Wine is something which will come to your rescue  if you have been a long Windows users and are in the transition phase of moving from Windows to Linux. However, you are not completely ready to use native Linux (Ubuntu) and want to use Windows applications on your Ubuntu machine.

There could also be scenarios like you want to play Windows based games on your Ubuntu and wished there was a way. In all such circumstances Wine will come to your rescue. Let’s see how to install wine on your Jaunty machine:

Home Page

http://winehq.org/

Description

Wine is a free software application that aims to allow Unix-like computer operating systems on the x86 or x86-64 architecture to execute programs written for Microsoft Windows. ~Wikipedia

Installation

1. Start the Software Sources program as we’ll have to add the repositories of Wine for Ubuntu (Jaunty). Go to System > Administration > Software Sources to start the software sources.

2. Click on the tab that reads Third Party Softwares. Click the Add button to add the repositories.

3. Add the following line to the APT line box:

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt jaunty main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope"

4. Download an authentication key to be added to the trusted key list of the repository. You can download the key here. Right click on the link and click “Save link as..“. Save the key on your Desktop.

5. We’ll now have to add this key for wine in the trusted key list. To do so, click the tab on the Software Sources window which says Authentication.

6. Click Import Key File and import the downloaded key from your Desktop.

7. Click close. You’ll be prompted to reload the software channel. Click Reload.

8. In order to install wine, click this link. You’ll prompted with a window which says install. Click install to being the installation.

Once installed Wine will appear Wine will appear under Applications > Wine.

Let’s install a Windows based application using wine on Ubuntu. For the purpose of testing we’ll install IPMessenger which is only availalble for Windows. Download a copy here.

Extract IPMSG.exe and double click on IPMsg.exe to start using IP Messenger on Ubuntu.

Similarly you can install other windows applications like, MS Office, Photoshop, dreamweaver etc. Enjoy the windows apps on Ubuntu!