What WINE does is intercept the Windows system calls. (gross simplification) WINE runs on any x86 Unix because they share the same instruction set. The Windows programs execute whatever x86 code they contain, but when a system call is made it traps to WINE and is handled with Unix resouces.
WINE does not run on just any Linux because the instruction set must be x86. Gotta be Linux on a PC. WINE also does not cover all of the Windows system. There are a lot of Windows programs that won't work because they can't find what they need because the WINE growers haven't been able to reverse engineer that part of Windows yet. I thinkthe problem is a lot tougher even than SAMBA w/r/t rev eng. (But I hardly mean to diss WINE. It's great!) VM people, and a few MVS people, can relate. CMS has a feature called "OS Simulation" where CMS will handle a limitted set of MVS functions. Very similar story. -- R;
