Wine 1.0 is served - cheers!

Wine logo 15 years after it was created and a full two years after version 0.9.9 was released, Wine version 1.0, the free Windows API implementation, has been published. The source code can already be downloaded from the project's web site, and binary packages for a number of Linux distributions are currently being worked on. Photoshop CS2, probably one of the most commonly used Windows programs, is supported.

Wine allows Linux users to run a number of Windows applications. The acronym stands for "Wine is not an emulator" because the software works by providing its own versions of Windows libraries, compiled for the platform in use. The Wine compatibility list tells you whether, and how well, an application works with the "non-emulator".

In addition to Adobe Photoshop CS2, Wine allows you to run a number of Microsoft office applications on your Linux desktop. Wine also allows you to play a number of Windows games, such as World of Warcraft, Counterstrike, Halflife 2 and The Sims.

The project was launched in the 1990s with the 16-bit API for windows 3.1. Alexandre Julliard, the program's main developer, says development took so long because of the large number of Windows versions (whose APIs are poorly documented and often change) and Linux distributions, all of which require a lot of testing, mainly done by volunteers.

Along with this long-awaited milestone for Wine, version 7 of CrossOver for Linux and MacOS X developed by Codeweavers has also been released. The new release of the commercial software, based on Wine, reportedly not only allows you to use Microsoft Office 2007 on Linux and Intel Macs, but also "drastically improves support" for Outlook 2003 and Internet Explorer 6.

(trk)