Quote:
Originally Posted by jamie_2k6
i thought you could juse any windows software on it :| oh well i guess i was wrong dont think ill bother downloading it now
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WINE is not a program per se and it is not a virtualization software and it is not an emulator. It is a set of APIs (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applica...ming_interface) that allow you to run windows software on a different OS, ie Linux, Unix, OS X. Things like Cross over use the same technology as wine, or darwine for OS X.
The problem is, that there is no money thrown into these APIs, so development is slow and buggy and is a drawn out process. Obviously MS fears any kind of major open source software that would make them useless. Some developers will port their software or at least post the source code so it can be configured for WINE, or whatever.
The problem is, that don't expect it to work flawlessly or at all sometimes, because certain functions of the application may not be supported or may be buggy and it will crash. I have seen lots of windows applications try to install and fail and have seen lots install and run, but crash with the typical windows registry errors and what not (these APIs do put a virtual install of windows on your machine so to speak, with a registry and what not). So, its not always the open source communities fault, but then again don't expect a software developer company to fork over its own time and resources to improve its performance in an open source market. It is basically one huge catch 22.