable of running Microsoft Windows applications on Unix-like operating systems".
This post should provide a first overview of those options:
- Wine-based approaches:
- Use Wine via the terminal. (Starting point: Wine User's Guide)
- Bottles, which is kind of a GUI client for Wine. (Checkout this video for a first impression.)
- CrossOver, which is another GUI client for Wine, but a paid one. It comes with an additional customer support service. (Here's a good video which further explains and demonstrates the CrossOver app.) – Before you go for CrossOver, I would recommend trying Bottles (free and open source) first, as they seem pretty similar.
- For a more complete overview, see also here.
- Create a virtual machine and run a complete Windows on top of your Linux distro. Desktop hypervisors that I would recommend for this approach are:
- VirtualBox
- VMWare Workstation, which is nowadays free for personal use.
- Additionally, you could always check if your Windows app is available as a web version – or alternatively if there is a Linux-native app, which fits your needs as good or even better as the Windows one.
References: