> Heck the CPUs these days literally do not support real mode anymore.
They do, actually; a brand new Core i7 still runs 16-bit real-mode and 32-bit real-mode.
Now, if you're running in 64-bit mode, there's no vm86 mode you can use to run 16-bit applications on a 64-bit kernel. However, the CPU still supports 16-bit real mode, and under a 32-bit kernel you can run 16-bit applications.
And indeed, Wine can run 16-bit Windows applications on 64-bit Linux. You could say that at this point Linux is more Windows-compatible than Windows itself :)
They do, actually; a brand new Core i7 still runs 16-bit real-mode and 32-bit real-mode.
Now, if you're running in 64-bit mode, there's no vm86 mode you can use to run 16-bit applications on a 64-bit kernel. However, the CPU still supports 16-bit real mode, and under a 32-bit kernel you can run 16-bit applications.