Running an .EXE file on a Linux-based Virtual Dedicated Server

Hi there,

I'm hashing out an idea for one of my assignments for college.  Students have access to Virtual Dedicated Servers which are Linux based.  My idea is this...I want to create a Flash-based banner maker.  I know, I know.  There's a buttload of that crap out there already.  I'm approaching this as a learning experience so that's my justification.

I am creating a web-based application to gather assets and set positions etc.  A actionscript file is then generated.  I want to run a command-line Flash compiler to create the .swf but am unsure how to run executables on a VDS, it's sort of outside the scope of the class but i'd like to achieve this anyways.  I read somewhere that there's a program called 'wine' that would enable me to do this.  That's great.  Also, how would I actually tell the program to run using PHP?  Is this even possible?  If not, how would I 'trigger' this executable in a procedural way?

I have a design background but am new to programming so the limits on what's possible is still new to me, any help would be much appreciated.