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| It is easiest to run Windows applications on Linux |
Wine and Wine, the open source compatibility layer between Linux and Windows projects, has released the Wine 6.0 stable release, which is larger than the previous stable release released in mid-2020.
This update is the culmination of a year of development work and contains more than 8,300 individual changes, and 900 more changes than the last version released in July 2020.
The Wine project is dedicated to running Windows apps and games on Linux systems similar to Linux and macOS.
Unlike running virtual machines or emulators, Wine focuses on Windows API calls and turns them into calls to the POSIX mobile operating system interface.
Wine has been an interesting place in Microsoft's history and has opposed it in the past, but recently saw it as an example of the importance of open APIs.
Microsoft claimed to have created a compatibility layer called Windows Subsystem for Linux by re-implementing part of the Linux API architecture to allow Linux programs to run on Windows, and by creating a reverse project for the Wine project in Windows. 10.
Key features of this release include base modules in PE format (NTDLL, KERNEL32, GDI32, USER32), DirectShow and Media Foundation support and text console redesign.
Direct3D graphics improvements include WineD3D's experimental Vulkan renderer, which replaces Microsoft Direct3D - with better shadow support, and the Vulkan driver supports up to version 1.2.162 of the Vulkan specification.
This release supports many Direct3D 11 functions and provides a new mechanism for linking Unix libraries to PE modules that allows PE to call Unix libraries for functions that Win32 APIs cannot handle.
Hardware input interface, basic USB kernel driver and mouse position recording for games and notifications via Plug and Play devices have also been improved.
Wine 6.0 contains many improvements to the Windows NT kernel, including better anti-cheat support for games loaded with kernel drivers and better network support for copy protection drivers.
The project added early support for ARM64 architecture on macOS, which is based on the Mac M1, and removed support for PowerPC architecture.