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No matter how simple the underlying principle of Wine might seem, the details are often tricky. Many settings must be configured individually for every program, and checking these settings can be difficult and time consuming. The mere attempt to install a Windows program may involve hours of searching on the Internet, as well as a fair smattering of trial and error, until you finally have the application running. And there is no guarantee you will be successful. Only a third of all Windows programs can be talked into running on Linux. I took over Frank Hendriksen’s orphaned WineTools project over a year ago, and since then I have worked on extending WineTools to provide an installer for Windows programs in Linux. So far, I have mainly concentrated on the big gun Office and graphics applications, that is, Microsoft Office and the Office viewers, Internet Explorer, Adobe Photoshop, and Illustrator. A large number of shareware, freeware, and Open Source programs have been added in the meantime. If alternatives on Linux exist, these alternatives are described along with their Windows equivalents.

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