this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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A few days ago I asked about taking the big leap, but I use my PC for work in the arts (voice over, music, digital art, etc).

I've been playing around with Bitwig to replace Cubase and ideally Adobe Audition. It's... a learning curve but I'm willing to make it work if I can get everything about my PC lined up with Linux.

I then discovered Wine and Proton. So, they're basically bridges that allow you to use some Windows programs in Linux? I read they can use vst files with a bit of work, and people have had some success with Cubase, though Adobe is still right out but I'd love to get away from Adobe anyway. Also games??

Is there a difference between Wine and Proton or are they basically just different programs that do the same thing? The big leap might be more feasible than I thought if they do what I think they do.

Edit: This seems like it could suit most of my needs. I need to do more research into it but you guys answered my questions. Appreciate you all taking the time, thanks!

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[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Proton is built on top of Wine in order to make sure games specifically work well.

You can check https://www.protondb.com/ before buying a game (with Steam or otherwise) to insure it works as expected. A lot will work with 0 tinkering but some might next extra command line parameters.

You might get the same result with Wine directly but Proton it doing everything it can to "hide" away those (hopefully small) challenges away from the final user, a gamer (like me) who wants to just sit down and play.

So... the heuristic is basically :

  • games? Proton
  • not games but Windows applications that somehow do not have a better open-source equivalent running on Linux? Wine

Edit: for the anecdote I wrote this reply on my SteamDeck, the gaming console by Valve coming with Steam, and Proton, and running Linux to... just play BUT I also use it to work while traveling. So yes, works like a charm!