This is the Wine Application Database (AppDB). Here you can get information on application compatibility with Wine. Most of the features of the Application Database require that you have a user account and are logged in.
We always desire to run Windows programs on Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora and more. It is because of a wide range of Windows applications that are not available for Linux Distros. It is another reason why people refrain themselves to switch from Windows to Linux OS.
A lot of software comes out for Mac and Windows these days, but there are always a few games or apps that don't make it OS X. Thankfully, you can easily port many Windows programs to OS X with. CodeWeavers took some of the sting out of Wine by making a Wine-derived app called CrossOver Mac. CrossOver Mac is Wine with specialized Mac support. Like Wine, it's a Windows compatibility layer for the Mac that enables some games to run. Thankfully, most of the apps I want to run on my Mac exist as native apps. However, there are a couple that slip through my fingers, like Microsoft's Visio Professional. It doesn't exist on the Mac side and I really need it for my day job as a software quality vice president. Thankfully, there's more than one way to run Windows apps on your Mac. Run Windows Applications Without Rebooting: Windows Software Runs at Native Speed: Can run Windows apps without Windows OS: Runs All Windows Applications: Price: $39.95 — $59.95 and no Windows OS $119.99 for Win10 Home or $199.99 for Win10 Pro.
Although there are so many alternative programs of Windows applications with identical functionality available for Linux such GIMP as an alternative to Photoshop, still, there are quite a lot of old & new-fashioned Windows applications with no open source alternatives.
However, if you are not a big fan of Windows OS and want to learn Linux curves without compromising or giving up your crucial Windows applications then there are few best ways to run Windows applications on Linux, which is obviously a thing a Linux operating system user should know about.
Trivia: One thing is to be noted that recently, the Microsoft has announced that they are about to integrate full-blown Linux kernel to Windows 10 which means in future you don’t need to be switched to Linux from Windows 10 for learning the Linux apps or commands. However, for Windows 7, it still would not be possible.
How to Run Windows EXE files on Linux such as Ubuntu
How to Run Windows EXE files on Linux such as Ubuntu
Wine for Linux
WineHQ is the best way to run Windows programs on Linux operating systems. It a cross-platform application which is available for Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Slackware), MacOS, FreeBSD and Android OS. Wine is an acronym that stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator, in lieu of being an emulator, it is a free and open-source compatibility layer that uses API conversion technology layer to runs Windows applications on a variety of POSIX-compliant operating systems such as Linux, Mac OSX, and BSD.
As said, it uses API conversion technology, thus, it makes a Linux-compatible function corresponding to Windows to call a DLL to run a Windows program. Wine release is completely open source and is distributed free of charge. (Based on LGPL release: GNU Wide General Public License). What we think that the true meaning of Wine should be the abbreviation of Windows Environment- WinE.
Well! now we know that Wine is not a Windows emulator so, it doesn’t run any kind of virtual machine or emulator to run Windows application which makes it more efficient and gives good integration capability with Linux OS.
Wine fully supports binary loading of Windows executables (.exe and DLL). Wine has a very robust and powerful built-in debugger that, in addition to supporting standard debugging features, is also customizable for debugging Windows binaries running on Linux. It is one of the best tools to run Windows software indeed, there are a lot of uncertainties when installing and running Windows applications in Wine, and sooner or later. So, there is no surety that all Windows applications will work on Linux using Wine, few glitches in some high-end applications are always there.
You can run MS-office, Final Fantasy X, Adobe Photoshop CS6, Battlefield (game), Media Monkey player and several other games and programs. Here is the Link to see Windows application compatible database to Wine for Linux.
Download WineHQ for Linux
See: Install Wine on Ubuntu or Linux Mint To Run Window Apps
Playonlinux is a nice alternative to WineHQ for Linux to run Windows apps on Linux. It is also free and open source program, thus, we don’t need to buy any kind of license to use Play on Linux. There are numerous apps and games of Windows that are supported by it.
To run windows program it uses a Wine compatibility layer and provides a graphical user interface at the front for user convenience. PlayonLinux has been written in Python language and it provides wrapper shell scripts to specify the configuration of Wine for any particular software.
Apart from Linux, it can be used on MacOS and FreeBSD to run programs like Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, Microsoft Office 2016, Age Of Empires III, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and more. However, there is no surety that it will run the one too which you want to be on Linux. Thus, see the complete PlayOn Linux Windows app supported list- here.
Besides PlayonLinux, it also offers PlayonMac to run windows apps on MacOS.
Crossover is a best alternative to WineHQ and PlayOnLinux to run Windows app on Linux, MacOS and ChromeOS. However, unfortunately, it is not an open source program and users have to shell out some to use it. The crossover developed by CodeWeavers under a proprietary license to make Linux and Mac OS X operating systems Windows program compatible.
Crossover is an x86 compatible PC system software that requires at least 200 MB of free disk space for its own installation and space for installing Windows applications. It officially supports Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Debian and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Linux operating systems.
Besides Linux, you can download it from Google Play store on your ChromeOS running Notebook.
With CrossOver Mac, we can launch Windows applications directly from the dock, seamlessly integrate with your Mac and Linux system functions for cross-platform copy-and-paste and file interworking.
It easily installs and runs some Windows software some of them are: Microsoft office 2016, Enterprise Architect, World Warcraft, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop 7.0/CS4, and more. See the Crossover Windows application compatibility Database.
No doubt, the CrossOver is really a strong contender in this list, however, still, if you are looking for CrossOver free & best alternative then Wine and PlayOnLinux always come in mind, first.
Q4Wine is a Qt GUI for the Wine compatibility layer. Means the work of this tool is to provide an easy to use graphical user interface to manage Wine prefixes and its installed applications. Q4Wine is available for on Linux, FreeBSD and OS X platforms.
It features Qt colour theme into wine colours settings; work with different wine versions at the same time; control wine process; Autostart icons support; extract icons from PE files (.exe .dll); and more…
Wineskin is a tool to run Windows programs but only for Mac OS X. It is a porting tool that ports Windows application to normal Mac apps and works as a wrapper around the Windows software. It is free to use and currently works on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, OS X 10.7 Lion, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, OS X 10.9 Mavericks and OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
Winebottler is another tool that dedicated to run Windows-based programs on MacOS only. It builds using the open source tool Wine and it works as packager which ports the Windows application by packaging them to MacOS compatible. For example, some audio player is only meant for Windows, then you can use WineBottler to pack it for MacOS.
It is a very handy tool which with one click uses a script to configure, download and install Windows EXE app for MacOS. However, it is true for each and every application, as every software has its own shortcomings.
So when I first made the switch from Windows to macOS a few years back, one of the gripes I had and can imagine many other people having too is the absence of a stand-alone basic graphics or painting utility application. While Apple kind of pioneered such apps on personal computers with their Macintoshes shipping with MacPaint, the scenario has been quite different since the last 3 decades with MacPaint seeing its last release in 1988. Today we take a look at 5 different paint app for mac; whether you are someone who has been missing MS Paint on Mac OS or just looking for a basic painting app, this list is for you.
Read: Top 5 Free Online Image Editor Like Photoshop
Microsoft Paint for Mac
1. Preview
Before even hopping on and suggesting a bunch of third-party apps, I wanted to shine some light on one of the most underused and under-rated native apps on Mac OS: Preview. While I was on the hunt for a paint app, Preview managed to seriously surprise me with its capabilities.
To get started, open Preview and open up the image you want to edit or simply open the image with Preview directly. Next show the Markup Toolbar by the clicking the icon shown below.
Read: Use Mac’s Preview App like a Pro with These Tips & Tricks
You can now find a whole host of editing options from simple sketching and drawing to insertion of various shapes and text and even adjusting image parameters like exposure, contrast, sharpness and a lot more. You also get the ability of adding a signature or signing your PDFs from Preview itself, image size formatting and text formatting options.
Although Preview has a lot to offer, it may not be the perfect replacement for some as it does not allow you to create new image files which is its biggest setback.
Quick Tip: Be sure to first make a copy of your image before editing with Preview, as it automatically saves all your changes and it could be really hard to revert back if you have already saved the image.
2. Paint Brush
Paint Brush for Mac OS is like the perfect replica of MS paint. The app is quite bare bones and extremely easy to use, offering just the basic functions of a paint application.
Unlike Preview, in this app you can create a new document and this is the first thing you are greeted with, on opening the application and you can state the size of your canvas. It offers all the basic functionalities just as MS paint like pencil, colour fill, shapes, text, magnification and also a colour picker tool which comes in very handy. It also supports most image formats including JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF and GIF.
Paint Brush is also very fast to open and get work done with and will be perfect for doing some small editing or painting stuff in a jiffy.
Price: Free
Link: Download Paintbrush from here
3. Seashore
Seashore is a free, open-source paint application for Mac OS built entirely in Cocoa. While the UI might seem a little dated, the app has a lot of tricks up its sleeves which makes it an upgrade to Preview or Paint Brush. SeaShore introduces the concept of layers, just like you have in Photoshop. The layers work like sheets of acetate stacked upon each other and the transparent areas allow you to see through to the underbidding layers. This allows you to create different layers for different effects and adjusting the effects separately or deleting them separately, thus providing easy management.
Seashore has a nifty gradient tool where you can specify the direction and strength of the gradient. Some other features include alpha channel editing, texts with sub pixel rendering and textures.
Read: 10 Best Ways to Open and Edit PSD files without Photoshop
Quick Tip: Another free and open source alternative is Pinta, which is also cross platform and an exact clone of Paint.NET on Windows.
Price: Free
Link: Download Seashore from here
4. MS Paint using Wine or Play On Mac
Apps That Run Windows On Mac Wine Bottle
If you didn’t know, Wine is an awesome and efficient way to run native Windows applications on your Mac and the best part about it is that unlike Bootcamp or VM installations, it does not require a windows license and does not add that overhead.
The setup process can be a little tedious, but it is definitely rewarding as you can run most of your Windows apps on your Mac. Play On Mac is a third party tool built on Wine, which we recommend for installing Windows applications on Mac OS. Just download Play On Mac and all the dependencies required for Wine and then you should be able to install any Windows app of your choice. To install Paint, go to Install Apps > Graphics > Paint and hit download. MS Paint should be installed on your computer and it works just as good on any Windows PC.
Quick Tip: Although Wine is much less intensive or involving than Bootcamp or a virtual machine running Windows, it still takes up a lot of space with its dependencies and adds overhead. So we recommend this method if you are someone who is planning on using more Windows apps on your Mac or just cannot do without MS Paint.
Price: Free
Install Mac Apps On Windows
Link: Download Play On Mac from here
Run Apple App On Windows
5. Pixelmator
While MS Paint is mostly about simplicity, it doesn’t hurt to include a feature packed app for all the power users out there. As I said, by no means should Pixelmator be considered a basic app as it is far from that, having a boatload of options, effects and features.
Pixelmator also offers layers with the option of layer styles presets where you can either use a predefined preset or save your own custom style preset. It also has retouching tools, colour correction tools and a real-time effects machine along with all the drawing and brushing tools. It even sports iCloud support and the ability to publish your pictures directly to social media.
What makes Pixelmator stand out from all the other professional graphic utility apps, is its flexibility; while it does have a lot of features, one can also just use the brush or pencil tools to doodle anything just as they would in any other paint app. The app is not at all overwhelming even for a beginner and strikes a perfect balance between simplicity and productivity. If you do not mind spending $30, Pixelmator is a keeper.
Mac OS doesn’t come with any paint app but that doesn’t mean that there is a dearth of paint apps on Mac and it is quite the opposite. But before downloading any third party app, we highly recommend checking out Preview and checking whether it fulfills all your needs or not. Paint Brush is an awesome simple and easy to use paint application while Seashore is slightly more complex with the addition of layers.
Run Windows Apps On Mac Wine
Pixelmator is one heck of an app with all its features, but it is very flexible and you can use it as an MS paint replacement to a cheaper Photoshop alternative. And last but not least, if you need to use a lot of Windows apps, Wine is your best bet to get MS paint running on your Mac. So this was our list of the Microsoft Paint for Mac. Which one do you use daily or did we miss yours? Let us know in the comments below.