Linux

Wine and proton are the same valve takes wine and adds some tweaks to it to work beter for games. Wine can work in a pinch but I wouldn't rely on it for your workflow as wine could always be playing catch up when your software updates versions.

Wine/Proton is a translation layer that translates windows system calls Linux system calls. So if wine/proton doesn't have a feature windows has for your knew version then it will break. That's okay for games but for something you need for work that can be a deal breaker. If you can switching to something Linux native will benefit you in the long run.

Side note: yabridge may be of help for VSTs

Also, another DAWci recommend is Reaper

As a side note, a couple of things that might be handy for you:

Bottles is a GUI for running Wine things that might make it a bit easier to navigate. It's helped me out a few times.

Also there's an AppDB on the Wine site where you can search for specific software to find out how well it runs/tweaks that people have used etc.

ALSO yeah games are in a pretty good place on Linux nowadays. I have a Steam Deck and it runs a surprising amount of stuff, even things that aren't listed as being compatible. I think the main source of trouble is the online AntiCheat stuff, that's not always compatible with Linux (although sometimes those work too, I think it just depends on the game.) There's also protondb for checking which games work in Linux.

Hopefully some of that is helpful!

Proton is designed for gaming and its a fork of Wine, designed for gaming contains alot of tools and patches for gaming compared to regular wine.
Wine is designed for apps, but can be used for gaming.

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!

So, they're basically bridges that allow you to use some Windows programs in Linux?

They are like really Bad cocaine. Sure, it may work, but if you want to give up that much time, might as well learn an alternative because the next version will need a new workaround.

I read they can use vst files with a bit of work

That's an emulator.

Is there a difference between Wine and Proton

Proton-ge is a fork of proton is a fork of wine, which only exists because Wine isnt made for gaming specifically and proton can't include a bunch of stuff because of legal reasons which enhance gaming further.

I find using Lutris for gaming is easier, but there is also Bottles, both allow you to setup all the MS junk as needed per game, including options for using Wine's Proton if need be or desired.