Graham searches for the best new free software
Wine 2.1
There have been a couple of major updates to this incredible project recently. The first was the milestone 2.0 release, finally, after 23 years of development, quickly followed by the 2.1 release. The second is that Wine is no longer a recursive acronym for Wine is Not an Emulator. There's no further clue as to whether it's still an acronym at all. Wine is now just Wine. However, Wine attempts to do the same job it's been trying for decades – allowing you to run Windows and DOS software on your Linux box without a Windows or DOS installation or license. The supreme effort in reverse engineering those APIs and re-implementing them as open source equivalents deserves a lot of credit, and I'm incredibly grateful to the developers for keeping this project going. However, as many of us know, getting Windows applications to run on Wine is often hit and miss, and often complicated by playing with lots of different configuration options.
This release has far too many new features to list. It finally supports GStreamer 1.0. DirectX 3D 11 is getting very close to being usable. Shader Models 4 and 5 work. There's a new clipboard. Microsoft Office 2013 works, and more than 6,600 individual changes have been rolled into the codebase. You still won't find support for the latest games, but I've found most games from three-four years ago can be made to work, although this is negated somewhat by the GPU pass-through mode of some virtual machines, which is a better option if you have a Windows license. But for those many small utilities, often that accompany hardware, or for the many niche tools and applications that have never been ported to Linux, Wine is worth a try and can often work if you're not too ambitious. And, you don't have to opt out of all the Windows 10 spyware.
Project Website

Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
News
-
KaOS 2022.06 Now Available With KDE Plasma 5.25
The newest iteration of KaOS Linux not only adds the latest KDE Plasma desktop but sets LibreOffice as the default.
-
Manjaro 21.3.0 Is Now Available
Manjaro “Ruah” has been released and includes the latest Calamares installer, GNOME 42, and much more.
-
SpiralLinux is a New Linux Distribution Focused on Simplicity
A new Linux distribution, from the creator of GeckoLinux, is a Debian-based operating system with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.
-
HP Dev One Linux Laptop is Now Available for Pre-Order
The System76/HP collaboration Dev One laptop, geared toward developers, is now available for pre-order.
-
NixOS 22.5 Is Now Available
The latest release of NixOS with a much-improved package manager and a user-friendly graphical installer.
-
System76 Teams up with HP to Create the Dev One Laptop
HP and System76 have come together to develop a new laptop, powered by Pop!_OS and aimed toward developers.
-
Titan Linux is a New KDE Linux Based on Debian Stable
Titan Linux is a new Debian-based Linux distribution that features the KDE Plasma desktop with a focus on usability and performance.
-
Danielle Foré Has an Update for elementary OS 7
Now that Ubuntu 22.04 has been released, the team behind elementary OS is preparing for the upcoming 7.0 release.
-
Linux New Media Launches Open Source JobHub
New job website focuses on connecting technical and non-technical professionals with organizations in open source.
-
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 Now Available
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 has been released with all the additions from upstream as well as other features and improvements.