Windows Software Coming to Android Thanks to Wine
CodeWeavers is working on an Android version of the open-source Wine software.
Phoronix reports that an Android version of the open-source Wine software – which is used to run Windows-based apps on POSIX-compliant operating systems like Linux, Mac OSX and BSD – is currently in development.
The Android version was briefly demonstrated by Wine's original developer Alexandre Julliard after the FOSDEM 2013 talk in Brussels on Monday. Phoronix reports that CodeWeavers still employs Julliard to work on the software due to their Wine-based CrossOver commercial software for Linux and Mac OS X.
Phoronix said the performance of Wine for Android during the demo was "horrendously slow" because Julliard didn't use an actual Android device, but rather an emulated Android environment running on an Apple MacBook. It's also an active work-in-progress, so performance is expected to be somewhat slow for now.
"While Wine is coming to ARM and there's quite a lot of interest there, CodeWeavers is quite interested and hopeful for the success of Intel x86 Atom CPUs for tablets," Phoronix said. "If Android gains traction on x86-based tablets and other mobile devices, CodeWeavers has a lot of commercial opportunities for pushing the running of Windows software on Android."
According to the Wine website, the software doesn't simulate internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator. Instead, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly. This supposedly eliminates the performance and memory penalties associated with VMs and emulators, allowing the user to "cleanly" integrate Windows applications into a non-Windows desktop.
Wine originally began in 1993 as a way to run Windows 3.1 programs on Linux. It took 15 years before Wine finally reached v1.0, the first stable release, in 2008.

Adroid phones running windows desktop software before windows phones...
Adroid phones running windows desktop software before windows phones...
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI5MzU
WINE for ARM ain't new, there has been a version for Nokia N900 for quite many years.
Indeed, this is so ironic, good and bad at the same time. If this ever works well, that`ll teach M$ to stop restricting everything in their software.
Well, emulation could solve that just fine, granted the overhead issue is then potentially brought back and that might be an issue considering the already limited performance on Android devices. Also, there are a few Android phoens using x86 CPUs, so maybe it'll get somewhere anyway.
When you think about it, modern x86 CPUs are mostly RISC CPUs running CISC instructions that are translated into RISC micro-ops, so maybe the WINE for Android could do some more translation than just the Windows to Posix and it could be fine.
"If Android gains traction on x86-based tablets and other mobile devices, CodeWeavers has a lot of commercial opportunities for pushing the running of Windows software on Android."
There are so many virtual machines that can run on Windows tablet and phones already, why need wine? Virtualbox? VM Player?
WINE doesn't have such big impacts on performance and isn't a virtual machine. Those are two big advantages over virtual machines.
http://BatchRenameFiles.org