If you want to run Windows applications on a Linux operating system, you need Wine. Wine creates a virtual environment that translates Windows API calls to POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) and creates a Windows directory structure, providing an alternative implementation of system services.
This doesn’t create virtualization or emulation to create Windows binaries, but to improve performance, the company has made significant improvements to its Portable Executable (PE) conversion, also called Windows Binary Format, with the release of Wine v8.0.
Developers say this will allow running Windows 32-bit applications on 64-bit hosts and support Windows Debuggers, x86 applications on ARM, and more. Additionally, WoW64 (Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit) support has been implemented for all essential Unix libraries. However, it’s not recommended for general users, and to use it, users need to enable it by executing the “–enable-archs” option.
New improvements:
- Many Direct3D optimizations and improvements
- Improved controller hot plug support
- Improved support for steering direction
- A new light theme is enabled in the default configuration.
- Sony DualShock and DualSense controllers are supported when the Hidraw backend is used.
- The Windows Runtime (WinRT) module. Gaming input has been introduced through a programming interface to access games, joysticks, and driving wheels.
- Wine Gecko now has accessibility support.
You can learn more about the Wine 8.0 announcements. The binaries are not yet available for download, but once released, you can install them on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and macOS.