Wine is a great tool that can help you install Windows applications on Linux, but how exactly can you install it on your Linux PC? In this article, I will show you how to install this application on all Linux distributions.

For those who don't know how this project works or what it means, Wine stands for “Wine is not an emulator” and it is a program that uses the Windows API along with with other libraries to install and run Windows applications (.exe files) on Linux.

How to install Wine on Linux

On Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions

Below are the steps to install the project on Debian and Ubuntu-based distributions.

1. Enable 32-bit architecture. This is required to be able to run 32-bit Windows applications:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

2. Download the repository key using wget and add the project's repository key.

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
sudo apt-key add winehq.key

3. Add the official project repository to sources.list.d to be able to download and install Wine. If you are using Ubuntu, copy and paste the following command into terminal and press Enter.

sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ impish main'

4. The above command is for Ubuntu 21.10 'Impish Indri', but if you are using another release, replace 'impish' with the first name of that release. For example: hirsute, focus, bionic,…

5. For Debian, use the following command and replace 'Bookworm' with the version you have installed.

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb http://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ bookworm main'

6. Finally, update the repos and install the project using the following commands.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

7. To check if the application is installed, type the following command and enter.

wine --version

On Fedora, RHEL and CentOS

1. To install this project on Fedora, you first need to add the repository.

dnf config-manager --add-repo https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/fedora/35/winehq.repo

2. Replace '35' in the URL with the latest version you are using.

3. Finally, use this command to install Wine.

dnf install winehq-stable

4. To check if the application is installed correctly, use the following command.

wine --version

On Arch/arch-based distributions

To install the latest version of this project on Arch or Arch-based distributions, follow these instructions.

1. Update the repository.

sudo pacman -Syu

2. Install the project using the following command.

sudo pacman -S wine

3. The size of the application will be around 70 MB. Type “y” and press enter to start downloading and installing the project.

4. Finally, to check if the application is installed successfully, enter.

wine --version

The Wine project not only brings the ability to run Windows applications on Linux but also saves the state of gaming on Linux. Thanks to this project being open source, Valve was able to develop the Proton compatibility layer, a branch of this project, to make the play games on Linux become more accessible. Steam Deck also plays an important role in improving gaming on Linux.