What is Wine?

[rocket2143]

I've downloaded this program, because my neighbour told me it was useful. What exactly is it?

[santiagoward2000]

Originally Posted by rocket2143 I've downloaded this program, because my neighbour told me it was useful. What exactly is it?

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of unmodified grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they ferment completely without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients

Now, seriously, quoting from http://www.winehq.org/

Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. Wine provides both a development toolkit for porting Windows source code to Unix as well as a program loader, allowing many unmodified Windows programs to run on x86-based Unixes, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.

[argraff]

Wine lets you run *some* Windows applications. I find it a little hard to work with, so I installed Wine-Doors to make it simpler. I hear Code Weavers (costs $40) works well too.

My question: is there a Wine to run Mac applications on Linux? I'm a web developer and I'd like to test on Mac Safari (I know it runs on Win, but it's not the same). I would think that if I was a former Mac user with all these licenses, I'd be annoyed that I couldn't run them on Linux.

If such a thing doesn't exist, I suggest that a future one be called RUM (Runs Under Mac).