Bottles vs WineGUI

Bottles manages Windows prefixes, called bottles, to run Windows applications and games on Linux through compatibility-layer runners. It offers Gaming, Application, and Custom environments, plus Wine and Proton runners such as Soda, Caffe, Vaniglia, and CrossOver builds. Installers apply rules to set up programs, while a dependency manager uses a community-driven repository of manifests. Users can manage graphics components including DXVK, VKD3D, DXVK-NVAPI, and LatencyFleX. The community App Store provides Windows application installers with compatibility grades from Bronze through Platinum. Bottles also lists backups, versioning, duplication, and importing bottles from other managers. The project recommends Flatpak: it bundles required dependencies and is described as the most supported and tested release, as well as the only fully sandboxed package. Bottles supports Linux and macOS and is free software. Connection-dependent features do not work offline. The project also warns that exposing the system home directory to a runner breaks the Flatpak sandbox and can put personal files at risk.

WineGUI is a graphical Linux manager for Wine, the compatibility layer used to run Windows applications. A guided setup creates machines that users can edit, remove, or clone. For each machine, WineGUI can download and switch among Vanilla, Staging, Staging-TkG, Wine-Proton, and GE-Proton runners. It lists applications with search and can add desktop or menu shortcuts. The configuration window can install software such as DirectX and DXVK, while quick actions run a program, open the C: drive, simulate a reboot, or stop all processes. WineGUI also manages GE-Proton through a UMU launcher, including Proton initialization and protonfixes, without requiring Steam. GE-Proton is available for win64/WoW64 bottles; a true 32-bit bottle requires a regular Wine runner. Packages include AppImage, DEB, RPM, compressed tar.gz binaries, and a source archive. The host needs Wine v9 or later, which the AppImage does not include. The repository is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and provides issue tracking and contribution instructions on GitHub.