17

I tried to install wine using these commands:

sudo apt-get install -y wine

And:

sudo apt-get install wine

But terminal says that:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package wine is a virtual package provided by:
  winehq-staging 2.16.0~zesty
  winehq-stable 2.0.2~zesty
  winehq-devel 2.16.0~zesty
  wine-development 2.0-3ubuntu1
You should explicitly select one to install.

E: Package 'wine' has no installation candidate

So there are 4 different version of wine.

What is the difference between these versions. Which one is better?

I wanted to install Internet Explorer from it and I installed winehq-stable. But I couldn't see that among applications in Winetricks. Do the other versions of wine have more applications to install? What is the difference?

3 Answers 3

13

Here the difference between the packages:

  • winehq-staging: this is the most recent testing wine version.
  • winehq-stable: this is the current stable wine version (probably the one you should install)
  • winehq-devel: this package is used to provide development headers, mostly used by third party software compilation.
  • wine-development: unsure for this one, but probably helps wine developers to debug EXE running with wine with more debug information.

I can also recommand to use PlayOnLinux that provide automated install of many Windows Application by using the most appropriate wine version.

2
  • 10
    You are wrong. The -devel version are not development headers: it is yet another version of wine. In debian and ubuntu, development header packages end with -dev.
    – Patola
    Jul 30, 2018 at 14:45
  • 3
    It doesn't work this way. Actually, the right order from features Vs reliablility is wine-staging > wine-development > wine-stable. See wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#Which_version_of_Wine_should_I_use.3F and wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu
    – gerlos
    Apr 30, 2019 at 14:48
6

To run Windows applications on Ubuntu through Wine you can choose between two versions of Wine (as of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS), based on features Vs reliability:

  • wine-stable: is the most tested and reliable version, so you won't expect sudden crashes. But it's also somehow "older", so several new features might be missing, and new apps might not work.
    See https://wiki.winehq.org/Stable_Rules
  • wine-development: is the most recent version available, with more recent features. New software might work, but these new features might break old ones.

As suggested in wine FAQ page, you should try which one works better for your needs (i.e. for the software you need to run). On Ubuntu you can install and run both versions at the same time.

You can refer the Wine AppDB to get information on compatibility.

If something is known to work with an old version of wine-stable, it should also work on newer wine-stable releases, but might not work on recent wine-development releases.

If something doesn't work on wine-stable, try wine-development.

1

Cite from https://wiki.winehq.org/Wine_User%27s_Guide#Wine_from_WineHQ

Wine is an open source project, and there are accordingly many different versions of Wine for you to choose from. WineHQ currently offers time-based releases in two branches: stable and development.

  • The stable branch is on an annual release schedule, with minor updates as needed (usually every 10-12 weeks). This version is
    intended for users whose applications and games already work well in
    the existing code, and who are not interested in testing new
    versions.
  • The development is on a biweekly release schedule. This branch is the main branch, where bug fixing occurs and new features are added. It is recommended for users who want or need the latest features and bugfixes. Users of applications/games for which the stable branch does not work should always test the development release before filing bugs.
  • Since September, 2015 there has been a third official branch known as staging. This branch includes several hundred experimental patches that are not yet ready for inclusion in the main branch and is recommended for users of applications/games affected by bugs marked STAGED as well as those interested in helping to test experimental patches.

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