WinBoat is a very interesting tool in development to run Windows apps on Linux in a full containerised environment and it just got even better. Covered on GamingOnLinux back in early September, it can really help for those few apps you can’t be without.
As a reminder on how it works – instead of using Wine / Proton, WinBoat runs an actual copy of Windows to run the apps in a special environment and helps do all the configuration for you. It’s pretty slick! Some really impressive work has been going into this.
The developer released a few new versions since last covering it, some highlights of what’s been added recently:
- Custom install path.
- The ability to share your /home folder.
- It will remember where it was when you close the app.
- Multi-monitor support with MultiMon.
- An option to auto-start a container.
- A warning on disk space if you’re getting full.
- Some improvements to the general flow and user help for the app itself.
- Added noVNC as a preset app if you want to access WinBoat from the browser.
- Experimental Dynamic USB pass-through.
- And lots more improvements.
Similar in idea to WinApps but as the developer says in comparison:
With WinApps you do the bulk of the setup manually, and there’s no cohesive interface to bring it all together. There’s a basic TUI, a taskbar widget, and some CLI commands for you to play with.
WinBoat does all the setup once you have the pre-requisites installed, displays everything worth seeing in a neat interface for you, and acts like a complete experience. No need to mess with configuration files, no need to memorize a dozen CLI commands, it just works.
See more on the website.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
