14 DAY TRIAL // The Wine 2.5 development release was launched this past weekend for GNU/Linux and macOS users who want to install the latest Windows applications and games on their personal computers.
According to the announcement, Wine 2.5 is here two weeks after the previous development release, namely Wine 2.4, and adds a bunch of under-the-hood enhancements like support for message-mode named pipes (needed by numerous apps and games), transform feedback support in Direct3D, scheduler classes in the C++ runtime, and better scrolling in pop-up menus.
Additionally, Wine 2.5 adds more improvements to the XML reader and includes a translation of version resources through po files. It also comes with a total of 30 bug fixes for the Wine configuration, the WideCharToMultiByte function, mouse input, as well as both old and recent games and applications that are designed to run only for Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Mafia III launcher no longer fails to start, Skyrim and Rayman 3 crashes fixed
Among the Windows games that received improvements in Wine 2.5, we can mention The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (crashes), Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (crashes), Mafia III (launcher no longer fails to start), The Elder Scrolls Online, Natsuiro Asagao Residence Demo, The Sting! Demo, Gas Guzzlers Combat Carnage Demo, Silence, Final Fantasy X, Galactic Civilization 3, and Steep (Ubisoft).
As for the improved Windows apps, the WinUAE 2.5.1 Beta, SteuerSparErklärung 2015, QTravel from Qstarz PC Suite (Q2000) v3.x, AcdSee Pro 9, ACDSee Pro 10, Playstation Now, Native Acces, and Microsoft Excel 2010 are among those that should work better with Wine 2.5, which you can download right now from our website for your favorite GNU/Linux distribution.
The full changelog is attached below for our readers curious to know what exactly was changed in Wine 2.5, which we remind you that it's a development release, not suitable for use in stable operating systems. Please use the Wine 2.0 stable release if you want to have a reliable computing experience. Download the Wine 2.5 source tarball.