End of PlayOnLinux?

booman

booman

Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming
Staff member
It may be time for me to let go of PlayOnLinux.

We all know it has been deprecated for years now. The only updates I have noticed recently are:
  • Wine versions
  • DXVK versions
But I've been noticing some issues with the GUI (Graphical User Interface) and slowness with creating virtual drives.

The only reason I use PlayOnLinux at this point is to install non-Steam games. Then I add them to Steam and play without any problems.

Non Steam examples:
  • Retail CD/DVD ROM
  • GOG
  • Free Downloaded games/mods/demos
  • itch.io games
  • Free-to-Play MMORPG
  • Productivity Applications
I'm going to try and see if I can run an EXE in Steam as a non-Steam game then drag-n-drop the game folder into my Documents and run it from there in Steam. If this is successful, then I might give up on PlayOnLinux altogether.

I've never tried running a productivity application in Steam either. I'm sure its possible, but sometimes they need extra tweaking like in Wine.cfg

There are some applications I use like SketchUp and it requires some "hacking" to make it run smoothly.
Also some mods require special shortcuts or launch options to connect to the game executable in order to run. So I'm not sure if Steam can do any of that as a non-Steam game.

Also, PlayOnLinux has some great features that I have used in the past and some on a regular basis:
  • Debug
  • Kill All Processes
  • Wine.cfg
  • Display Settings
  • 32-bit Virtual Drive
If Steam can display most of these features, then I might be able to use it for all games and applications.

Maybe I should start testing old games and new games as non-Steam games and see what will happen?
 
I've heard of bottles, I might take a look at it.

[TLDR: Steam, Lutris, Heroic have features to install games with scripts, but no good manual features]

PlayOnLinux has always been a great tool for testing and playing games. It has everything I've needed in the past. But the goal is to provide Guides and News about the easiest way to play games. Honestly, PlayOnLinux was never the "easiest". Steam has definitely falling into that category, but it still doesn't have all game available. I still play and re-play games from GOG and CD/DVD ROM.

I've never actually installed a game using Steam, so not sure if that is even possible?

I don't even know if Steam would see my DVD ROM drive?
For those games that are really hard to install and configure, PlayOnLinux had the right tools.

It would be hard for me to move away from PlayOnLinux, but at the same time it is so deprecated and unsupported I'm getting more and more frustrated with it.

I know Lutris is a great tool as well, which uses Wine stable, staging and Proton versions. In fact I've been using Heroic Launcher for my Epic games and it does a great job providing stable Proton versions and experimental versions. There are a lot of configuration settings too. Not sure if there is a manual installation for games not provided by the client?

This was the "shortcoming" in PlayOnLinux. The developers hoped the community would write scripts to provide automatic installation of games... but the communities are not full of coders/programmers. Most of us are just lazy and want the game to work out-of-the-box. Lutris provides auto-installations for many games, but a few years back I was unable to manually install a non-listed game because it was very confusing.

My goal has always focused on installing any game you want to play and providing the steps. By following these steps in PlayOnLinux, you learn more about the application, operating system and window features like DirectX, DotNET, Visual C, etc. I prefer to teach the customer to teach themselves... this is not for everyone, but gaming in Linux is not for everyone either.
 
Yes, it is sad PlayOnLinux got abandoned. It was also my tool of choice but as soon they stopped to update the wine versions it was over. Bottles is the closest of all the frontends, IMHO.
 
I checked out Bottles, I'm liking what I'm seeing. It has some good features and manual installation features.
Thank you!
 
I used PlayOnLinux a lot back in the day, but it's been a long time now, I think it's at least 6 years where I haven't touched it. All non-steam games I just install with regular Wine, doing everything in the terminal. Regular Wine can do all that PoL can do, so there's not really any reason for me to use that, or Lutris for that matter. You just need to know the correct environment variables to set, and the command line options. I can use winecfg and winetricks directly in those cases where I need to.

I also create my own shortcuts to easily launch games, so after I have set up a game I can launch it easily like any other program.

My preferred solution is obviously not what most people prefer. I realize most people want to the easy way out, just click a button to install and play. PoL tried to get there, but relying on the community to create and maintain install scripts was probably not such a good idea.
 
Have any of you tried CrossOver? It's not really intended for games, but people seem to be having at least SOME success with it?
 
The current state of Wine is covering all my needs, all games I've tried runs.

But CrossOver is supposed to be better than Wine. According to their website, 95% of the code they develop is part of open source Wine. The last 5% would need to be some significant improvements to justify paying for CrossOver, but you also get support when you pay for it.
 
I've been looking maybe getting it so I don't have to run a Windows VM in order to use Office.

Just to be clear, I F***ING HATE OFFICE (and Microsoft can go straight to hell, IMO because they are F***ING B*****RDS). But my work requires that I use it, so...and sometimes there are things I need to do in Office365 that online in the web browser just can't do (because, again, MS are B*****RDS).
 
Dude I understand your frustration!!!
Years of working for employers who use Microsoft products and stuck with Microsoft chaos. I'm no fan of Office either.

I have only tried Outlook on a Mac years ago using PlayOnMac and it as extremely buggy. I mean, there are enough issues with Windows and Office in the first place, Wine just made it even more frustrating... but again, that was years ago.

You know how it is with some games these days, they sometimes require some hacking and workarounds. I'm sure its no different with Office in Wine.

For most people, Office365 in the browser is enough, but most workplaces need all the Outlook features:
  • Shared Mailboxes
  • Custom signatures
  • Shared Calendars
  • Send on Behalf
  • Custom Add-ins
on and on and on...
I have feeling most of those features are not available in the web version of Outlook.
 
Daerandin said:
My preferred solution is obviously not what most people prefer. I realize most people want to the easy way out, just click a button to install and play. PoL tried to get there, but relying on the community to create and maintain install scripts was probably not such a good idea.
Click to expand...

I kinda figured Dearandin, you are always the exception to the rule cause you are willing to go-the-extra-mile with anything in Linux. Which is why you are such an expert!

Its crazy how well Steam is working for almost all of my games. Nice to have them all in one place. Not to mention I don't have to install additional packages or libraries. Its all bundled in the Steam folders and prefixes.
 
Another note, I've also been using Heroic Launcher for running GOG games. Right now I'm playing Metro Last Light and it runs perfectly! Heroic Launch allows many features like adding a non-Epic game, multiple Wine versions, multiple Proton versions. You can even add Proton GE or other Wine versions manually so you can test them with games.

I'm wondering if I can add applications too like Photoshop or SketchUp?

Anyways, there are a lot of features when you look at the options for each container. I'm pretty impressed!

Now my biggest concern is longevity...
Will Heroic Launch be stable and supported as long as PlayOnLinux did?
Will Epic shut down Heroic Launcher at some point because of business/profit conflict?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top