Winlink on Ubuntu Linux 20.04

Yes, it is possible to run Winlink Express on Ubuntu Linux and I have gotten it to work. Some would ask, “Why do you want to run WInlink Express on Linux? There are native Linux clients for the Winlink system.” That is correct, there are. I have tried a couple of them. I had success with a command-line client and it reminded me of the old command-line email on BBS systems years ago. However, if you are going to do any emergency comms, the templates that are a part of Winlink Express are a necessity.

If you do a search on running Winlink Express on Linux you will find a plethora of pages and wikis to help you. I tried a few and then finally started filtering my searches for results created within the last year. This is where I found success. I’m not going to recreate the instructions here. Instead I will link to the blog I used and it worked great with no problem. Not every Linux system is alike and what worked for me may not work for you. Here is what I am running.

• Asus Laptop with an Intel® Core™ i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz × 4
• 12 GB of RAM
• Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS 64-bit
• Gnome 3.36
• Wine 5.0
• dotnet 3.5 SP1

As you can see, that is Winlink Express 1.5.34.0 running on Ubuntu using Wine 5.0. How did I do it? I followed the instructions found at http://k6eta.com/linux/installing-rms-express-on-linux-with-wine

If you find this and it helps you, let me know. I’d love to hear about your Linux adventure.