Installing Wine or WineBottler on OS X to Run Windows Programs

Installing Wine or WineBottler on OS X to Run Windows Programs is neither emulation nor Virtualization. This is faster way, because lot of resources are not used. One most important thing, at the time of writing, these two softwares might not be fully compatible with OS X Mavericks (10.9) fully by default, with time the developments will proceed to give the next versions compatible with Mavericks. Both are Freeware, OpenSource and not a huge community is/are involved. It takes a bit time to work to develop for free things. We are writing this guide on Installing Wine or WineBottler on OS X to Run Windows Programs based on OS X 10.8.5.

As we all know, there are Softwares for OS X to run Windows Applications. The widely known two are Virtualization Software. Apart from the price of these softwares, the biggest thing is – you need to have a Copy of Windows, Windows is, unfortunately for the Rich Peoples. Secondly, even the cost is nothing to you (?), the software demands huge resources. The Windows Kernel basically runs, two computers with full or partial GUI, makes the things to slow down. The experience is not exactly like running an native OS X App.

Installing Wine or WineBottler on OS X to Run Windows Programs : Basics to Know

The Philosophy of both Wine and WineBottler is same. But, WineBottler has a full GUI :

At the time of publishing this article, there is no default ready-made solution for Mavericks offered by WineBottler. This is really a great application. But Wine is practically a command line application and demands some knowledge to use it. As practically there is nothing to write about WineBottler (as it is an app with GUI), we are writing only about Wine from the next paragraph. Installing either Wine or WineBottler on OS X, any one of them will help you to run any Windows Programs, Games etc. without having a copy of Windows.

Installing Wine on OS X to Run Windows Programs

You must know the basics about CLI. You need to install HomeBrew Package Manager, XCode (Follow this guide to complete these steps) and XQuartz (Follow this guide, it will work with Mavericks too, I can run XQuartz nicely). Obviously, you will not install the other things which those Guides primarily are for. Your Java things must be at correct newer version (check from command line by running java -version command)

Simply run this command :

It can take a huge time (around 45 minutes) to get installed. Once installed, you have very less work. For example, setup.exe is a Windows Executable File on your Mac’s Desktop. From command line, cd to that folder and run :

XQuartz will open and a working Windows installer GUI can be seen. Install it. By default, this is your “Fake” “Windows Program Folder”, you need to go there to run the “installed” application :

Command to run is same, like :

XQuartz will open to run the program.