Netraverse Win4Lin Pro released; runs Win 2000/XP

[Benjamin Scott]

  Sorry for the spam, but I know several people on this list use Win4Lin,
and others who have expressed interest, so I figured this was appropriate.  
If you're not interested in payware to help you use legacy Windoze programs
under Linux, please delete this message.  Thanks.


  For a long time, one has been able to run Windows 95/98/ME in a
light-weight virtual machine under Linux, using a payware product called
"Win4Lin" from a company called "Netraverse".  Similar in concept to VMware,
except cheaper and easier on the computrons.

  Netraverse has officially announced Win4Lin Pro (Version 6), which fully
supports Windows 2000.  WinXP can run but is currently "unsupported" due to
some pending bugs.  I just received their email about it on Fri 25 Feb.  
List price is $100 right now, and expected to rise to $130 at the end of
March.

  I encourage anyone thinking of buying to read the archives and current
discussion on the win4lin-users mailing list.  This is apparently a
near-total rewrite of the product.  It is apparently still a little rough
around the edges.  Performance is reportedly nowhere near that of the old
Win4Lin (Merge) product, but that is not surprising, and Netraverse says
they are working hard on improving it.  Reportedly, Win4Lin Pro does cannot
map the Linux filesystem to a Windows "drive" the way Win4Lin V5 did -- you
have to use a disk-image-in-a-file instead.

  Word on the street is that there will be no discount offered for existing
customers/owners of Win4Lin.  It's that fact that concerns me the most --
technological issues I understand, but I've been paying for regular upgrades
to Win4Lin since V3, and I'm rather disappointed that my loyalty is not
going to be rewarded.

  Product info:
	http://www.win4lin.com/redirects/win4linpro

  Tech release notes:  
	http://www.netraverse.com/support/docs/pro6_relnote.html

  List archives:
	http://netraverse.com:8100/Lists/win4lin-users/

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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