WINE - Does it actually work?

[Scarletdown <gsutton9503@charter.net>]

Okay, how do I get Win-9x and DOS programs to run using WINE?  When I 
installed Linux, WINE was allegedly set up; and from what I could 
determine, all I would have to do to run a program under it is click on 
its executable file.

However, I have not been able to get anything to work with WINE this 
way.  Every time I click on an .EXE file, WINE tries to run (there's a 
spinning hourglass icon in a minimized window for about 20 seconds), and 
then it quits with no warnings or other messages.

The man pages are pretty useless, and I also had a look at the 
installation guide here:

http://library.n0i.net/linux-unix/applications/system/wine/wine-user/installing.html

and found it to be no help either.