Wine 9.0 released with major enhancements -- a milestone release for running Windows software on Linux and macOS
The Wine team has announced a significant milestone with the release of Wine 9.0, a major update enriching the Linux experience. This latest version encapsulates a year of dedicated development, featuring over 7,000 changes. Wine 9.0 is distinguished by its introduction of the new WoW64 architecture and the experimental Wayland driver, making it a landmark release for users seeking to run Windows applications on Unix-based systems.
The new WoW64 (Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit) architecture in Wine 9.0 is a highlight of this release, marking the completion of a multi-year effort to convert modules to PE format. This significant development creates a clear boundary between Windows and Unix systems. In a notable shift from the older version, the new WoW64 mode enables the running of 32-bit Windows applications on purely 64-bit Unix installations. This is particularly beneficial for macOS users, where recent versions have dropped support for 32-bit processes.