Frequently asked questions…

What is Wine?

The name is an acronym of Wine Is Not an Emulator.

So, if it’s not an emulator, then what is it?

Well, it is a sort of emulator [NO!–Ed] really. Wine is an open source implementation of the Windows Application Programming Interface (API) on top of X and Unix.

Does WINE let me run Windows on Linux?

Not exactly. Wine is a compatibility layer between Windows programs and Linux. When you run a Windows program with Wine, the program thinks it’s running on Windows, but the calls it makes to Windows functions are translated into Linux calls.

Do I need Windows installed to use Wine?

No, but Wine will use Windows DLLs from an existing installation if you have them. If not, it has its own alternatives.

If I have Windows installed already, why would I need Wine?

First, it means you can run a Windows program on Linux without rebooting into Windows and returning to Linux afterwards.

Wine also makes it possible for you to use Windows plugins in Linux programs, such as web browsers and media players. This gives Linux software programs access to formats that are only handled by proprietary Windowsonly codecs.

Emulators can be slow, how fast is Wine?

Wine only emulates the Windows API, not the hardware. This means programs run at similar speeds under Wine as natively on Windows, sometimes even faster. The disadvantage of this is that

Wine can only run on the same hardware as Windows; it’s not a processor emulator.

How is it available?

You can download Wine in a variety of package formats. Packages are also available from most distros’ repos. There are also two commercial variants of Wine. Codeweavers’ CrossOverOffice is set up to run various Windows productivity applications. It also runs InternetExplorer plugins in a number of Linux web browsers, including Firefox and Konqueror. All the hard work of configuration is taken care of for you. There are about fifty supported applications listed on Codeweavers’ website, but many more work with it.

That’s fine for productivity, what about games?

There was a commercial product called Cedega, but was discontinued. The best option for playing Windows games on Linux is plain Wine, although for serious Windows gaming, Windows itself is still the best [NO!–Ed] choice.

Where can I get it?

Wine is in most distros’ package repos. You can get the source and packages for many distros from www.winehq.com. CrossOver Office is available from www. codeweavers.com, including a free trial version.