Wine
Wine makes it possible to run Windows programs
alongside any Unix-like operating system, particularly Linux. At its heart,
Wine is an implementation of the Windows Application Programming Interface
(API) library, acting as a bridge between the Windows program and Linux. Think
of Wine as a compatibility layer, when a Windows program tries to perform a
function that Linux doesn't normally understand, Wine will translate that
program's instruction into one supported by the system. For example, if a program
asks the system to create a Windows pushbutton or text-edit field, Wine will
convert that instruction into its Linux equivalent in the form of a command to
the window manager using the standard X11 protocol.
Wine is often used as a recursive
acronym, standing for "Wine Is Not an Emulator". Sometimes it is also
known to be used for "Windows Emulator" (An emulator duplicates
(provides an emulation of) the functions of one system using a
different system, so that the second system behaves like (and appears to be)
the first system.). In a way, both meanings are correct, only seen from
different perspectives. The first meaning says that Wine is not a virtual
machine, it does not emulate a CPU, and you are not supposed to install Windows
nor any Windows device drivers on top of it; rather, Wine is an implementation
of the Windows API, and can be used as a library to port Windows applications
to UNIX. The second meaning, obviously, is that to Windows binaries (.exe
files), Wine does look like Windows, and emulates its behaviour and quirks
rather closely.
You can download Wine seminar abstract from here.
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