3 Program Compatibility

Contents of this section

3.1 When will Wine be ready for general distribution? Which MS Windows programs does wine currently run?

Since Wine is still under development, programs may break and then run again from release to release, so it is difficult to publish a complete and accurate list. However, I'll list some of the more stable successes here from now on.

Most of the aplets distributed with MS Windows now run to varying degrees of success. For instance, Solitaire (SOL.EXE) runs just fine now, including menu selections, as long as you don't try to access the help menu. Windows colors can vary from system to system, depending on your video card and monitor, but it's been reported that colors are generally darker under X and Wine than under native DOS/MS Windows.

A number of public domain and shareware games programs found on the ftp site ftp.cica.indiana.edu can run under Wine, with varying degrees of success.

To date, there have been no reports of successful runs of major MS Windows programs such as Word, WordPerfect, Paradox, and the like. Quicken has been reported to work from time to time under Wine.

Keep an eye on the newsgroup comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine for up-to-date reports of successes.

3.2 Which MS Windows programs do you expect Wine never to be able to run at all, and for what reason(s)?

Any MS Windows program that requires a special enhanced mode device driver (VxD) that cannot be rewritten specifically for Wine, will not run under Wine.

3.3 Will MS Windows programs typically run faster or slower under Unix and Wine than they do under MS-DOS and MS Windows? Will certain kinds of programs run slower or faster? Programs should typically run at about the same speed under Wine as theydo under MS Windows.

3.4 Are there any advantages or disadvantages to running MS Windows applications under wine that I should be aware of?

As with OS/2, you will be running 16-bit MS Windows applications in a 32-bit operating system using emulation techniques, so you will have similar advantages and disadvantages.

There will be crash protection. That is, each MS Windows application running under Wine will be running in its own X window and its own portion of reserved memory, so that if one MS Windows application crashes, it will not crash the other MS Windows or Unix applications that you may have running at the same time.

Also, MS Windows programs should run at about the same speed under Wine as they do under MS Windows. When Wine is finished, you will be able to run your favorite MS Windows applications in a Unix environment.

However, be aware that any application written for a 16-bit operating system will run much less efficiently than its 32-bit cousin, so if you find a 32-bit application that fits your needs, you will be much better off switching.

3.5 Will Wine support MS Windows networked applications that use WINSOCK.DLL?

Yes, Wine will support such applications. You will be able to run MS Windows applications such as Netscape and Mosaic (though there are 32-bit native Unix versions of these available now).

3.6 Will Wine support MS Windows networked applications I'm a software developer who wants to use Unix to develop programs rather than MS-DOS, but I need to write MS-DOS and MS Windows programs as well. Will I be able to run my favorite MS-DOS and/orMS Windows compilers under Wine?

Linux users report that DOSEMU, the MS-DOS emulator for Linux, is starting to support DPMI (DOS Protected Mode Interface). This means that folks can run MS Windows in standard mode under DOSEMU, and can also run (with varied degrees of success) Microsoft and Borland C++ compilers.

However, at last report, Wine cannot run these compilers, nor is it able to run any MS Windows debuggers, and may not be able to for some time.

Keep in mind that Wine is being designed to run existing MS Windows applications. Be aware too that a custom MS Windows program specifically written to be compatible with Wine may not work the same as when it is run under MS-DOS and MS Windows.

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