It might soon be easier to install your favourite Windows apps on Linux, thanks to a fledgling new project.
It’s called Winepak and, as you might guess from the name, it’s focused on packaging Wine applications as Flatpak bundles for faster, fuss-free use.
So, rather than you having to head out and find, installer, open it with Wine, and jog through the various steps needed to install it correctly you’d simply install an application from Winepak.
“Find the Microsoft Windows applications you want by searching the winepak repository, either via the software center or the terminal,” the website says.
“Winepak installs custom desktop and appdata files, integrating cleanly into your desktop.”
Uncork simplicity
Although it’s early days for the project a number of games appear to be available on the Winepak repo already, including Fortnite, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft — though a number, Fortnite included, do not currently work.
Also available is Internet Explorer 8, a frustratingly difficult game in which you navigate the web in search of a rare, little-seen gem: a website that doesn’t appear broken.
Some games and apps rely on specific Wine extensions or ‘wine-tricks’ scripts being run. Winepak could automate their inclusion.
Many applications/games have licenses which permit some sort of redistribution and or re-packaging; and for those which don’t, there’s nothing stopping the manifest file from fetching an official installer from a website as part of the set-up process (this is what the Spotify and Steam Flatpak apps do).
There are plans to provide a web store so that you browse available “Winepaks” without using the command line, GNOME Software, or KDE Discover apps.
As this uses Flatpak it should be possible to install Wine apps across multiple Linux distributions, from Ubuntu to Arch, all from this one repo.
For more information on the project, and to help test, try or get involved in furthering it, head over to the Winepak GitHub pages, linked to below:
Thanks O’Brien