There are many ways in which you could run Windows applications on a Linux operating system. The most simple one is provided by Wine, a program loader based on Windows Application Programing Interface (API) library. Wine plays the role of the compatibility layer between the Windows program and Linux by translating the program instructions unknown by the current operating system. By using Wine, you will get the native performance of the Windows program because it not acts like an emulator which consumes more system resources.

Besides Linux, Wine provides support for other POSIX compatible operating systems, such as Mac OS X, BSD and Solaris, for running various types of programs, primarily designated for Win32 (Win 95/98, NT/2000/XP), Win16 (Win 3.1) and DOS.

Wine can use external vendor .dll files, like the ones included into Windows and allows the recompiling of the source code of a Windows program in order to run natively on Linux.

The latest version of Wine software comes with many new features and bugs fixes. The changes in Wine version 1.1.16 ensures an improved SANE scanner support, digital CD audio playback and a better cookies management in Wininet. In the same time, support for building stand-alone 16-bit modules and correction to the regression tests on Windows were added in this Wine version.

The next list shows Wine’s main features summary:

-X11-based graphics display, allowing remote display to any X terminal, as well as a text mode console
-Desktop-in-a-box or mixable windows
-DirectX support for games
-Good support for various sound drivers including OSS and ALSA
-Support for alternative input devices
-Printing: PostScript interface driver (psdrv) to standard Unix PostScript print services
-Modem, serial device support
-Winsock TCP/IP networking support
-ASPI interface (SCSI) support for scanners, CD writers, and other devices
-Advanced unicode and foreign language support
-Full-featured Wine debugger and configurable trace logging messages for easier troubleshooting

Free Download Wine

Related Articles

• Zune vs. IPod (0)
• Vyatta Community Edition 5.0.2: New Features (0)
• Ultra X Linux: Ubuntu With A Faster Kernel (0)
• Ultimate Tips For Ubuntu Users: Get Ubuntu Pocket Guide For Free (0)
• Ubuntu Linux and Windows Can Share The Desktop In Absence Of Virtual Machines (2)
• Ubuntu Hidden Senses Revealed By gNewSense (0)

This entry was posted on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 5:52 am and is filed under Freeware that rocks, Linux Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.