Wine, the project that lets Linux users run Windows apps within Linux, has released a major update that fixes a number of bugs and includes 64-bit support.

Wine 1.2 includes a new set of icons, a number of fixes for video rendering improving Windows gaming and better font anti-aliasing and handling of desktop link files.

Wine has always been a controversial app in the Linux community with purists claiming Wine is exactly what Linux doesnt need a Windows crutch that just undermines claims that Linux can do anything Windows can do. Rather than relying on Wine, the argument goes, Linux users should concentrate on improving the Linux apps that cover the same territory.

While theres some merit to that argument, there are also some Windows apps that simply dont have any Linux equivalent. If you need such an app, Wine might be able to spare you the pain of dual booting, but its getting increasingly difficult to find Windows apps that lack a Linux counterpart.

Testing Wine, it was quickly apparent that while Wines range of supported Windows apps has been improved there is considerably less need for Wine now than when it first appeared on the scene years ago.

Mixed fortunes for Photoshop CS users in Wine

One of the more popular apps to run under Wine is Adobes Photoshop image editor. I was able to install and run Photoshop CS2 without any issues and the performance was perfectly acceptable. Photoshops secondary apps like Adobe Bridge and ImageReady did not fare so well. Bridge would open, but then crash thanks to an error. ImageReady would not even open.

But given that Photoshop CS2 is over five years old, and looking a bit long in the tooth at this point, its probably not high on the list of things Linux users are missing. In fact, Photoshop CS2 has little that you won't find in native Linux apps like GIMP or Inkscape.

The current version of Photoshop is CS5 and it does have a few things that GIMP doesnt, but CS5 wont install under Wine even CS3 is a lost cause. If you really need the latest and greatest from Adobe, the truth is you're better off dual booting Windows.
 

Running MS Office

Another popular use for Wine is running Microsofts Office suite and Wine 1.2 delivers a number of bug fixes specifically targeting Office 2007. In my testing, Office was stable and plenty quick, but again OpenOffice covers this ground quite nicely and will even apparently be getting the Microsoft-style "Ribbon" interface in an upcoming update.

If youve been hoping for iTunes to run under Wine 1.2 to manage an iPhone or iPod Touch for example Ive got bad news for you. I was able to install the latest iTunes (version 9.2), but it never successfully launched. One Ubuntu user claims that 9.0.2 will boot under Wine, though nothing works aside from the streaming radio option.

Microsofts Office stable in Wine

The real appeal of Wine at this point is games. Of Wines top-ten Platinum rated apps applications that run without issue seven are games. Throw in the top ten Gold apps apps that run fine after some special configuration and 17 of the top 20 are Wine apps are games.

With that in mind Linux gamers will be happy to hear that the latest version of Wine runs titles like Call of Duty and Counter Strike without issue.

Of course how well games run under Wine will vary widely according to your graphics card and other hardware, but judging by the most recent user reports, many popular Windows titles are perfectly usable under Wine.