Update: 30/4/2003. For some time now Wine has been unable
to run WinBUGS or indeed any other software based on the black box component
framework. The bug - which prevents buttons from responding to clicks
- first appeared in wine-20010824 and has not yet been resolved, although
it has been reported.
I am keeping these pages up in case the bug is resolved.
Wine is an alternative implementation of the Windows 3.1 and Win32 APIs on top of X and Unix. It allows you to run Windows programs on most popular Intel Unixes including Linux and FreeBSD. Wine requires an Intel x86 or compatible processor and does not work on other architectures like Sparc or Alpha.
Wine is still under development, so it cannot yet offer the same stability and ease of use as Windows. However, it is improving rapidly and has recently reached the stage where you can run WinBUGS on it without too much inconvenience.
I can't recommend using Wine for serious statistical analysis because it is still alpha software. However, you may find it useful for teaching or demonstration purposes in an environment where there Windows is unavailable. This was the reason I started looking into WinBUGS on Wine.
Wine is free software and comes with no warranty. Use it at your own risk.
Installation guide. This tells you how
to install both Wine and WinBUGS.
Known problems. A list of problems you
may encounter working with WinBUGS on wine.
For the skeptical, a screenshot of WinBUGS working
on my GNOME desktop.
