Elegant Interface
WinBoat provides a sleek and intuitive interface that seamlessly integrates Windows into your Linux desktop environment, making it feel like a native experience.
Automated Installs
Installing Windows via WinBoat is a delightfully simple process all done through our interface. Pick your preferences & specs and let us handle the rest.
Run Any App
If it runs on Windows, it can run on WinBoat. Enjoy the full range of Windows applications, from productivity tools to entertainment, all within your Linux environment as native OS-level windows.
Filesystem Integration
Accessing your Linux filesystem from Windows is a breeze. Your home directory is mounted in Windows, allowing you to easily share files between the two systems without any hassle.
How does WinBoat compare to WinApps?
With WinApps you do the bulk of the setup manually, and there's no cohesive interface to bring it all together. There's a basic TUI, a taskbar widget, and some CLI commands for you to play with.
WinBoat does all the setup once you have the pre-requisites installed, displays everything worth seeing in a neat interface for you, and acts like a complete experience. No need to mess with configuration files, no need to memorize a dozen CLI commands, it just works.
How does WinBoat work?
WinBoat uses Docker and KVM underneath the hood, and because it runs real Windows, you can use any Windows app pretty much (except if it requires strong GPU acceleration or kernel-level anticheat). FreeRDP is used for compositing windows onto your Linux desktop. You can move, resize, and drag them around like you'd do with any other window.
Does WinBoat use GPU passthrough/acceleration?
Not at the moment, but the are plans to eventually implement GPU acceleration through paravirtualized drivers. This kind of tech is kind of a slow process, but some contributors are working on DirectX drivers.
Note: WinBoat is currently in Beta, so expect to occasionally run into hiccups and bugs. You should be comfortable with some level of troubleshooting if you decide to try it, however we encourage you to give it a shot anyway. The current iteration is not representative of the final product.
What's New
Features
- Now you can decide whether or not you wanna share your home folder during installation, a warning has been added to make sure the user understands the risks
- You can now specify exactly where you'd like to install WinBoat, the requirement for space in /var is gone entirely (Thank you to the alpha testers for this feature)
- WinBoat will now remember its window position and size when you close it
- Added relog instructions to the Docker group pre-requisite entry
- Added an option for multi-monitor users where you can configure how you'd like multi-monitor support to work. MultiMon creates separate displays for each monitor, while Span stretches the display across all monitors. Try both and see what works best for you
Misc
- Removed the pre-requisite for ip_tables and iptable_nat modules, since they are not really needed except for network discovery, however now there's a shortcut on your Desktop to access your Linux files
- Migrate most of the Electron scripts & files to TS & ESM (except Node modules) rather than JS & CJS
Fixes
- CPU threads have been changed to physical cores everywhere, since this is what qemus/qemu expects from us
