Boxedwine vs WineGUI

Boxedwine is an emulator for running 16-bit and 32-bit Windows applications on Windows, Mac, Linux, and in a browser. It runs a 32-bit version of Wine while emulating the Linux kernel and CPU, and is released under the GNU General Public License v2. The browser build uses Emscripten, including WebAssembly and asm.js. Boxedwine supports multiple Wine versions from 1.6 to Wine 5.0. Its web version uses memory storage by default, so changes to d:/ are discarded when the browser tab closes. Users can configure Dropbox storage or use local storage, whose limits depend on the browser and operating system. The web build can accept a dropped directory to list executable files and can be configured with URL parameters. Documentation warns that on-demand loading of large files can block the interface or potentially crash the emulator, and requires server range-request support. The site also provides online demos for selected applications and games, including AbiWord, Age of Empires, and Caesar III, plus user and developer documentation.

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.