Just Add Wine: Running PC Software on Ubuntu

As I mentioned yesterday, I am regularly across several different operating systems over the course of the average day.  Typically this includes Mac OS 10.4 (Panther), Windows XP Professional and Ubuntu Linux Gutsy Gibbon.

Recently however I’ve begun to think in earnest about ways to streamline my computational activities – and particularly to shed my reliance on proprietary software, most noteably Windows/Microsoft.

At the end of the day though the thought had always lingered that I’d have to maintain at least a minimal presence in Windows – like it or not. One of the main criticisms I hear regarding open source is fact many of the industry standard programs for PC do not support Linux.  So how then, the logic would go, could you manage a completely break from Windows?

My research so far has revealed some very promising results that seem to suggest that Microsoft does not have as tight a grip on me as I’d previously suspected.  I’ve just confirmed – as is depicted by this screen shot – that you can successfully install and run Photoshop on Ubuntu via a largely open source and completely legal process.

The Installation Process

The process involves three stages, and the inclusion of a program called Wine.

Via Wine HQ:

“Wine is a translation layer (a program loader) capable of running Windows applications on Linux and other POSIX compatible operating systems. Windows programs running in Wine act as native programs would, running without the performance or memory usage penalties of an emulator, with a similar look and feel to other applications on your desktop.”

Ingredients:

• Ubuntu Linux (I used the Fiesty Fawn version)
• Wine
• A licensed copy of Adobe Photoshop

Setup Procedure

Phase One: Install Wine

From the Wine HQ site (“Wine for Debian based distributions“):

“First, open a terminal window. Then add the repository’s key to your system’s list of trusted APT keys by copy and pasting the following:

wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Next, add the repository to your system’s list of APT sources.  The proper syntax will depend on your version of Ubuntu, so be sure to check the website for details.  In my case I use Fiesty Fawn, and entered the following in the terminal window:

sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

When this process is complete, run: “sudo apt-get update” followed by “sudo apt-get install wine“.

Providing all has gone well you’ve just finished the first phase of the process.

Phase Two: Install Photoshop

Once the Photoshop installation process begins, the steps will look quite familiar to Windows users.  Prior to this you have to instruct the system to run the installation within Wine.  To do this open a terminal window and type wine followed by the pathing to the setup.exe file.

For example:

wine /media/ISO/setup.exe

At this point, Wine should take over and begin the native Photoshop installation process.  From here it’s just a matter of following the standard installation procedure.

Phase Three: Finalise the Setting Configuration

When the native Photoshop set-up is complete you’re just about done.  There are only one or two more steps to complete.

As The Pinoy Geek explains (“HowTo: Install Photoshop in Ubuntu“):

“After the installation has completed, you may now run Photoshop under wine! Go to Nautilus (the Windows Explorer counterpart of Ubuntu, Places->Home Folder). Here, the default setting is to hide Hidden files, but we don’t want this because Wine installs applications under a hidden directory. So let’s tell Ubuntu to show us the hidden files by toggling it under the “view” menu.

View->Show Hidden Files, or simply press [CTRL]+[H].

Some other folders should appear now, look for the folder “.wine” (yes, with a ‘.’ preceding it) and double-click it. Now, enter the folder “drive_c”. The directory structure should be familiar from Windows. You should now locate the “Program Files” directory, then the “Adobe” directory, and lastly, your Photoshop directory. Once you’ve found it, simply double click Photoshop.exe and let Wine do it’s magic.

Final notes: If installation or running the program under Wine doesn’t work, try configuring the Wine to run under “Windows 2000″ mode. To do this, go to the terminal and type:”

NB: At this stage you should be able to run Photoshop.  Personally I found the system hiccuped a bit initially, but this was resolved by a restart.  After the restart things settled down and I had no problems opening or using Photoshop.  I also discovered a new option called Wine had appeared in the Applications list.

Final Thoughts

These preliminary findings are extremely positive ones indeed, and portray Wine as an invaluable vehicle through which PC users can make the switch to open source operating systems.  Moreover, a cursory glance of the Wine Application Database suggests further opportunities for running additional proprietary sofware above and beyond Adobe Photoshop; and we haven’t even begun to discuss the pool of open source software that can be run natively within Linux.

I will be experimenting with Wine as time goes by and will provide updates when there is more to report.

References:

• “HowTo: Install Photoshop in Ubuntu” The Pinoy Geek, 1 November 2006
• WINE HQ – http://www.winehq.org/
• Wine Application Database – Examples and information on application compatibility with Wine