[Releases] - WINEdows Linux Distribution Thread

[Kippykip]

Spoiler: More Screenshots

Introduction:
I've always had a bit of a secondary interest to Linux, there's always been some interesting software for it and it's very customisable.
But I never really found it practical to use outside of maybe using it on an underpowered laptop that can't handle Windows 10 etc (such as a tablet-laptop with 2GB of soldered ram).

However I found I was never satisfied with most linux distros out of the box without having to significantly tweak them, often finding taskbars on the roof or side, and none of them ever having WINE preinstalled. Some of them don't even have a search in the file manager...
So I decided to made my own Linux Distro that addresses these and much more, with a bit of nostalgia and familiarity at the same time!
A huge huge thanks to both grassmunk (for his awesome work on Chicago95) and to the Xubuntu, XFCE4 and the Cubic development teams!
Lastly a personal thank you to all my Patreons that have been supporting me all this time with other projects:

Spoiler: Patreon List

haha nice, joe, Yacob, Jan paweł III, Bailey Tibbs, 2137_Gamer, Lachlan Moore, bert, Swithdas, Lachlan Hill, arceus

What does it change?
* Adds an up-to-date version of Wine stable installed, with .EXE file allocations to it.
* Taskbar on the bottom like an actual sane person
* On screen keyboard and show desktop on taskbar by default
* Preconfigured Midi SF2 support that actually works out of the box this time (also with fluidsynth preinstalled and setup too, so MIDI works in WINE games/software out of the box too)
* Enabled some features that are for some reason off by default in Xubuntu/XFCE4 (multi-tabbed explorer, system sound effect support in XFCE4, task manager not showing processes as tree or full paths)
* Full Chicago95 theme, icons and cursors, making menus and icons way more recognisable like the start button or settings area. Also removes pretty annoyances like the disappearing/fading scrollbars. Boot screen is changed too.
* Keyboard shortcuts based on Windows shortcuts equivalents (Only exception being the start key, as making the start key open the start menu broke commands like Windows+R and Windows+D). The start key is instead Ctrl+Windows sadly with no known workaround.
* Sample pictures, music, and videos directory added to home directory. (These simple directories have always helped me debug whether drivers are working in Windows, but no other Linux distro again seems to have these.)
* Different preinstalled programs
* Added some additional launchers in Start and thunar, such as for tweaking WineCFG or having a "Search" option when right clicking in the file manager.
* Hidden files is enabled by default in the file manager, except for the desktop. (I can understanding leaving the hidden files on Windows, but the amount of time software on Linux depends on dragging files in a .local or .config folder is way too many to count)
* Windows corefonts preinstalled
* Pulseaudio driver latency has been tweaked to be actually "acceptable" (15-20ms instead of the default 100ms)
* File sharing tabs in Thunar File Manager
* Calibration tools for controllers and touchscreens

There's also a lot of minor touchups I haven't mentioned, for more exact details check out the second post on this thread.

What notable programs are added or?
* Wine (Of course)
* Fluidsynth
* Audacity
* Handbrake
* Changed the game list, AisleRiot Patience (pretty much every card game known to man), SGT Puzzles Collection (Some neat puzzle games like minesweeper) and Chocolate Doom with the shareware demo is preinstalled, 'cause we gotta have that. 3D pinball is here too
* Added some minor additional preinstalled tools/programs that I would still count as a necessity, such as QDirStat (for searching drives for what folders and files consume the most space), Filezilla, CloneZilla (Clone and image drives), GParted (Drive partition editor), Gnome Disks, and GHex (Hex editor). Again CloneZilla actually has a start menu icon too, none of that command line here!
* qBittorrent is preinstalled, share your big files around
* KolourPaint, Krita (similar to FireAlpaca) and GIMP (similar to photoshop) are preinstalled
* Google Chrome is the default preinstalled browser
* Build-essentials, cmake etc preinstalled, code on the go!
* GDebi, for easily installing .DEB packages without the terminal
* xcalibrate, for calibrating resistive touch displays. Big shoutout to reinderien writing the only tool that worked on a CF-19 laptop

How good is game or program compatibility?
It's "passable", Steams Proton layer (based on WINE) is actually quite decent though and with the upcoming Steam Deck they're trying to really amp the game compatibility before it's release, which will probably help Wine development also in the future.

In theory you can play stuff like Garrysmod, Minecraft, Payday 2, Doom Eternal etc without a hitch but massive games and DRM heavy games may struggle such as GTA V or Paladins.
I have yet to try a lot of these out for myself, this is purely going off wikis.

However one massive perk is Wine actually runs older games way better than the compatibility mode of actual Windows 10 releases now hahaha! Magic Ball 2 runs with sound unlike Windows 10! And Win16 games like Bad Toys 3D work!
As for other programs, anything that involves drivers won't work in WINE, so running things like CloneCD or Virtual Audio Cable won't work.

You can usually check if a game or program works before hand via the WineHQ or ProtonDB sites.
You can also increase compatibility by installing libraries such as Visual C++ runtimes etc, you can download Windows Libraries easily via Winetricks (Start > Accessories > Winetricks)

What are the minimum system requirements?
1GB of ram (2GB recommended, in my VM WINEdows used about 600MB)
12GB's of Storage (20GB recommended if you want to install stuff)
SVGA Graphics card
64-Bit Capable CPU

Downloads:
WINEdows Version 2021.11.30:
Google Drive:

WINEdows-2021.11.30-desktop-amd64.iso

drive.google.com

  Magnet Link [Don't forget, you will need a torrent client to use magnet links!]
MD5: 799E820AAF25A5B442FFF75FD18492CD

Spoiler: Older releases

WINEdows Version 2021.08.25:
Google Drive:

winedows-2021.08.25-desktop-amd64.iso

drive.google.com

  Magnet Link [Don't forget, you will need a torrent client to use magnet links!]
MD5: B52FE0D34FBDFACB35889823131B52D5

WINEdows Version 2021.08.24:
Google Drive:

winedows-2021.08.24-desktop-amd64.iso

drive.google.com

  Magnet Link [Don't forget, you will need a torrent client to use magnet links!]
MD5: 0DCE4079891C112A7985DD7704FD8427

WINEdows Version 2021.08.12:
  Magnet Link [Don't forget, you will need a torrent client to use magnet links!]
MD5: 546649CA395F1C7C02793CDB0DF16AEC

WINEdows Version 2021.08.09:
  Magnet Link [Don't forget, you will need a torrent client to use magnet links!]
MD5: B1E697818254EB82C9113DEA6DC9FEEB

 

[Kippykip]

Changelogs:

WINEdows 2021.11.30:
* WINEdows image was completely rebuilt from the ground up due to difficulty maintaining.
Now it's built via automated scripts from a base Xubuntu install/image. (This makes a RPi port feasible!)
https://github.com/Kippykip/WINEdows-Build-Scripts
* Updated kernel again (from 5.11.0.27 to 5.11.0.41).
* Upgraded all packages again.
* Reorganised some files, such as:
- The boot screen filenames.
- winecfg desktop files moved from the /skel/ folder into the shared folder.
- Touchscreen calibration no longer ends in .py, preventing an annoying startup error.
- Chicago95 cursors in the default theme is now a symlink, not a copy.
* Installed Gnome Disks and MultiWriter (so .IMG disk images can be created/written).
* Installed regexxer search tool, there is also a right click content menu for "Grep Search".
* Added print option on the right click content menu for documents (was already in Xubuntu, but due to an old oversight I might've removed it).
* Changed terminal description on right click content menu.
* Swapped the application xfburn with K3b.
* Installed FileZilla.
* Installed Krita.
* Swapped the application Pinta with KolourPaint.
* Updated ubiquity slideshow text.
* Added 3D pinball SDL port.
* Stopped including nvidia driver, it was actually causing problems and not showing the control panel anyway.
* Start menu now has shortcuts for my documents/videos/music.
* Fixed a bug where the hidden icons for chocolate doom variants were getting tagged as broken in the menu editor.
* Changed setup boot screen text to show a skip check keyboard shortcut on screen.

WINEdows 2021.08.25:
* Upgraded all packages again
* Fixed gdebi not asking for authentication (unfortunately only workaround is to make it run with a terminal window)
* Preinstalled a joystick configuration/test tool (jstest-gtk)
* Corrected keyboard shortcut for file manager from WIN+F to WIN+E
* Added a Touchscreen Calibration tool in Settings (based on xcalibrate by reinderien) - https://github.com/Kippykip/xcalibrate
* Reinstalled rar/unrar packages for the archiver (somehow they went missing at some point?) Must've restored a VMWare state at some point and forgot about it.

WINEdows 2021.08.24:
* Updated kernel again (from 5.11.0.25 to 5.11.0.27)
* Upgraded all packages again
* Updated the MESA packages directly to 21.2.1, this is to address a huge bug in Mesa 21.0 that caused GLXBadFBConfig errors in Wine. (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1924933)
As the updated versions with the fix aren't currently on the Ubuntu LTS repositories yet.
* Added new gstreamer decoder plugins
* VLC's DVD decryption libraries are now preinstalled
* Fixed the ubiquity icon showing up post-install in the Start menu.
* Improved defaults on all MIME's/filetypes (No more MP3s opening in audacity etc!)
* GDebi is now preinstalled, meaning .DEB packages can just be double clicked on to install
* Fixed annoying keyring popup on Google Chrome
* Replaced the tiny Windows 95 tiled wallpapers with 2X scale / redrawn tiled wallpapers.
* Added exfat support, as well as some more obscure ones for GParted
* Thunar/File manager now always shows the tab even on single windows
* Unchecked the option where dragging windows the edges no longer puts them in a different workspace (now it just snaps only)
* Added a shortcut help link on the desktop that points to this forum
* LightDM's login screen no longer shows the user accounts wallpaper (as tiled wallpapers and others would stretch and look odd)
* Going to the properties menu when right clicking folders now shows a "Share" tab to make shared folders (aka thunar-shares-plugin is preinstalled)
* Fixed usr/share/applications .desktop launchers not having execute permissions

WINEdows 2021.08.12:
* Updated Kernel from 5.8 to 5.11
* Installed Audacity and Handbrake
* Added rar/unrar support for Rar files for the Archiver
* On screen keyboard button now has uses IBM Model M theme, and is set to full layout
* Updated gnome schema files again, and create and override file with the same settings.
* Removed /etc/skel/.config/dconf (since the updated gnome schemas take care of this anyway)
* Recached icons directory
* Upgraded all packages (about 200 pkgs)
* Fixed the terminal colours not working
* Removed unused packages
* Fixed the background wallpaper not applying during the "Try WINEdows, install WINEdows" screen.
* Updated installer slideshow to credit Brazilian Trollge's physical hardware beta tests, and listed more preinstalled programs in the 2nd slide.
* Preinstalled ubuntu xorg nvidia driver packages (It may be a proprietary driver, fortunately I don't actually care and just want this Distro to be practical and stable to use as possible)

WINEdows 09-08-2021, aka the Initial release. Based on Xubuntu 20.04 LTS:
* Preinstall Chicago95 theme, sounds and cursor files to XFCE4
* Install microsoft fonts, create TTF version of MS San Serif fonts for Chicago95 theme
* Customise certain Chicago95 elements, like start menu text saying "WINEdows" and putting the cursor icons in the same directory for compatibility with LiveCD
* Preconfigure XFCE4 defaults to match a Windows like appearance
* Added sound support for XFCE4, preconfigured with Chicago95 theme sounds
* Added VGA font to Terminal
* Edit Gnome Schemas to use theme and fonts
* Create plymouth custom bootscreens for both LiveCD and main install
* Add "Search" menu to Thunars context menu
* Preconfigure Thunar to use multiple tabs in it's explorer window
* Preconfigure Thunar to show hidden files except on the desktop
* Preinstalled WINE and WineTricks
* Added WineCFG shortcut in settings
* Updated gnome schema files
* Install different games (Chocolate doom w/ shareware wad, Aisleriot Patience)
* Bundle W95 wallpapers
* Update LightDM config files to use theme and fonts
* Install and preconfigure FluidSynth
* Fix default midi soundfont symbolic links
* Uninstall unneeded apps (Mines, xterm, pidgin, xubuntu wallpapers, sudoku)
* Replace transmission with qbittorrent
* Replace firefox with chrome"
* Installed build-essentials packages
* Installed ghex hex editor
* Installed qdirstat
* Installed Clonezilla
* Installed Pinta
* Installed Git
* Added EXE icon support for WINE programs
* Created launcher for Clonezilla in Start>System
* Added fluidsynth, W95 startup sound and on screen keyboard to session and startup
* Improved pulseaudio 100ms audio delay to about 20ms
* Added some sample music, pictures, and video in the home directory
* Preconfigured task manager to show in bytes, show full paths and view in tree mode by default
* Changed keyboard shortcuts to mostly match windows equivalents
* Change installer slideshow to talk about WINEdows

 

[om4e]

Love this release, I look forward to learning how you've done this. There is so many utilities (windows or otherwise) that I would love to have available on USB and not worry what platform it was made for. Thank you very much for your work!

 

[Kippykip]

Love this release, I look forward to learning how you've done this. There is so many utilities (windows or otherwise) that I would love to have available on USB and not worry what platform it was made for. Thank you very much for your work!

Thanks! In a nutshell I used Cubic to edit the Xubuntu 20.04 install, then made these scripts that apply the conversion and installation of apps:

GitHub - Kippykip/WINEdows-Build-Scripts: Tools I use to convert an Xubuntu image into a WINEdows image.

Tools I use to convert an Xubuntu image into a WINEdows image. - Kippykip/WINEdows-Build-Scripts

github.com

When it came to settings and whatnot, I installed Xubuntu in a virtual machine first, changed the settings to how I wanted then copied the config files from the user folder to the /etc/skel folder.
The /etc/skel is what newly created users folders will be based on when it comes to most linux distros. It's basically like a template.

While I wouldn't recommend using this (or really any linux distro) as a main os, it can be incredibly useful as a secondary boot device or as a portable USB installation. I've brought some customers computers back to life or simply backed up files off dead computers using this distro.

 

[ibay770]

This is pretty cool! Kind like Windowsfx but for win98!

 

[ibay770]

Crazy question, would it be possible to run all exes by using the windows files instead of wine? Or is it a bit more complex then that?

 

[Kippykip]

Crazy question, would it be possible to run all exes by using the windows files instead of wine? Or is it a bit more complex then that?

On my laptop I copied a lot of DLLs from an XP machine which seem to help with some games, I haven't tried replacing or overriding any though. Could probably cause some problems I imagine

 

[om4e]

Whats the login password?

Yep, I just did that.
Your response was perfect, thank you!

 

[doge]

joe biden spyware beware

 

[george21345]

Crazy question, would it be possible to run all exes by using the windows files instead of wine? Or is it a bit more complex then that?

no
a craziest question at alll Unfortunately, runnning .exe files natively on Linux without something like Wie isn’t really feasible. Windows executables are designed to work with the Windows kernel and API, wuhich are pretty different from what you get in a Linux environment.

Wine acts as a compatibility layer that translates Windows system calls into something Linux can understand, which is why yoou need it (or something similar) to run Windows applications. Without that, Linux doesn’t have the necessary components to interpret and execute .exe files.


you need enjoy :)