PlayOnLinux – Run Windows Software and Games in Linux

In our earlier articles on this blog, we used the Wine program to install and run windows based applications on Debian-based and and other Red Hat-based Linux distributions.

There is another open source software available called PlayOnLinux that uses Wine as its base and gives feature-rich functions and a user-friendly interface to install and run windows applications on Linux.

The purpose of PlayOnLinux software is to simplify and automates the process of installing and running Windows applications on Linux platforms. It has a list of applications where you can automate each installation process as much as you can.

What is PlayOnLinux?

PlayOnLinux (POL) is an open-source gaming framework (software) based on Wine, that allows you to easily install any Windows-based applications and games on Linux operating systems, via the use of Wine as a front-end interface.

The following are the list of some interesting features to know.

• PlayOnLinux is license-free, with no need for a Windows License.
• PlayOnLinux uses base as Wine.
• PlayOnLinux is open-source and free software.
• PlayOnLinux is written in Bash and Python.

In this article, I will guide you on how to install, setup, and use PlayonLinux on RHEL-based distributions such as Fedora, CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and Debian-based distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint

How to Install PlayOnLinux in Linux Distributions

To install PlayOnLinux, you need to add a software repository and install the PlayonLinux software using the following commands.

On RHEL-based Systems

To install PlayonLinux on RHEL-based distributions such as Fedora, CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, and AlmaLinux use the following commands.

$ cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
$ sudo wget http://rpm.playonlinux.com/playonlinux.repo
$ sudo yum install playonlinux

Install PlayOnLinux in Fedora On Debian Systems

For the Debian Bullseye 11 and Debian Buster 10 versions.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install playonlinux

With the Debian 9 Stretch repository

# wget -q "http://deb.playonlinux.com/public.gpg" -O- | apt-key add -
# wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_stretch.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
# apt-get update
# apt-get install playonlinux

With the Debian 8 Jessie repository

# wget -q "http://deb.playonlinux.com/public.gpg" -O- | apt-key add -
# wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_jessie.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
# apt-get update
# apt-get install playonlinux

On Ubuntu Systems

For the Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 versions.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install playonlinux

For the Ubuntu 18.04 version.

$ sudo wget -q "http://deb.playonlinux.com/public.gpg" -O- | sudo apt-key add -
$ sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_bionic.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install playonlinux

How do I Start PlayOnLinux

Once it’s installed, you can start the PlayOnLinux as a normal user from the application menu or use the following command to start it.

# playonlinux
OR
$ playonlinux

Running PlayOnLinux in Fedora

Once it’s done, click on the ‘Install‘ button to explore available software or search for software. playonlinux provides some supported games, you can search them using the ‘Search‘ tab as shown below.

Install Windows Apps in Linux Install Windows Games in Linux

This way, you can search and install as many as Windows-supported applications and games on your Linux.