306
WinBoat is a new Linux app to run Windows apps with "seamless integration"
(www.gamingonlinux.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
306 points (97.5% liked)
Linux
57863 readers
1219 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Now I wonder if I dual boot linux / windows, why is there no software that can basically use my existing windows installation from another partition to run windows software (like, maybe load it into VM or something)?
You can. You can boot a windows partition in a VM. IIRC it is not really advisable but you can do it.
I actually find that starting a 'raw disk partition' virtual machine for Windows is one of the best ways to run it. Stops it from fucking up your BIOS and EFI when it does an update. You can restart into it when you want the 'native GPU' for games.
Of course, the even better way to stop Windows from fucking up your hardware is to not allow it anywhere near your hardware in the first place...
Was working for me well for years in the past, can recommend.
you can run windows software on a windows partition using wine, but it is extremely brittle, since you're going from a case-insensitive windows file system as well.
Another problem would be the dependencies and initial configuration would not be present unless the software was built with portability in mind
i was thinking maybe a hypothetical "global wine" could use the windows drive itself as its
drive_c, which would bypass that issue.Parallels on Mac OS lets you do that with the Windows partition. I know VMware and other virtualization tools let you mount a physical disk into a VM so it should be possible. It's just kinda janky, and Windows doesn't always like it when you switch from physical to virtual.
It would be wonderful to have something like parrallels.