Section 9.5. Windows Compatibility

The Wine project is a technology that allows running many Windows applications directly on Linux. It is covered in detail in Chapter 28. Some commercial multimedia applications run under Wine.

The commercial version of Wine from CodeWeavers called CrossOver supports a number of multimedia applications, including Adobe Photoshop, Apple iTunes, the Windows Media Player, and web browser plug-ins for QuickTime, Flash, and ShockWave.

TransGaming Technologies offers Cedega, which is optimized for running Windows games that require DirectX support. It is based on an alternate version of Wine known as ReWind, that has less restrictive licensing terms than Wine.

Some multimedia applications, such as MPlayer, can leverage Wine technology to directly load some Windows DLLs, providing support for proprietary codecs.