WINE is fighting an uphill battle against the ever-changing Windows API (sometimes you'll find it runs older Windows programs better than modern Windows does!) and frequently has problems installing new software. It also has limitations it can't exceed -- it's not an emulator. It uses Linux stand-ins for Windows libraries instead of using Windows device drivers. Meaning Windows device drivers and other kernel-level code simply can't be installed or used. That probably includes your proprietary Seagate encryption software.

Using Linux means adopting more portable, often different programs to do what you need. IE and Outlook and Office are Windows programs, for example, but Firefox, Thunderbird, and OOffice work in both. Your Seagate thing is Windows-specific, but Truecrypt runs on both. There might be a Linux client for your VPN but if your university won't tell you what protocol they use that'd be very difficult to guessify into working. SPSS, I suspect, you're out of luck on. Older versions of SPSS might run better(and having dealt with SPSS a little, I've found that old versions do much more than their crippled "new" versions, not less!) etc, etc, etc. You'd probably benefit from using portable alternatives to proprietary things even if you're stuck with Windows.

Another alternative would be getting something like a VMWARE virtual machine running inside your Linux box, in which you could install Windows inside to use those niggling Windows-only things WINE can't run. That really would be an emulator and should handle them fine.

Linux is not, hasn't ever been, and cannot be "FreeWindowsXP". If you want to run Windows programs, run Windows. Would you buy a Mac and expect it to run all your non-Mac software?