What if, rather than make a Linux distro that can run Windows apps, you built the whole distro around Windows binaries instead?
Loss32 is the most gleefully deranged idea for how to put together a Linux OS that we think we have ever read about in three and a half decades… but it’s not impossible. Not only could it be done, there could be real advantages to doing it this way.
The idea comes from a blogger and developer known as Hikari no Yume (“Dream of Light” in Japanese) who made it public at the 39th Chaos Communication Congress in Germany at the end of December.
I’ve basically done this for games and other programs using this desktop file:
[Desktop Entry] Name=Run with Bottles Comment=Run directly with bottles Icon=com.usebottles.bottles Exec=bottles-cli run --bottle Gaming --executable %f Terminal=false NoDisplay=true Type=Application Categories=Utility;GNOME;GTK; StartupNotify=true StartupWMClass=bottles MimeType=x-scheme-handler/bottles;application/x-ms-dos-executable;application/x-msi;application/x-ms-shortcut;application/x-wine-extension-msp; Keywords=wine;windows; X-GNOME-UsesNotifications=trueSave as
runwithbottles.desktopin~/.local/share/applicationsAnd remember to change--bottle Gamingto whatever bottle you want to use.Now you can run any .exe by double clicking on it. If you associate it with ‘Run with Bottles’ This needs bottles to be installed, but allows you to run executables with Proton or Proton-GE too.