Wine 11.18 is out today as the newest bi-weekly development release of this open-source software for running Windows games and apps on Linux, macOS, and other platforms.
With Wine 11.18 a number of patches have landed for further building out its NTOSKRNL implementation support for kernel drivers. NTOSKRNL is the main kernel executable file for the Microsoft Windows operating system as the core for the kernel and executive layers. NTOSKRNL deals with hardware abstractions, process handling, memory management, and related essentials.
With Wine 11.18 there is work on NTOSKRNL around PnP device enablement, container IDs, and implementing a variety of necessary functions. Test coverage for the Wine NTOSKRNL code is also coming in-step.
Wine 11.18 also has a variety of code correctness fixes, compatibility fixes in standard C headers, and 21 known bug fixes. The bug fixes this release range from Adobe Creative Cloud fixes to game fixes for Assassin’s Creed Rogue and others.
Wine 11.18 downloads and more information at WineHQ.org.
There’s something weirdly beautiful in the fact that wine can take a kernel that divys out tasks to the real host OS efficiently. By the time it lands, hardware barely sneezes at the added overhead.
