Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. Wine provides both a development toolkit for porting Windows source code to Unix as well as a program loader, allowing many unmodified Windows programs to run on x86-based Unixes, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.
Wine benefits
Last but not least, Wine can provide benefits over Windows right now:

* Wine makes it possible to take advantage of all the Unix strong points (stability, flexibility, remote administration) while still using the Windows applications you depend on.
* Unix has always made it possible to write powerful scripts. Wine makes it possible to call Windows applications from scripts that can also leverage the Unix environment to its full extent.
* Wine makes it possible to access Windows applications remotely, even if they are a few thousand miles away.
* Wine makes it economical to use thin clients: simply install Wine on a Linux server, and voila, you can access these Windows applications from any X terminal.
* Wine can also be used to make existing Windows applications available on the Web by using VNC and its Java client.
* Wine is Open Source Software, so you can extend it to suit your needs or have one of many companies do it for you.
What's new in this release (see below for details):
- Control panel improvements and new appwiz panel.
- Restructurations of state handling in Direct3D.
- Support for timer queue functions.
- Many MSXML improvements.
- Several fixes to Solaris support.
- Various bug fixes.