Wine is the name of an open source project to run Windows applications on UNIX-like systems. Originally, WINE was a recursive acronym for WINE is Not an Emulator, but today, it is just a name.
Wine is a compatibility layer that allows running Windows programs on
UNIX-derived systems such as FreeBSD, Solaris and Mac OS X.
Official builds for various Linux flavours are hosted by SourceForge. The WineHQ
download pages has a few more. Between them they provide builds for CentOS,
Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, Red Hat, Slackware, SUSE and Ubuntu.
The CodeWeavers CrossOver product that many MacOS users are familiar with is based on Wine. The Bordeaux product for Linux is a graphical front-end to Wine. Both companies support the development of Wine.
Wine has been in development for some 15 years, but it was only last year, on 2008 Jun 17, that the developers released Wine version 1.0.
Not all applications run as well on Wine as others. In the early days, that
was mostly because Wine was not ready. Today, it is mostly because the programs
do things they should be doing.
A Windows application that follows all the Windows rules and guidelines should
be fine, but such applications are rare. Many applications use a dirty trick or
two.
The Wine project maintains the Wine application database (AppDB), that provides compatibility details for many popular applications. This database is filled by Wine users. Anyone can sign up to add applications to the database or leave their rating.
Application compatibility is
rated as Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. The only rating below Bronze is
Garbage.
The Wine application database home pages features a Platinum, Gold and Silver
top-ten list. The Wine Wiki explains the ratings as follows:
- Platinum. (Software will install and run without requiring any extra steps tricks or workarounds)
- Gold (Working in all aspects)
- Silver (Working well)
- Bronze (Mostly Usable)
- Garbage (It don’t fly too well)
Whether a rating applies to the application or to Wine may be up for discussion, but most users will only want to run applications that rate Gold or Platinum.
There is no separate genealogy category, but there is a search box on the Wine AppDB home page. I used that to create the following table of genealogy applications and their current Wine AppDB ratings. Direct links to the individual AppDB pages have been collected in the links section.
| application | Wine AppDB rating |
|---|---|
| Agelong Tree 3.1.1 | Platinum |
| Ahnenblatt 2.5.1 | Platinum |
| Aldfaer 3.4.1 | Garbage |
| Aldfaer 3.5.3 | Bronze |
| Ancestral Quest 11 | Gold |
| Ancestral Quest 12.1 | Silver |
| Ancestry Family Tree 9 | Silver |
| Brother’s Keeper 6.2.4 | Gold |
| Brother’s Keeper 6.2.79 | Bronze |
| Custodian 3 | Garbage |
| Family Origins 9.2 | Silver |
| Family Tree Builder 2.0.0.676 | Silver |
| Family Tree Maker 4.0 | Garbage |
| Family Tree Maker 2005 SP1 | Silver |
| Family Tree Maker 2006 (13) | Silver |
| Family Tree Maker 2009 | Garbage |
| Family Tree SuperTools 2.0 | Bronze |
| GedStar Pro 3.2 | Garbage |
| Genbox 3.7.1 | Silver |
| Genline Family Finder 2.4.4a | Gold |
| GenoPro 2.x | Bronze |
| GensDataPro 2.6 | Garbage |
| GenSmarts 2.1.1.43 | Silver |
| Heredis 9.1 | Gold |
| Heredis 10.1 | Silver |
| Legacy Family Tree 5.0 | Bronze |
| Legacy Family Tree 6.0 | Garbage |
| Legacy Family Tree 7.0 | Garbage |
| OnThisDay 2.1 Build 1 | Gold |
| PathWiz 7.10 | Garbage |
| PathWiz 8.0 | Garbage |
| Personal Ancestral File 4 | Platinum |
| Personal Ancestral File 5 | Platinum |
| RootsMagic 3.2.2 | Silver |
| RootsMagic 3.2.5 | Platinum |
| Second Site 2.1 Build 10 | Bronze |
| The Master Genealogist 4.0 | Garbage |
| The Master Genealogist 5.15 | Silver |
| The Master Genealogist 6.12 | Silver |
| The Master Genealogist 7.03 | Silver |
| TMG Utility 3.8 Build 1 | Bronze |
| TMG 7.0 Build 0 | Garbage |
The ratings tells you something already, but there is often additional information in the comments. For example, the Family Tree Maker 2009 entry does not just tell you that its Wine compatibility is garbage, it also tells you why it received that rating; there is a comment that notes that it only installs, but does not run.
You have to wonder how reliable the ratings are when RootsMagic 3.2.5 is rated Platinum, although there are several comments about RootsMagic crashing. Surely a program that crashes should not be rated Platinum?
On a similar note, that Brother’s Keeper version 6.2.79 rates Bronze while version 6.2.4 rates Gold does not seem to be because it the program deteriorated, but only because the later test was done by a more critical user.
A lot of programs are rated by only one or two users, and many programs are not listed at all. Some of the programs that are not listed yet are relatively new ones like Behold, Cognatio and ohmiGene, but even older ones like Family Historian and WinFamily are missing from the database.
The Wine AppDB makes it easy for the average user to find applications that
work fine, or find instructions to install it just right.
The Wine AppDB documents practical issues trying to run Windows program on Wine,
and as such is a great resource for the Wine development team.
But if you leave feedback, you are not just leaving it for them. You are also,
and foremost, leaving it for the application vendor.
Application vendors can use the database to learn about the real-world problems users encounter trying to run their applications on Wine, and then use that information to improve the applications. Such improvements are of direct benefit to Wine users, but not without benefit for Windows users. As a general rule, if it runs fine on Wine, it runs great on Windows.
At least one genealogy software vendor is working to improve its Wine AppDB ratings. I came across a TMG forum thread in which a TMG programmer worked with a Wine user to resolve TMG issues.
That thread shows that Wholly Genes worked on its AppDB rating when a Wine user and prospective customer asked to resolve an issue, but vendors should work to improve their rating before users ask.
Vendors that work to resolve poor Wine AppDB ratings may well pick a few more users - on both Wine and Windows. Wine users will have more choice and Windows users will enjoy stabler applications.
WinHQ has adopted my suggestion for separate genealogy category.
There now is a Wine Honour Roll for applications that officially support the Wine platform. There is one genealogy app on there: GenoPro 2.0.0.5.
The linux.org domain seems to have disappeared early in February of 2011. The broken link has been removed.
GenoPro newsletter 2007-05: GenoPro compatible with Wine (Linux and Mac)
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.