“Was there ever a piece of alpha code quite as indispensable as
Wine? For those who don’t already know Wine allows you to run
Windows applications on a Linux system. In technical terms it’s an
open source implementation of the Windows API (application
programmer interface) that runs on top of X. It was originally
designed to work with Linux, but is available for other versions of
Unix.”
“Wine has been around since 1993 when it was first developed as
way of running Windows 3.1 programs on Linux. Since then it has
expanded to deal with 32-bit Windows, that is Windows 95 and 98
applications. There’s also a development toolkit that allows
Windows programmers to port their software to Linux….”
“As you’ve probably guessed, I’ve recently developed something
of a taste for Wine and, quite possibly, have overindulged.
Hopefully there’s not going to be any awful hangovers in the
morning. So far my machine seems to wake up clear-headed each
day.”
“I first tried Wine many months ago, but not having a lot of
time for tinkering, I simply put it to one side. Then, in a
recent column I listed a number of Windows applications that I’d
like to see ported to Linux. Some readers responded saying that
thanks to Wine, a native version of, say, Quicken, wasn’t
necessary.“
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.
Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.