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How to run Windows apps for free with Wine on OS X

by Aron Trimble Jan 6th 2010 at 5:00PM

There are many options for running Windows programs on the Mac. Boot Camp, for instance, is included with OS X for installing Windows on a separate partition. Parallels, VMware, and Sun offer virtualization software that let you run your Windows programs without logging out of OS X. And then there's Wine.

Wine is an Open Source application layer that runs within the Mac operating system rather than as a stand-alone, sandboxed operating system. The thing that all of these options, except Wine, have in common though is that they legally require you to actually run Windows and therefore own a Windows license. Wine, however, implements the Windows API allowing you to run Windows applications without actually running Windows.

David Baumgold has put together an excellent tutorial for setting up and using Wine on your Mac. The tutorial does a good job covering the pre-requisites, the actual installation, and then what to do with Wine once you have it installed. It should be noted that the installation of Wine is rather technical and should not be attempted by those unfamiliar with Terminal.app.

Once you get Wine up and running, you can install a myriad of different Windows applications from games to productivity apps (Office, anyone?). If you're curious about a particular program's compatibility with Wine, you can check out the AppDB for a list of applications and any issues present when running with Wine.

If you're interested in the technical benefits of Wine, you can also check out the excellent application Crossover, which is an easy-to-use port of Wine (pun intended) that makes it dead simple to get up and running with Wine.


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There are many options for running Windows programs on the Mac. Boot Camp, for instance, is included with OS X for installing Windows on a...
 

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Jon Parshall

Thanks very much for the multiple mentions of CrossOver--we very much appreciate it!

Best Wishes,

-jon parshall-
COO
www.codeweavers.com
"Your Mac/Windows Solution"

January 19 2010 at 2:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Lucas Coberly

I got my WINE at winehq.org, and I didn't need to compile anything! I just got X11 off my disc and started up WINE. Simple point and click install.

January 06 2010 at 9:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Freak Mojo

I'm trying Crossover to take my real estate classes online (it requires IE6 and Flash 5.5). The problem is that it never gets past the loading screen. So the theory is good, but the practical use is still limited.

On the flip side, I decided to try Boot Camp but for some reason, my Windows install doesn't see the BOOTCAMP partition that I created through the Boot Camp Assistant.

Good times :)

January 06 2010 at 7:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jaden10

What the article doesn't mention, is that not all applications run great, or at all, with Wine or Crossover. Nevertheless, I think it is a great software!

January 06 2010 at 6:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wynn

Does anyone know a "supersearch" service for mac like in newsleecher?

January 06 2010 at 6:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to wynn's comment
David

Good timing: I have been using the latest beta of Newsleecher under Crossover office. Everything works great - except for SuperSearch :(

Just this afternoon, panic.com release Unison version 2, which adds a ton of new features, including built-in par/rar and search engine. Sort of. They basically made the program able to access the various binary search websites from within the program and download from there. It's not quite as slick as NL, but from the little I've tried it, it looks like it will do nicely!

January 06 2010 at 10:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wynn

How does wine compare in app performance on an intel mac compared to running it natively in bootcamp/vmware?

I would very much like to drop bootcamp for simple windows app tasks if the app performance decrease isnt significant...

January 06 2010 at 6:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to wynn's comment
Janichsan

Bootcamp shows of course better performance, since it's as native as it gets: there's no compatibility layer whatsoever involved.

Whether VMware (or Parallels) or Wine (or CrossOver) are faster depends a bit on the program: most office applications should run as fast as under native Windows. On behalf of games or other graphically intense applications (e.g. CAD) your mileage may vary. Some run very well and fast, others not that well. The advantage of Wine/CrossOver over VMware/Parallels is in any way that you don't have that huge overhead of a whole second operating system running in the background, so when you tend to switch between Mac applications and Windows applications, you'll probably have the better experience with Wine/CrossOver.

January 07 2010 at 7:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sebastian

Are Windows apps running on Wine susceptible to viruses and malware?

January 06 2010 at 6:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Sebastian's comment
Eric

Windows programs themselves aren't infected, it's the operating system. Since you don't actually run Windows with Wine, there's no risk.

January 06 2010 at 6:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
accolon

Or try Mike Kronenberg's build of Wine:
http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/

It contains a GUI and doesn't require any compiling (which can take ages).

January 06 2010 at 5:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to accolon's comment
Sam

+1 for this. Mike has done a fantastic job and its easily the best free solution that I've tried.

January 06 2010 at 5:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jen

Sam, over on Engadget, you said: 'I put a pet collar on my roomba that disables the motion sensors' - - - please tell me about that. How/where can I get a collar for my cat that will disable my motion sensor? The cat keeps setting it off. Thanks.

January 06 2010 at 6:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

Crossover is great! I just switched to Mac from WinXP but needed some Windows programs (Quicken 2009, IE7 to access some Exchange server email, and Newsleecher). I can run these all almost seamlessly without running Windows/Parallels/Bootcamp, etc.

January 06 2010 at 5:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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