| Wine, Bordeaux ship |
Jul. 07, 2008
The open source Wine program for running Windows applications in Linux shipped in final version 1.0 form, followed by the release of a commercial version. The Bordeaux Group has announced Bordeaux for Linux 1.2, which adds support for Microsoft Office 2007 and six months of tech support.
The Greenville, South Carolina-based Bordeaux Group offers its $20 Bordeaux for Linux as an add-on to the free Wine (Wine is not an emulator), adding email support and a claim of easier configuration. Wine has been used in beta form for years, and finally arrived in final version 1.0 form last month after 15 years of development. Wine moved up to its first incremental release last week, with Wine 1.1.
Billed as an open source implementation of the Windows API (application programming interface) built on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix, Wine supports over 1,200 Windows applications that can be installed and run out of the box, including core Microsoft Office XP and 2003 applications and Internet Explorer. It also supports a wide variety of games, including the World of Warcraft and Guild Wars MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games). Wine is said to work on any x86-based Unix-derived platform, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.
Bordeaux for Linux appears to compete with CodeWeavers's CrossOver, which is also built on top of Wine. Like Bordeaux, CrossOver boasts easier set-up, as well as support. CrossOver Linux (there's also a Mac version) costs twice as much as Bordeaux, however, with a $40 pricetag for six months of support.
Bordeaux for Linux supports all the applications supported by Wine, while also offering support for Office 2007. The Bordeaux Group also claims that version 1.2 offers better Internet Explorer support than its recently released Bordeaux for Linux 1.0. In addition, Bordeaux offers "cellar" support, which is said to be similar to "bottle" support in Wine. This enables each application to be installed into its own separate wineprefix "cellar." Users can also install unsupported applications and games into their own unsupported cellar, says the company, providing a sandbox to test new applications while keeping supported applications safe.
Bordeaux 1.2 for Linux is available now for $20, says the company, but all registered users of Bordeaux 1.0 can upgrade for free All purchases include six months of email support and a 30-day refund. More information and downloads are said to be available here.
The open source Wine 1.1 should be available here.
-- Eric Brown
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