Wine has been a long-standing open source software. It is highly popular because it aims to allow the computer programs that have been developed for Microsoft Windows to run on Mac and other Unix-based systems. Mac users have especially been using it to run Windows applications on Mac, so if you are one such user, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will be talking all about Wine and how you can download & install it on your Mac, as well as run it and use it.
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Mar 16, 2020 Homebrew is the most popular package manager for Mac OS X. Homebrew Cask extends Homebrew with support for quickly installing Mac applications like Google Chrome, VLC, and more. No more dragging and dropping applications! This is an easy way to install Mac terminal utilities and graphical apps.
Wine is a pretty old application, first launched in 1993. It is completely free as well as legal. Even though Boot Camp is available, which allows you to install Windows on a Mac, you are required to boot up every time you want to run Windows. Wine helps you cut to the chase and run a Windows program directly.
When a program runs, it asks for resources like disk and memory space from the OS, which Wine makes sure get answered.
Wine is way better than Boot Camp or virtualization like Parallel Space, which makes it so ideal. However, there might be a slight chance that your program may not work with Wine. You will have to try to run it for that.
Let’s get Started!
To get Wine on Mac, we will first look into the system requirements, and then we will outline the steps in detail.
The following are the requirements of your system to install Wine for Mac:
Now that we have gone through these, let us take a look at the various steps you will be going through to install Wine for Mac.
Homebrew is a package manager. It facilitates the installation of open source programs, including Wine, a pretty easy task. Wine is big in size, which is why it’s better to install it.
To install Homebrew:
ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)”
brew doctor
If you do get asked by the terminal to agree with the Xcode License, you can do that easily by typing the following into the terminal:
sudo xcodebuild License
Then, just read the agreement, agree to it and proceed.
XQuartz is another open source program that you need to install, as in order for Wine to install properly Xquartz is needed. Homebrew allows you to very easily install this, all you have to do is enter the following command into the terminal:
brew cask install xquartz
In the above command:
Once the installation is complete, Terminal will pause and then wait for your next command, i.e. the next step.
Now that we have everything ready, all we have to do is install Wine on Mac. Homebrew will install it for us, just type the following in the terminal:
brew install wine
Now, Wine will be installed on your MacOS by Homebrew. That’s it!
Now that Wine has been installed correctly, we will see how we can run Windows Programs on our Mac using Wine.
wine $INSTALLNAME.exe
where ‘$INSTALLNAME’ will be replaced by the installer file name. For example, if the installer file name is ‘fastsetup.exe’, type
wine fastsetup.exe
You will now see the installer window, where the instructions will be self-explanatory for you to install the Windows Program.
Now, let us see how to run our Windows Program on MacOS using Wine.
wine $program.exe
where ‘$program’ will be replaced by the name of your program, just like before.
We hope that by reading this article you were able to install Wine on your Macbook. If you have any further queries regarding the steps mentioned in this article, you can drop us a comment below and we’ll do our best to get back to you with a relevant answer.