# Bottles

13 Hacker News commenters recommended Bottles and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free Linux app that makes running Windows programs with Wine simple, with an intuitive interface. Common caveat: some programs misbehave and use a lot of RAM.

## Why people recommend it

- Easy to run Windows apps (3 comments): "relatively easy to run (most) Windows apps they love through Bottles" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45851683)) "the bottles did make some Adobe products easier to use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45934218)) "had more success with the Bottles flatpak instead" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46243091))
- Clear Wine management interface (2 comments): "it's a straightforward way to run apps with Wine with an intuitive and pretty interface" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45896971)) "an amazing Wine managing software called Bottle" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45913416))
- Good, free quality software (2 comments): "At least Bottles is really good and not just slop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49687273)) "Most of the stuff I use is free and excellent." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49218324))

## What people warn about

- Trouble with programs and UI (2 comments): "programs misbehave cause it to eat up all my ram when using bottles for instance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673700)) "i always have trouble with Bottles. And not just the slightly bad UI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49693462))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [CrossOver by CodeWeavers](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crossover.md): 51 recommend
- [Sikarugir](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sikarugir.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Bottles", https://hackerapproved.com/p/bottles/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).