Publish or Perish on Wine

If you do not want to use the native Linux version of Publish or Perish, you can use the Windows version of Publish or Perish under the Wine compatibility layer.

We have verified that Publish or Perish operates correctly with the current version of Wine (0.9.32 as of this writing). Please use the instructions below to install Wine and Publish or Perish on your Linux system.

About Wine

The Wine web site defines Wine as "Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix."

What this means is that Wine provides the programs and libraries that allow you to run many Windows applications (including Publish or Perish) unchanged on your Linux system and other supported Unix-like operating systems.

As far as the Windows applications are concerned, they are running in a Windows environment and most functions work as expected, including things like clipboard copy and paste (even between Windows and native Linux applications on the system).

Wine is Free Software, both in terms of cost (gratis) and in terms of freedom. Many Linux distributions include a version of Wine in their package repository. You can also download the latest Wine version from the Wine web site; see below for more information.

Supported Linux distros

Publish or Perish should be able to run with the aid of the Wine compatibility layer under most Linux distributions for which Wine is supported. We have tested Publish or Perish with Wine version 0.9.32 running on the Ubuntu 6.10 and Fedora 5 distributions; in both cases, the systems used Intel i386-class processors.

For a full list of out-of-the-box supported Linux distributions, see Wine Binary Downloads on the Wine web site. Please share your experiences with Publish or Perish on your Linux (or other) system by sending a brief report to pop@harzing.com and include such details as:

Linux or other system name and version
Wine version that you used
Type of CPU in your test system
Anything else that you think is relevant

Other Unix-like systems

Wine runs on many Unix-like systems, including FreeBSD and Solaris. Again, see Wine Binary Downloads on the Wine web site for the full list. If your favorite system isn't represented by a Wine binary package and you feel up to the challenge, you can also build and install Wine from source code.

Please share your experiences with Publish or Perish on your system by sending a brief report to pop@harzing.com; make sure that you include enough details to make your report useful to others.

How to install Wine

Many Linux distributions include a version of Wine and you might be able to install Wine with the standard system tools (such as the Synaptic or Red Hat package managers, yum, or whatever tool your distribution includes for the purpose). However, Wine is very much a work in progress and the Wine developers recommend that you use the latest version available from the Wine web site, rather than relying on the version that came with your Linux or other system distro.

The easiest way of installing Wine is to download the relevant binary package from the Wine web site:

Go to Wine Binary Downloads
Click on the link that represents your system distribution
Follow the instructions that you find there

Typically, the whole process shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes for the most common distributions.

If your favorite system isn't represented by a Wine binary package and you feel up to the challenge, you can also build and install Wine from source code. However, do not attempt this unless you know (vaguely) what Makefiles are and what gcc does. If those terms don't mean anything to you, then stick with the binary packages.

How to configure Wine

In most cases, the default configuration of Wine is fine. Don't fiddle with it unless you know what you're doing. If you absolutely, positively want to tinker with its settings, then open a console window and type winecfg. This opens a GUI interface to the Wine configuration settings. Whatever else you do, make sure that Publish or Perish sees Windows 2000, XP, or 2003 behavior from Wine; do not change that to an older Windows version such as 95, 98, or Me.

How to install Publish or Perish

Once you have Wine installed, you can install Publish or Perish in one of two ways: using its normal Windows installer, or by downloading the program files as a Zip archive and extracting them to your system.

Using the Windows installer

To use the normal Publish or Perish installer:

Download the Publish or Perish installer for Windows. You must use an installer dated 9 March 2007 or later; earlier versions choked on a Wine incompatibility.
Double-click on the downloaded installer to run it under Wine. Alternatively, open a console window, change to the directory containing the download, then type wine PoPSetup.exe.

The console method allows you to observe Wine's diagnostic message in the console, which might be helpful in case of problems. We have also found that running Wine in this way is more reliable than running it through the double-click association.

Note that the License agreement page in the installer remains empty; this appears to be due to a problem with the RichEdit control under Wine. Also, shortcuts created by the installer do not show up on the Linux desktop. You must create them manually if you want them by creating a soft link to the PoP.exe executable on the Linux desktop.

Tip: By default, Wine creates a Windows-compatible directory hierarchy under the .wine directory in your home directory. As a result, you will find the Publish or Perish program files under ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Harzing's Publish or Perish/Bin. Please note that dot directories are hidden by default on Unix-like systems; you might have to switch on the display of hidden files and directories or use the -a option with the ls command to see the .wine directory.

Installation from Zip archive

If you want more control over the installation of Publish or Perish on your Unix-like system, you can also install the program files manually:

Download the Publish or Perish zip archive
Extract the files from the zip archive to a convenient location on your system

When extracting the files, you must keep the embedded directory structure:

Bin/
    PoP.exe
    TWUNT.dll
Help/
    PoP.chm

This method doesn't create any shortcuts; you must create them manually if you want them by creating a soft link to the PoP.exe executable on the Linux desktop.

How to run Publish or Perish

To run Publish or Perish, double-click on the PoP.exe executable to start it under Wine. Alternatively, open a console window, change to the directory containing the program, then type wine PoP.exe. The console method allows you to observe Wine's diagnostic message in the console, which might be helpful in case of problems. We have also found that running Wine in this way is more reliable than running it through the double-click association.

Known issues

The general operation of Publish or Perish under Wine is identical to the standard Windows usage. However, in our testing we have observed the following issues:

Installer does not display license agreement: The installer shows an empty License agreement page; this appears to be due to a problem with the RichEdit control under Wine.
Shortcuts created by the installer do not show up on the Linux desktop: You must create them manually if you want them by creating a soft link to the PoP.exe executable on the Linux desktop.
Help file does not display: Support for HtmlHelp under Wine appears to be incomplete. As a result, the Publish or Perish help file may not open at all, or may only show blank pages. You can either use the CHM Viewer that is included with many Linux distributions, or you can use the online version of the Publish or Perish help file.
Check for updates does not work: The update check command seems to work only when PoP.exe is started from a console window, as in wine PoP.exe.
Check for updates always reports "up to date": The update check command relies on Windows installation information; if you manually installed Publish or Perish, this information is not available.
Impact summary columns not aligned: Because Wine uses a slightly different font than native Windows, the alignment of the columns in the Impact summary text field is slightly off.