Even though the Norwegian government has established a competency center for open source software, the government has only started using a few open source software applications. One of which is not open source is the application for getting travel refunds. This is clearly an important application but it is unfortunately only a Windows application.

Normally I have used this program on Windows but a few days ago I did not have any PC with Windows so I decided to try Wine. I must say I was impressed. I opened the Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu, searched for Wine and installed it. Piece of cake. Then I just downloaded and opened the msi-file for the travel refund application. Wine automatically fired up and installed the application perfectly. Within seconds I was completing my travel form (which is really a pain).

I have not used Wine much besides this travel refund application. However, it worked flawlessly with the Olypus DSS Player, which we use for listening to recordings of interviews, as well. Bottom line, I was impressed by Wine’s simple installation and that it worked flawlessly out-of-the-box. Based on my somewhat limited experience I would warmly recommend it.