An emulator does this abstractly via a more circuitous route it does not translate system calls directly.Ī true emulator creates a virtual machine (e.g. No, or at least not in the sense that WINE does - by literally translating system calls one to one in user space. Well, how emulators and virtual machines simulate internal Windows logic on host non-Windows systems? Isn't that by translating Windows system calls into the host's own respective calls? Well, how emulators and virtual machines simulate internal Windows logic on host non-Windows systems? Isn't that by translating Windows system calls into the host's own respective calls? Is the difference between emulators and non-emulators (like Wine) is that emulators emulate a whole operating system then the application uses that system APIs without knowing that it is talking to an emulator, while non-emulators directly translates application's calls into the host's (and the application also may not know it)? Is the extra level of indirection is the only different between emulators and Wine? Methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications On-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine orĮmulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls Wine project claims that Wine Is Not an Emulator, because:

As I understand emulators (in a simple way), they do translate or substitute the function calls of a program using functions of system X into functions used by system Y in which the program is being run onto.

Wine emulator mission critical