Wine 1.0: Coming soon to a computer near you

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Linux, Microsoft, Open Source

Wine 1.0: Coming soon to a computer near you

by Ian Dumych Mar 22nd 2008

After nearly 15 years of development, the WINE project is scheduled for the landmark 1.0 release. As with most open source programs, it is hard to sit back and say "ok it's done". The work will always continue, but at some point the program at least accomplishes the original, or in this case, realistic goal. The WINE website now has posted a list of programs that are planned to work properly, constituting the 1.0 release.

This sudden optimism in the WINE developer community probably has something to do with the huge boost that Google gave them recently. WINE will probably never boast full compatibility with every Windows application there is, unless Microsoft decides to help (hey, stranger things have happened).

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Zoli Erdos said 1:49PM on 3-22-2008

But we're already on Wine 2.0 :-)

Zoli Erdos said 1:50PM on 3-22-2008

oops, link missing:
http://www.zoliblog.com/2007/12/24/forget-saas-here-comes-waas/

Steve Portigal said 2:12PM on 3-22-2008

Might be helpful to say what the heck WINE is in your piece?

Michael Rose said 4:10PM on 3-22-2008

Wine= Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's a compatibility layer, a way for Win32API-based programs (ie. Windows XP apps) to run on non-Windows platforms without actually running Windows (as distinct from emulators/virtualizers like Parallels or VMware, which require a Windows license and virtualize the hardware instead of building compatible APIs).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_(software)

Why Wine, and open-source versions of the Win32 stack in general, are important: there are millions of applications comprising billions or trillions of lines of code written to the Win32 API; many are mission-critical, and some of those don't have source available. Eventually Microsoft isn't going to support those APIs anymore, and those applications will be orphaned unless there is a comprehensive, open platform that allows them to run on other systems.

Bufsabre said 4:38PM on 3-26-2008

id venture to say that if youre excited about this article you already know what wine is so you dont really need to state what it is

Angsuman Chakraborty said 3:17AM on 3-23-2008

Yeah, but what makes 1.0 so great?
I was looking to learn about some new features etc.

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