San Francisco, CA, August 12, 2025 – InstallAware Software, the technology leader in software installation, repackaging, and virtualization solutions for app developers and enterprises, has launched codename “Project OS/3,” an installation virtualization framework built upon InstallAware’s two decades of excellence with platform native installation technologies spanning Linux, macOS, and Windows.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of giants,” says John Gaver, Director of InstallAware Skunkworks. “Project OS/3 would not have been possible without three decades of Wine, two and a half decades of Lazarus, and two decades of InstallAware for Windows Installer itself. Our efforts at Skunkworks in bringing all of this together would pale in comparison, seeing as we’ve barely outgrown our toddler phase!”
While Wine has long provided the capability to run Windows apps on Linux and macOS, it is technically demanding to get working properly. That is to say nothing of the setups of the Windows apps themselves, which are often less compatible with Wine than the application in question! This is a problem InstallAware Software is ideally equipped to handle; powered by its advanced, mature, cross-platform technology.
“Project OS/3” first installs a private (or public) instance of Wine, from a friendly GUI setup wizard – without ever having to drop down to the command line – a single click is literally all it takes. Then, “Project OS/3” directly injects the Windows application, including all of its files and registry keys, into the chosen Wine instance. Finally, it re-creates all of the original application shortcuts on the host system.
In other words, developers feed “Project OS/3” a Windows setup, and out comes a ready to run, native code, Linux and macOS installation. This new installation works out of the box (even in scenarios where Wine would normally fail), and properly installs the Windows application, together with all of its dependencies. All that is left to the end-user is to launch and enjoy the app from its new shortcuts!
This unprecedented level of convenience is made possible by InstallAware Studio Admin’s PackageAware setup capture technology, and InstallAware Multi Platform’s native code setup engines which automatically retarget those captured Windows installations onto a desired Wine instance (called “bottles” of Wine). InstallAware Multi Platform’s new setup engine now supports this kind of advanced layering.
Of course, “Project OS/3” may also be used as a convenient method to simply install Wine graphically. Although this method would lack the resilience of InstallAware’s advanced installation technology, as it would simply run the original, unmodified Windows application installer within the desired “bottle” of Wine; it offers a quicker alternative to completing “Project OS/3” when the original setup is Wine friendly.
