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If there’s a Windows program stopping you switching to Linux, or stopping you doing so full time, now is the time to see if it works with Wine. No, we’re not advocating drowning your sorrows or drinking on the job (uh oh–Ed). We’re here to tell you about the powerful Wine application, which translates Windows function calls to Linux ones, thus enabling your Windows programs (be they serious tools or relaxing games) to run on our favourite operating system. That’s the theory, anyway. In practice ,things may need some tweaking. Or they may not work at all; Wine can’t work miracles yet.
Be that as it may, there is a brand new release to try: Wine 9.0. It may be the solution to all your problems. If you’ve never touched Wine before, we’ll show you everything you need to get started. And if you’re a seasoned user, we’re here to show you everything that’s new – including Wayland support and the improved Vulkan renderer. We’ve also got some tips for when things don’t work, so you don’t hit the bottle.
For gamers, we’ll show you how to use Proton – the Wine fork from Valve Software used in its Steam platform and on its Steam Deck. Valve has gone to great lengths to ensure popular titles work with Proton. So, if your favourite game doesn’t work with Wine proper, there’s a good chance Proton can sort it.
A fine bouquet
Readers (and writers) may be no strangers to one form or another of Wine, but for this outing, we’re talking about the fantastic bit of software that lets an awful lot of Windows software run hassle-free on Linux. To avoid disappointment, we’ll let you know right now that this magic doesn’t extend to running the newest editions of Microsoft Office (the one from 2010 reportedly works) or the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, although the commercial CrossOver Office from Codeweavers (www.codeweavers.com) does work. Profits from CrossOver Office directly fund open source Wine development.
Wine 9.0 was released in January 2024. So, for the first time ever, the major version number rhymes with the project title. And we’re here to show you what’s new and how to run this hitherto hapax legomenon of a release [when Wine 29 comes out, I’m going to come back to these parentheses and point out that your terminology is wrong – ed]. That quark of Greek being awkwardly shoehorned into place, we should also note that at the time of writing, the development release 9.3 is also available. Folks who want to live on that bleeding edge will be catered for in a moment. We’re already getting ahead of ourselves.
Drinking games