“Currently, Linux is enjoying a huge groundswell of interest
from Microsoft users interested in alternatives to Windows. One of
many challenges for these users is to learn the difference between
the productivity applications they know (Excel, Word, etc) and the
productivity applications on their Linux desktop of choice.
However, since Redmond already has your money for your license
to use their applications, why not continue to use them if you
can?“
“That’s where Wine comes in.”
“Wine, as stated on the WineHQ website “is an implementation of
the Windows 3.x and Win32 APIs on top of X and Unix. Think of Wine
as a Windows compatibility layer. Wine provides both a development
toolkit (Winelib) for porting Windows sources to Unix and a program
loader, allowing unmodified Windows 3.1/95/NT binaries to run under
Intel Unixes. Wine works on most popular Intel Unixes, including
Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris.”