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Compatibility layers

1,965 bytes added, 16:55, 20 January 2019
Added a few comparisons
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 be run on a different OS, often by translating API and 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 certain software such as games tend to run a bit slower such as in the case of OpenGL to Direct3D translation as done through Wine. Additionally, compatibility layers may also use emulation in order to run software built for a different architecture.
 
''This page is a WIP. Feel free to help out!''
==Compatibility layers==
|-
|[[Wine]]
|Unix and POSIX-compliantLinux, macOS
|[https://wiki.winehq.org/Download {{WineVer}}]
|{{✓}} ||{{✓}}
|Linux
|[https://github.com/darlinghq/darling Git]
|{{✓}} ||?{{✗}} <small>(WIP)</small>|Mac OS X SoftwaremacOS software
|-
!colspan="6"|Mobile
|-
|[[Wine]]
|[[Android emulators|Android]]
|[https://wiki.winehq.org/Download {{WineVer}}]
|{{✓}} ||{{}}<small>(WIP)</small>
|Windows applications and games
|}
===Comparisons===
*[[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 widely used, very popular and sponsored by companies such as CodeWeavers and Valve. The core Wine development aims at a correct implementation of the Windows API as a whole and has sometimes lagged in some areas of compatibility with certain applications. 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 or compatibility. A few are listed below, Wikipedia has [[wikipedia:Wine_(software)#Other_versions_of_Wine|a complete list]].
**[[Proton]] is Valves 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 fork of Wine in combination with DXVK (explained below).
**[[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.
* [[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 from the Linux-based Sega Lindbergh arcade board.
* [[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.
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