17 June 2008 was an historic day for Wine: it has taken 15 years, but finally Wine 1.0 has been released.  It’s the first stable release and hopefully not the last (contrary to The Register’s opinion, it still has a use) as it does indeed serve a purpose for Linux/UNIX who need to use Windows-based applications which are not available for their chosen Operating System.

So, what is Wine other than a drink?  Well, Wine stands for “Wine is not an emulator” and it is an implementation of the Windows API for Linux/UNIX (in conjunction with X Windows).  So, this allows Internet Explorer 6, for example, to be run in Linux.  This is very useful when developing websites and is one of my main uses of Wine.

Of course, it also allows Windows games to be run in Linux and their is a (paid) version of Wine developed by Transgaming, called Cedega, which is specifically developed for gaming compatibility.  There is also the possibility to vote on which games the company will work on compatibility with next.  For gamers wanting to switch to Linux this is a worthwhile investment in order to be able to play Windows-based games.