Fortunately, open-source scientific software applications, even those with Graphical User Interfaces, are most often developed on Linux. Those that have been developed on other operating systems generally also have build configurations for Linux. However, there are some applications that are only available on Windows. For the most part, these should be used on personal workstations or laptop computers. However, there are some exceptional circumstances where it might be useful to run these applications on the cluster:

• The Linux-based analysis or simulation software has no GUI, but there is a Windows GUI.
• The Windows application may be a pre- or post-processor for a native Linux application.
• If the user lacks a workstation with sufficient resource such as memory or processing power.

Wine (originally an acronym for “Wine Is Not an Emulator”) is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, macOS, & BSD.