KB00081 - Running Stickies under Linux

Can Stickies run in Linux?

Well of course it can't run natively under Linux as it's a Windows application, but that doesn't mean you can't use Wine to get it working.

However, there are a number of tweaks which are needed to the Wine environment in order for Stickies to work well. These have been documented at the Stickies page on the Wine by Quinn.

In addition to this, there are a number of differences between the native Windows API, and the one provided by Wine, meaning that the release version of Stickies has some issues. One of these is the sticky list background colour in the Manage dialog, and the other is the functionality of the "Set Title" dialog, and the text showing in that list in the Manage dialog.

Wine build of Stickies

A more Wine-friendly version of Stickies 7.1d (500k) can be downloaded which addresses these issues. In order to solve the problems with title display in Manage and the "Set Title" dialog, some reduction in the functionality is needed - there is less support for Unicode in this build. The Windows message EM_SETTEXTEX doesn't seem to be handled correctly by Wine - the message returns a failure every time it's used, and as it's used in part of the way Unicode is handled within Stickies, that's why the functionality has been bypassed in this build.

Python alternative

If you don't like Wine, but want to join in with other Stickies users, Bitbucket user ellethee has written some python code to help you. In his own words, he describes EtePyStickies as

"a silly program that permits you to receive and send Zhorn Software Stickies through the LAN using linux"

Find the documentation and code at the EtePyStickies bitbucket page.