running Linux at work with Windows apps

[Bill Sconce]

bscott at ntisys.com writes:

> On Tue, 12 Nov 2002, at 5:28pm, sconce at in-spec-inc.com wrote:
>> Put another way, if there is a need continuing into the future
>> to keep up with proprietary produccts VMWare may be a better
>> choice.  Win4Lin's design target is more tightly focused.
>> Remember, for instance, that Win4Lin's support has always been
>> limited to the DOS-based versions of the software formerly
>> known as Windows.
> 
>   My thought -- okay, my unfounded speculation is that getting
> WinNT/2000/XP to run under Win4Lin/Merge should be possible.
> Win95/98/ME try to ignore DOS once loaded, so the VM provided
> by Merge has to be reasonably complete already.  It might just
> be a matter of tweaks and device drivers. 
> 
>   As for the question of "Should they?", I think the potential
> market for such emulation environments is good for the foreseeable
> future.  Microsoft is going to be around for a long time (remember,
> there are companies still running software written for IBM
> mainframes designed in the 1960s!).  Even if everyone decides
> to move to Linux tomorrow, it will take awhile for all that legacy
> code to die off.  Personally, I think adoption of Linux will
> continue to be a gradual affair -- not a stampede -- giving
> products like Win4Lin and VMware a steady stream of new customers
> for some time to come.
 

Good point, Ben.  I see that I should modify my view. 

The "transition period", as we've been using the term, will go
on indefinitely.  Mileage will still vary, and what "transition"
means will be different for each individual user and each shop.
But so many users will have continuing needs to run winXX-API
apps that we probably should recognize a de facto requirement:
before any desktop OS can be widely accepted it must provide a
means of running such apps.  That is, any viable desktop OS must
provide a winXX API interface. 

We, the denizens of this list, are among the most hard-core
about getting free of Microsoft, and look how much use of VMWare
and Win4Lin there is amongst us. 

In spite of my statement yesterday (my desire to avoid adding
more chains around my ankle, I _will_ buy more winXX-API apps.
One example is tax software.  I buy it every year, and it will
likely continue to be winXX-API-only for the foreseeable future.
I have to have a winXX API available somewhere - either on a
real (Linux) machine, or on a system which still runs Microsoft
software once a year. 

[Side note.  As the vendor of my tax software has increasingly
connected its package to the 'Net, and increasingly made noises
about sending my personal tax-time information to its "partners"
on the 'Net, I increasingly have been grateful for Win4Lin.
With Win4Lin it's trivially easy to construct a new virtual
machine each year, just for the tax package.  I KNOW where the
files are.  I KNOW the Microsoft "system" isn't on the 'Net
 -it's unplugged!- when the tax software is running.  And I KNOW the
tax software is no longer on my machine (the Microsoft "system"
has been DESTROYED, moved to CDROM) before the machine is allowed
to connect to the 'Net again.] 

My modified view (thanks, Ben) is then:
   1.  The need for winXX API support is permanent.
   2.  DOS-based versus NT-based doesn't matter much.
           (The apps which matter are pretty much obligated
           to run with the DOS-based winXX API, for the
           same legacy reasons that matter to us, and that
           means Win4Lin almost always suffices. (For APPS,
           remember.))
   3.  "Transition" means "until Wine".

.02
 -Bill