Compatibility layers

While not strictly emulation per se (hence why Wine stands for "Wine Is Not an Emulator"), compatibility layers allow software written for one operating system to run on a different OS, often by translating system calls made by an application to their equivalent calls in the host operating system. In theory, this should allow for near-native performance since no processor emulation takes place, but in practice some software such as games will tend to run a bit slower due to other bottlenecks that occur as a result of replicating the correct behavior. Compatibility layers may also make use of wrappers, which translate a specific API to another because accounting for graphics APIs like Direct3D that aren't supported on non-Microsoft platforms. Additionally, compatibility layers may also use emulation in order to run software built for a different architecture, see Emulation Accuracy page for more information about terms like "hypervisors", "simulators", "compatibility layers", "wrappers", "FPGA-based hardware cloning" and "software emulators".

Compatibility layers[edit]

Name	Platform(s)	Latest version	Compatibility	License	Active	Recommended	Runs the following software
x86
Wine		9.0 (Dev: 9.19 ) Haiku	?	LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft)	✓	✓	Windows applications and games
Proton (included with Steam)		9.0-3 git	?	BSD-3-Clause LGPLv2.1	✓	✓	Windows games
TeknoParrot		TPBootstrapper 1.0.0.140	?	Proprietary	✓	✓	PC-based arcade games
Rosetta		N/A	?	Proprietary	✗	✓	PowerPC OS X apps on x86-64 based Macs. Support ended with OS X 10.7
CrossOver	^{[N 1]}	22.1	?	Proprietary	✓	✓	Windows applications and games
Minecraft Bedrock Launcher		v0.15.0	?	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✓	~	Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (Android version)
Linuxulator		Wiki Docs	?	BSD-2-Clause (Permissive)	✓	~	Linux software
libhoudini libndk Intel BT		1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7	?	Proprietary	TBD	~	ARM apps
UEngine		git	?	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✓	✗	Android software
Darling		git	?	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✓	✗ (WIP)	macOS software
xDroid		11.1.51	?	Proprietary	✓	✗	Android software
WineVDM		git Dev	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓	16-bit Windows apps and games
Wineskin		1.7	?	LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft)	✗	✗	Windows applications and games
WineBottler		4.0.1.1 Dev	?	LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft)	✗	✗	Windows applications and games
WoW		N/A	?	Proprietary	✗	✗	Windows 9x apps and games
Win3mu		Source	?	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✗	✗	Windows 3.x apps and games
NTVDMx64		git	?	?	✓	✗	DOS applications and games
Ardi Executor		2.1.17	?	MIT (Permissive)	✗	✗	Classic Mac OS software up to System 6
DOSEmu		1.4.0	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✗	✗	DOS software
DOSEmu2		git	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✗	DOS software
Windows Subsystem for Linux 1		Install guide	?	?	?	✗	Allows developers to run a Linux environment.
Cygwin		3.5.3	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	~	Providing POSIX compliant APIs, Linux-alike shell and tools on Windows for developers.
KMRE		2.4.6.8 2.4.8.7-0k0.9^{[N 2]}	?	?	~	✗	Allows openKylin/Ubuntu Kylin to run Android applications.
Windows CE Compatibility Layer		git	?	MIT (Permissive)	~	✗ ^{[N 3]}	Windows CE apps and games.
ARM
Rosetta 2		N/A	?	Proprietary	✓	✓	x86-64 macOS applications on Apple Silicon Macs. AVX instruction support added in macOS 15 Sequoia.
CrossOver		22.1	?	Proprietary	✓	✓	Windows applications and games
Game Porting Toolkit		Installation guide	?	Proprietary	✓	✓	Windows games
PRISM		N/A	?	Proprietary	✓	✓	x86 and x86-64 Windows applications on Windows for ARM64 ^{[N 4]}
Box86/Box64		v0.3.6/v0.3.0	?	MIT (Permissive)	✓	~	x86-64 Linux programs
FEX-Emu		git	?	MIT (Permissive)	✓	~	x86-64 Linux programs
Wine		Android builds ARM support	?	LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft)	✓	~	Windows applications and games
Winlator		7.1	?	MIT (Permissive)	✓	~(WIP)	X86 Windows programs.
Vita2hos		Alpha 0.3	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✗	runs PlayStation Vita applications natively
Hangover		git	?	LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft)	✓	✗	Windows applications and games
Skyline		git	See Switch page	MPL 2.0 (Copyleft)	✗	✗	Nintendo Switch games and homebrew
ExaGear-KunPeng		4.0.0	?	Proprietary	✓	✗	x86 Linux programs*
KMRE		2.4.8.7-0k0.9 2.5.0.2-0k0.1tablet3^{[N 5]}	?	?	~	✗	Allows openKylin/NeoKylin (with supported processors) to run Android applications.
Consoles
Nintendont		git	See Gamecube page	?	✓	✓	GameCube games
Misc
LATX		1.5.3 RC1	?	Proprietary	✓	TBD	x86 Linux programs*

↑ https://support.codeweavers.com/en_US/chrome-os/
↑ 2.4.8.7 is untested-NeoKylin never announced nor shipped this with x86 releases
↑ Currently only Solitaire and etcha.exe are known to work.
↑ https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/prism-x86-64-emulator/
↑ 2.5.0.2 is only for some industrial tablets or similar devices with Phytium processors. Regular desktop devices should continue with 2.4.8.7 .

Comparisons[edit]

Box86/Box64 lets you run x86 Linux programs (such as games) on non-x86 Linux systems, like ARM (the host system needs to be 32bit little-endian).
Wine is a free and open-source compatibility layer that aims to allow computer programs (application software and computer games) developed for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems, primarily Linux and macOS. Since late 2017 there is also an experimental build for Android. Wine is almost as old as the Linux project, starting in the summer of 1993. Today it's widely used, very popular and sponsored by companies such as CodeWeavers and Valve, and has even received some support from Microsoft themselves who donated the Mono implementation of the .NET Framework to the Wine project. The core Wine development aims at a correct implementation of the Windows API as a whole. In this regard it's similar to the MAME project in its focus on correctness over usability. There are a lot of versions/forks of Wine which focus of different goals, such as usability, compatibility, gaming, office applications, etc. A few are listed below, Wikipedia has a more complete list.
- Proton: is Valve's one-click solution to play Windows games on Linux. It's included in the Steam Linux client by default. Simply click on a whitelisted game and it will launch without any configuration, or enable it for all games in the settings. Proton is based on a fork of Wine in combination with other components such as DXVK (which is a wrapper explained below) and FAudio.
- CrossOver is a commercialized, supported version of Wine from CodeWeavers. It uses additional patches on top of Wine to make it easy to use. They contribute all of their work on CrossOvers back to Wine and make up about two thirds of the commits made to Wine. CrossOver is available on macOS, Linux and Chrome OS.
- Wineskin is an open-source compatibility layer which allows users to easily convert Windows software to macOS. The ports are in the form of Mac .app bundles with a self-contained Wine instance which are wrapped around the application to be converted.
- Winlator is an Android application that lets you to run Windows (x86_64) applications with Wine and Box86/Box64.

TeknoParrot is a compatibility layer for Windows PCs to run games originally made for Windows-based arcade systems. Has since version 1.51 also support for some games running on Linux.
Rosetta was a compatibility layer for running PowerPC apps on x86-based Macs on OS X versions prior to 1.07. Rosetta 2 is a comptibility layer on Apple silicon Macs allowing x86-64 apps to run on ARM-based Macs. Note that Rosetta 2 is not strictly limited to MacOS apps as software such as Crossover is able to call it to emulate x86 code in Windows binaries.
Darling is a translation layer that allows you to run unmodified macOS binaries on Linux. In its nature, it is similar to the well-known Wine project. At this point, does not yet run macOS application with a GUI.
Minecraft Bedrock Launcher is a compatibility layer made specifically to run the Android version of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition on Linux and macOS. It is not compatible with any other Android apps.
Windows Subsystem for Linux 1 is a compatibility layer and shouldn't be confused with WSL2. WSL2 introduced important changes such as a real Linux kernel, through a subset of Hyper-V features, so it's not a compatibility layer like WSL1.
KMRE is a compatibility layer and it's the official solution to run Android applications on computers with Chinese homegrown Phytium/KunPeng ARM processors and NeoKylin Linux operating system, though later also available on x86-64 on Ubuntu Kylin. KMRE is not designed with third-party applications outside its app store and in fact, force installing third-party apps breaks older versions of KMRE. It's the go-to solution if you are restricted to working with these kinds of computers due to national security reasons. See KMRE section for more information.
Vita2hos is an early compatibility layer for Nintendo Switch that runs PlayStation Vita applications natively. Only able to load simple test homebrews such as vita-8 as of December 2022. Appears to only be developed every once in a while.

External links[edit]

Box64 and RISC-V in 2024 - What it takes to run The Witcher 3 on RiSC-V.

This article is a never ending list. It will always need updates, it will likely have new content added to it on a consistent basis, & can never truly be a finished article.

[1] ttps://support.codeweavers.com/en_US/chrome-os/

[kmrex86-2] 2.4.8.7 is untested-NeoKylin never announced nor shipped this with x86 releases

[3] Currently only Solitaire and etcha.exe are known to work.

[4] ttps://www.geeky-gadgets.com/prism-x86-64-emulator/

[kmrearm-5] 2.5.0.2 is only for some industrial tablets or similar devices with Phytium processors. Regular desktop devices should continue with 2.4.8.7 .

[N 1]

[N 2]

[N 3]

[N 4]

[N 5]

Compatibility layers

Contents