Wine 2.0 open-source compatibility layer now available

The team behind Wine has announced the release of Wine 2.0. As a refresher, Wine is an open-source compatibility layer that allows Windows programs to run on Mac OS X and Linux machines. The update comes with a slew of new features and support for more Windows applications, including Microsoft Office 2013.

Most of the updates improve stability for the layer and focus on behind-the-scenes tweaks and changes, but there are some notable additions. As mentioned, Microsoft Office 2013 is now supported, and the ability to run 64-bits on Mac OS X has been added. The new version of Wine also includes support for OS X graphics drivers, which will improve the appearance of Windows apps on Macs with high-resolution Retina displays. More graphics cards are now supported, as well as improved support for Direct3D 11.

Wine 2.0 also brings DirectWrite RichEdit support to improve fonts and text formatting. The layer also now supports less common display resolutions like 640x400 and 1280x960.

We saw some of these features in CrossOver, a commercial product build upon Wine, last December. It’s exciting to see the open-source Wine Project following suit and starting a more regimented release schedule. Wine 2.0 is the first in what the development team hopes to be an annual release schedule. Features that didn’t make it into 2.0 include Direct3D command stream, Android graphics drivers, and others. These features should be included in next year's release.

Release notes and a summary of added features can be found on the WineHQ announcement page here.

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