http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9771
--- Comment #28 from Gil gbesso@gmail.com 2007-11-23 20:11:16 --- (In reply to comment #27)
-Workaround- I am running Wine 0.9.48 on Fedora Core 8 and this is what worked for me"
Go into Steam "Settings" Click the "Friends" tab Uncheck all boxes labeled "Display a notification" Click OK
Explanation: As you know probably know from running this app in Windows, the notification is a graphical overlay which is probably causing the issue with Wine. This solved the problem for me and made friends usable again, hope this helps.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to change anything for me, I guess the problem is somewhere else.