In preparation for the first stable version, the WINE project has now frozen the current state of development ("Code Freeze").

As of now, developers will be focusing on fixing bugs. The first WINE Release Candidate is scheduled for May 9, with a second RC to follow May 23.The release date for the first, stable version 1.0 has not been decided on yet, but the developers are aiming for June.

Right now, the bug database still has 38 open, known bugs which need to be fixed by the release candidates. The WINE developers have already hinted that some issues may live on into successive versions.

WINE gives users the ability to run Windows programs on Linux. In contrast to emulators, it provides the functionality of the Windows API; that is it acts as a runtime environment between the application and the operating system. This not only means that programs run faster, windows in Windows applications are peers with their native Linux counterparts. As this is extremely complex and due to the fact that Microsoft is not prepared to help, WINE has taken almost 15 years to approach the first stable version.

The release criterion defined by the developers was trouble-free support for four critical applications: Photoshop CS2 ("Tryout Version"), Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer, Word Viewer and Excel Viewer versions 97 and 2003. The stable version will not be released until all four work correctly. Despite all this, the application database on the WINE homepage already lists over 1000 supported programs, most of them legacy tools, whereas current heavyweights, such as Photoshop CS3, are not covered.

In preparation for the first stable version, the WINE project has now frozen the current state of development ("Code Freeze").