Wine (AKA: WineHQ, originally short for "Wine Is Not an Emulator", another bad name for software) is a free and open-source tool designed for running more and more Windows apps on multiple Unix-like (i.e.: POSIX-compliant) operating systems by calling DLL (like Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Mac OS X). It's first launched by Bob Amstadt in 1993.
In fact, Wine is really different from the common virtual machine or simulator, as its name says. That's to say it won't simulate the internal logic of Windows like them, but translates the Windows API calls into dynamic POSIX calls, so as to exempt the memory occupation of performance and other behaviors. Finally, it lets you refreshingly integrate the popular Windows applications to your Unix-like OS's desktop.
So, if your hardware configuration is not high enough to run a virtual machine but still want to run some common Windows programs under Linux/Mac OS X, then Wine will be the necessary tool for you! Again, in the wake of Windows API and applications' continuous evolvement adapting to new hardware and software, Wine has been developing to support new features and ported to more other operating systems, becoming more stable and providing with better user experience.
Related Links
- Wine Application Database (AppDB) - get information on application compatibility with Wine
Download URLs
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