Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix.
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.
Binary Compatibility
* Loads Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP, Windows 3.x and DOS programs and libraries
* Win32 compatible memory layout, exception handling, threads and processes
* Designed for POSIX compatible operatings systems (eg. Linux and FreeBSD)
* "bug-for-bug" compatibility with Windows
Graphics
* X11-based graphics allows remote display to any X terminal
* X11, TrueType (.ttf/.ttc) and Windows Bitmap (.fon) Fonts
* DirectX support for games (limited Direct3D support)
* Support for OpenGL based games and applications
* Printing via PostScript driver or legacy native Win16 printer drivers
* Enhanced Metafile (EMF) and Windows Metafile (WMF) driver
* Desktop-in-a-box or mixable windows
* Windows MultiMedia (WinMM) layer support with builtin codecs
Allows Windows program to interface with:
* Sound devices via ALSA, OSS, ARTS, JACK, and libaudio etc
* Multi-lingual keyboards and CJK input method support via XIM
* Modems, serial devices
* Networks (TCP/IP and IPX)
* ASPI Scanners
* Windows Tablets via XInput (eg. Wacom)
Wine API
* Designed for source and binary compatibility with Win32 code
* Win32 API test suite to ensure compatibility
* Compilable on a wide range of C compilers
* Permits mixing of Win32 and POSIX code
* Permits mixing of ELF (.so) and PE (.dll/.exe) binaries in one address space
* Win32 compatible header files
* Automatically generated API documentation
* Resource compiler
* Message compiler
* IDL compiler
* Extensive Unicode support
* Internationalization -- Wine supports 16 languages
* Built-in debugger and configurable trace messages
* External memory checker support using Valgrind
Wine HQ - Wine Binary Downloads