The PlayOnLinux program is an implementation of the Wine Windows interface (see Chapter 16 for more on Wine). With it you can play a wide range of free, shareware, open source, and commercial Windows games.
To get the program installed, you will need to add information to
the Ubuntu repository, so open the Terminal program and enter the
following command. Although it takes up two lines here, it must be entered
as a single command, with a space on either side of the -O. Enter your password when prompted.
sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_karmic.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
Note
If you are running a version of Ubuntu newer than Karmic Koala,
such as Lucid Lynx, replace the word karmic with lucid, or whatever the release name is.
Once the command has completed, you should then enter the two following lines to perform the installation:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install playonlinux
Upon completion, there will be a new entry in the Applications → Games menu called PlayOnLinux that you can select to call up the program, which will look like Figure 13-8.
To get started adding games (and other programs) to Ubuntu, click the Install button to bring up the new window shown in Figure 13-9, in which the Games category has been selected and the program Crayon Physics highlighted.
Where a game is commercial or there are licensing requirements, the program will properly configure itself to optimally run that game, but you will then have to supply your original discs that you purchased in order to install it.
However, many of the programs are free and can be installed from PlayOnLinux directly, without having to get hold of them separately. Crayon Physics, selected in Figure 13-9, is such a game, and it can be installed by clicking Apply. You will then be taken to an installation wizard that will help you install the program.
Once complete, the game will be available as an icon within the PlayOnLinux main window, as shown in Figure 13-10. Here, I have also opted to install Internet Explorer 7 to test the compatibility of PlayOnLinux, which actually runs it perfectly well.
PlayOnLinux is powerful enough to run more than one program at a time, each in its own Ubuntu window, so they can be treated just as if they were native Linux applications. Figure 13-11 shows the program running alongside both IE7 and Crayon Physics, which is a great game of skill and strategy I highly recommend you try.
If you have chosen the appropriate option during installation, you will now also have icons on your desktop with which you can start a program. The first time you use one you’ll be asked to confirm whether it’s safe. If you say that it is, the default PlayOnLinux icon image will be replaced with the program’s proper icon.
