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The problem with this definition is that it's so broad it encompasses many many things that are never talked about as “emulators”. By this definition, Docker is an emulator, a VM is an emulator, an x86_64 CPU is an emulator (because it “emulates“, in the broadest sense, x86), a C compiler is an emulator (“emulating” the PDP-11 on modern hardware), etc.

Even your own quote reveals the issue:

> > That said, Wine can be thought of as a Windows emulator in much the same way that Windows Vista can be thought of as a Windows XP emulator

Yet nobody talks about the latest Windows as being an emulator for older windows …

In short, this definition is akin to defining humans as “bipeds without feather”, we definitely fit this definition but it's way too broad to be useful.



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