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Wine Mac Installation
Have you ever said to yourself as a Mac user, “If I only were able to download .exe files to my Mac?” Wouldn’t that make life easy? While Boot Camp and Parallels are two of your options for running Windows programs on your Mac, there’s a free product that’s just as useful. It’s called Wine and can be installed on your Mac in a matter of minutes. If you have an Intel-powered Mac like I do, you’ll need to hunt down Wine’s sister program, Darwine, to run .exe files smoothly and easily. Luckily, MacPoker.net makes it easy with this step by step installation process.
Installing Wine
There’s an excellent Wine blog called Wine Review. It’s linked at the end of this review and has all of the necessary download files on it. Alternately, you can check out all of the available Darwine files here: http://thisismyinter.net/?p=29
Darwine for Leopard:
http://thisismyinter.net/Files/Darwine/Leopard/Installers/Darwine%200.9.51.dmg
Darwine for Tiger:
http://thisismyinter.net/Files/Darwine/Tiger/Installer/Darwine%200.9.51.dmg
The total file size for the Leopard installation is 19.4 MB and should be zipped to your computer in a few short minutes. Here’s a screen shot of the download:
Next, an icon will appear on your desktop that says Darwine. When you click it, a folder with the Darwine installation file will open up. Click on the picture of a box and you’ll begin the setup process. There are seven steps and all you have to do is follow the instructions. Here’s a screen shot of step five:
Step six of the process is the actual installation of Darwine and occurs after you accept the licensing agreements, where you want the program to be saved on your Mac, and a short introduction into what the program actually does. This is the longest step of the installation process and will take about a minute. Here’s what your screen will look like:
Once the installation is successful, you’re ready to run Windows programs on your Mac. Darwine controls the opening of the .exe file, which means it provides a layer of programming in order to do so.
About Darwine’s Capabilities
It’s important to note that not every .exe file you download will open successfully in Darwine. There’s a full list of compatible programs available at http://appdb.winehq.org/. At the time of writing, there were nearly 10,000 programs that worked when you opened them in Darwine. However, that also means that there are thousands more that aren’t able to be used.
Downloading and Installing an .exe File
To download an .exe file, go to whatever site your heart desires and download a program as you normally would on a Windows machine. When the .exe file is finished downloading, locate it (normally, it appears on your desktop) and double click it. Darwine takes over from here, opening the file for you and also logging the entire process in case an error occurs.
I download Winamp as an example. Just navigate over to http://www.winamp.com/ and download the latest free version available (or splurge and pay for the latest release loaded with features). The .exe file will download to your desktop. Double click it when it’s completed.
A screen like the one below will pop up, which will guide you through the Winamp install. It’s just like installing on your Windows machine:
As soon as Winamp launches, however, you’ll notice a few differences. First, the program is not as clean as it is on a Windows machine. I had to group the equalizer and playlist together in order to get a clear screen shot, but each component moves on its own and it’s very difficult to line them all up. However, the Winamp program works flawlessly on your Mac:
You may have also noticed that Notepad, one of my favorite Windows programs and one I’ve missed sorely on my Mac, is included in the original Darwine download you made. To start typing in Notepad, just open the Darwine folder in your Applications folder and click on “Sample WineLib Applications.” One is called “notepad.exe.” In a matter of seconds, you’ll be pounding away feverishly on Notepad.
Other Features
Darwine’s main tool is called “WineHelper.” If you locate it in your Applications folder and click on it, you’ll see an option to explore a “C” drive very similar to what you might be used to on a Windows machine. I know I had a big sigh of relief when I saw the option to open my C Drive. There’s a folder called “Program Files” and “windows,” both of which you’ll be able to navigate quickly. Any .exe files you’ve downloaded should be found in these folders. Here’s a glance:
Wine is very programmer-friendly. There’s a ton of technical information available at http://www.winehq.org/. It’s an excellent starting point for learning about the applications, bugs, and latest product updates on Wine. You can also browse the top programs that work with Wine, including Photoshop, The Sims, World of Warcraft, Half-Life, and Final Fantasy.
One of the other big benefits of Wine and Darwine is that they process very quickly. The programs above, particularly the last three, are very resource-intensive, so processing speed through Wine is of the utmost importance.
Wine Resources
No, this isn’t about which Merlot won the American Wine Awards. These are vital resources in helping you master Wine for your Mac:
• Wine Wiki: http://wiki.winehq.org/FrontPage
• Wine Review: http://wine-review.blogspot.com/
• Wine HQ: http://www.winehq.org/