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Wine 1.2 Released
David Gerard writes "Stuck with that one Windows app you can't get rid of? Rejoice — Wine 1.2 is officially released! Apart from running pretty much any Windows application on Unix better than 1.0 (from 2008), major new features include 64-bit support, bi-directional text, and translation into thirty languages. And, of course, DirectX 9 is well-supported and DirectX 10 is getting better. Packages should hit the distros over the weekend, or you can get the source now."
Long ago when I first switched to Linux I made the decision that I would not run a dual boot environment and would instead use Wine to run my apps I NEEDED from Windows on my Linux machine.
Fast forward six months from that switch, I removed the NEEDED applications because I found better ones (hello GnuCash) and haven't used a Windows application or required Wine since then, that was almost 3 or 4 years ago now when I fully switched my desktop to Linux.
The summary doesn't say it runs "pretty much any Windows application", it says it runs "pretty much any Windows application better than Wine 1.0".
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I've used Wine for a long time. I've modified its source-code several times to make my apps run and I'm usually around the winehq.org forums. .NET crap, which is ruining the industry for everyone. The only issues I found Wine to have were related to sound. Progressively, I fixed those and got the best out of my Wine installations. Heck, when I cross-compile, I always test my apps in Wine and verify that they are 1:1 with Windows. I constantly run different games in Wine and sometimes with better performance than my windows peers.
I can say with a high degree of confidence that it runs most applications flawlessly. Of course, you need to remove many of the new
Occasionally, you'll have to bring out the nerd in you and do some hacking to get games to work. For instance, it was a long process for me to get Red Alert 3 to work online and via LAN. The forums helped me a lot. It was also difficult to get Age Of Empires III to run, but I did it.
I am only sorry that so many people end up bashing Wine. If they'd waste part of that time in contributing to the community, submitting patches, helping out in forums and irc, or simply stopping complaining, I think we'd be better.
Have you heard about SoylentNews?
...or a Linux user. DOSEMU+FreeDOS is awesome for old apps (games still run better in DOSBox, though).
I do half my work using 1980s DTP software (Ventura GEM). Runs in XP fine full screen in glorious VGA resolution. Prints to Postscript which my HP laser can print as-is; and I can convert to to PDF if I need to exchange files with anyone.
Old software doesn't wear out; it just gets faster as hardware gets exponentially more powerful.
But I will look at running it under Wine, probably a safer bet in the long term than hoping Microsoft doesn't break it.