Bottles
Bottles — run Windows software on Linux with a
clean GUI. Current major: 66; a Rust rewrite (“Bottles Next”,
client-server) is in the works, funded by an NLnet 2025 grant.
What it says
Bottles abstracts Wine configuration into “bottles” — managed
environments (Wine prefixes) with per-bottle runner versions (Wine,
Proton, DXVK), one-click dependencies (.NET, Visual C++, fonts),
snapshots/versioned state, integrated community installers (Epic,
Battle.net, Adobe…), WineBridge (run Windows APIs from scripts), and
EagleBeta (analyzes an .exe and suggests a configuration). Flatpak is the
recommended sandboxed package.
The headline: UMU is now part of Bottles (v66)
Run Proton games outside Steam, directly from the Bottles Library.
Bottles manages the prefix, the runner and per-game config; UMU
provides the same runtime environment Proton expects (the Steam Linux
Runtime). This is the big architectural change — previously Proton was
effectively Steam-only territory for Bottles.
How the stack relates
Wine — Win32 API → POSIX translation layer (the base)
└─ Proton — Valve's Wine-based stack (+DXVK, VKD3D-Proton), Steam-integrated
└─ UMU — runs Proton outside Steam, standardized + protonfixes
└─ Bottles — GUI managing prefixes/runners, now driving UMU
Alternatives in the same space: Lutris, Heroic Games Launcher, Rare — all
can also drive UMU.