Wine 11.8 is now available as the latest release of the open-source compatibility layer for running Windows applications and games on Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like systems.
This release updates Wine Mono to version 11.1, further improving support for .NET-based Windows applications. Just to clarify that Wine Mono serves as Wine’s replacement for Microsoft’s .NET Framework components and supports applications that require managed code.
The update also continues the reimplementation of MSXML, Microsoft’s XML parser and API set, without libxml2. In light of this, Wine is enhancing its built-in MSXML to reduce external dependencies and improve compatibility with software that expects Microsoft’s behavior.
Another update is improved keyboard layout support through XKBRegistry, allowing Wine to better map host keyboard configurations to those expected by Windows applications on Unix-like desktops.
The release further improves VBScript compatibility, which is still used by legacy Windows applications, installers, scripts, and some enterprise software. Bug fixes address issues such as missing support for ExecuteGlobal, Eval, GetRef, single-line If statements, and object dispatch behavior.
Wine 11.8 resolves 22 bugs, including issues with Visio 2013 installation using built-in MSXML6, startup crashes in Altium Designer 18.x to 20.x, PLSQL Developer failing to start on Wine 11.7, ExamDiffPro crashes, and file access errors in Enigma Virtual Box-packed applications.
This release also includes game-related fixes, addressing startup crashes and compatibility issues in Microsoft Golf 99, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Petka, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
For more information, visit the announcement. Wine 11.8’s source code can be downloaded from GitLab’s project page. Binary packages for supported Linux distributions will be provided through the project’s download repositories.
