[Wine] Re: Difference Between WINE and an Emulator

[Matthew Reed]

>>An emulator is a specific type of program that mimics hardware. Windows
>> is not a piece of hardware, ergo Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's merely a
>> clone of the Windows API.

> This is probably the best answer you will get that is clear and simple.
> Out of interest the term I use to explain to others the concept is that
> WINE is a compatibility layer between Linux and Windows.  Does
> that seem an accurate use of the word? It tends to set the right
> impression in the minds of the people I've explained it too.


There are software emulators, and there are hardware emulators. According to 
Wikipedia:

"A software emulator allows computer programs to run on a platform (computer 
architecture and/or operating system) other than the one for which they were 
originally written." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator).

That is *exactly* what Wine does.