Wine FAQ says Wine is not an emulator, but in fact, it works like an emulator - it does not enhance Linux API, but simply creates a virtual Windows environment completely isolated from other parts of the system. * If one runs a .NET based program, Wine requires Win32 Mono to be installed under Wine, instead of Mono already installed in the system. * If a program tries to do html rendering, Wine requires a web engine to be installed under Wine, not using already installed in the system. * If a program needs Flash, Wine requires an instance installed under Wine. * If a program uses some fonts, Wine requires the fonts to be in Wine's fonts directory and does not use already installed in the system (and Wine's fonts cannot be used by a Linux application) * Windows drivers loaded under NDIS wrapper cannot use Wine's APIs, that's why the functionality of NDIS wrapper is so limited (and Wine cannot load Windows drivers even NDIS-compatible). This leads to doubling in functionality, incompatibilities and limitations. I think Wine should fully utilize the subsystems already provided with a distribution and allow other programs (those which may benifit from it, such as Mono and NDIS wrapper) to use Wine's APIs. See this bugreport: http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16448
