[Wine] Re: Synce with iPhone

[SpawnHappyJake]

There is no WINE iOS app.

But there is a remote access app for the iPhone. So you could remotely access a computer running WINE on your iPhone, making it appear that you are running WINE on your iPhone.

If I remember right, WINE is too big to fit in the Apple Store app size limit, so if there were to be a WINE app, you'd need to jailbreak or otherwise obtain the app without the Apple Store.

But the core of the issue is that there'd be no point yet. The processor of an iPhone is not an x86 processor. It has an ARM processor. If it was an x86 processor, I bet there would be a WINE app. All Windows programs (that I know of) are comprised of x86 instructions and "calls" to other things. WINE translates these calls to "Unix format" and the x86 instructions fall right through to the processor like normal (ok, a little more than that, but for my point here, that's basically how it works). If an x86 instruction falls on an iPhone processor, the instruction won't get executed because it can't execute it.

If, however, a Windows for ARM came out, and people made programs for Windows for ARM, then such a program could be ran by WINE on the iPhone, but the WINE app still wouldn't be available via the Apple Store.

Same story with the Android. So if WINE for Android ever comes out, and not for the iPhone, you can dual boot your iPhone between Android and iOS.

So the only way to run WINE on the iPhone now would be to emulate an x86 processor. If you do that, it won't be pretty. Darwine was an effort to combine WINE with an x86 processor, and it didn't work too well from what I hear.

But if you want to knock yourself out, jailbreak your iPhone, install DOSBox for iPhone, install Linux in a DOSBox virtual machine on an emulated x86 processor, install WINE into that Linux, and run Windows programs through that, I'm not stopping you, though your hardware might.

The remote access app is your best bet, though if you ever hear of a Windows for ARM coming out, there is hope.

Jake

Cheers,
Jake