Programming in Linux

[Fraser Campbell]

On Saturday 28 February 2004 15:18, StreetSmart wrote:

> I'm reading allot of stuff on a program called "Wine" which supposedly
> allows you to run windows on top of Linux

If you want to run MS Windows on top of Linux there are two solutions that I 
know of:

- win4lin (http://www.netraverse.com/)
- vmware

Win4lin lets you run an actual copy of Windows 98 (or 95) on Linux.  You 
launch a real live copy of Windows and the vast majority of Windows software 
will run glitch free (as long as it is software that isn't manipulating 
hardware directly).  Win4lin doesn't yet run Windows 2000 or XP but I believe 
that it will eventually be supported.

vmware lets you run most (all?) operating systems for Intel compatible 
hardware.  Again, you need a full install of Windows and it is the real 
Windows that is running.

I've seen vmware running but I haven't used it.  I do use win4lin fairly 
regularly and Windows 98 runs very acceptably (not noticably slower than it 
would be on the native hardware).  I'm pretty sure that vmware is heavier on 
resources but it's also a little more flexible.

Wine tries to emulate the Windows API under unix/X to let Windows apps run 
natively in Linux (no emulator).  Wine's advantages are:

- native execution of Windows binary, should be faster
- no licenses required (no win4lin, no vmware and no MS Windows license)

Wine's disadvantage is that while it can run some applications well it's just 
as likely that you're favorite Windows app won't cooperate.  I haven't spent 
much time looking at Wine lately, please correct me if I am wrong.   I expect
http://www.winehq.com/ has an FAQ about some of the issues. 

There are commercial efforts at making Wine work better.  Crossover and (I 
think) WineX, they might be better than plain wine but again you need to buy 
a license.  

Why do you want to run Windows on top of Linux?  Just curious about what 
applications it is that you think you need, it might be that there's a Linux 
equivalent that's good enough or better than what you're used to.  If it's 
the latest generation games that you're wanting to run unfortunately I think 
you really are stuck with Windows for that.

-- 
Fraser Campbell <fraser-Txk5XLRqZ6CsTnJN9+BGXg at public.gmane.org>                 http://www.wehave.net/
Georgetown, Ontario, Canada                               Debian GNU/Linux
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