Wine 1.2 : support for 64-bit applications

The implementation of Windows API’s in Wine version 1.2 means that 64-bit applications are now supported.

Wine, for Wine Is Not an Emulator, allows you to run certain Windows programs under a UNIX environment. This software allows for inter-platform compatibility so that Windows applications can be run on UNIX machines.

We are not talking about virtualisation which started to become more open with the release of solutions like Oracle’s VirtualBox, as the end user doesn’t need to have a copy of Microsoft’s operating system in their possession.

While the first stable version of Wine was released n June 2008 after 15 years in existence, the final version of 1.2 has now been put online. Its main additional function is that it supports Windows 64-bit applications on x86-64 processors (only on Linux for the moment). Improvements have also been announced like support for Direct3D with the implementation of software libraries related to DirectX 9. An implementation should also be possible soon for DirectX 10.

For more information, you can consult the official release announcement on this page. With CrossOver, CodeWeavers offers a commercial product which uses the open source Wine project as a base.