Wine 11.6 Revives Android Driver
Wine 11.6 has been released as the latest bi-weekly development update for the popular open-source software that enables Windows games and applications to run on Linux, macOS, and other platforms.
One of the notable features of Wine 11.6 is the revival of its Android driver. Wine for Android has not seen much activity in recent years, with the last significant work being discussed back in 2024. The “Cassia” effort, which aimed to run Windows games on Android using DXVK/VKD3D-Proton plus FEX, has not seen much progress since then.
Efforts to bring Wine to Android date back over a decade, with early attempts to run Solitaire as an example. In 2013, there was talk of Wine on Android for running Windows apps.
With Wine 11.6, there have been updates to the build system for Android, including modernizing the Wine Android code for newer Gradle versions and adapting to recent Android updates. It remains to be seen whether this renewed focus on the Android driver will lead to further improvements in future releases.
Another significant update in Wine 11.6 is the enhancement of the DLL loader order heuristics to better support game mods. Additionally, there have been compatibility fixes for VBScript and around 28 other bug fixes in this release, benefiting a wide range of software from .NET apps to StarOffice to various games.
For those interested in trying out Wine 11.6, downloads and more details are available on the WineHQ.org GitLab.
