Win4Lin Home Edition

[Bill Sconce]

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 08:54:34 -0500
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org> wrote:

> I have no problem with Win4Lin. I think it is an excellent product if
> you need to have a real version of Windows 9x. I pay for Crossover
> Office for a couple of reasons, one is that most of the Windows
> applications that I need (mainly MS Office and Quick Books) are
> supported. The other reason, is that it is a small price to pay for
> support of OpenSource (eg. WINE). 



Those are valid reasons.  I have no problem with Crossover Office.

A good argument can be made that to wean oneself from proprietary
software it's worth buying "just one more proprietary license" to
help out during the transition period.

Win4Lin does that.  DOS based, lightweight, runs everything 16-bit
Windows was able to run, requires a u$ OS license.

VMWare does that.  Virtual-machine based, heavyweight, runs as much
as 32-bit Windows can run, requires a u$ OS license.

Crossover Office does that.  Free software based(!), runs (amazingly!)
the Office suite, requires a u$ Office license.

And of course there is dual booting, which although Evil, also runs
as much as Windows itself can run, and requires a u$ OS license.

It's great that there are such choices.  There's no need for a 
vi-versus-Emacs argument over which one is "best", since the real
goal is to suffer as little inconvenience as possible while running
in this mode - and to eventually get rid of u$ altogether.

I pay for Win4Lin, for a couple of reasons.  One is that Win4Lin was
there when I needed it.  (Crossover office came later;  I'd have tried
it otherwise, since the support-for-Free-software consideration is
important.)  Another reason might have been that the apps I wanted 
to support are not Office (fortunately I've never used it).

(VMWware is designed to solve a different/larger set of problems
and is too heavyweight for one or two spreadsheet sessions per week,
which were the only things which Free software couldn't handle.)

Let the mileage vary...


RE: Kenyon Karl's original post - thank you very much for that!  A
price reduction is a good move for Win4Lin, and availability of 
cheaper pacifiers helps Linux.  $29.95 is a GOOD price.


RE: Ben Scott's:

>  I use Win4Lin myself, and am very happy with it.

Same here.


RE: Jerry Feldman's:

> Unfortunately, it does not appear that Win4Lin will ever support
> WindowsNT based products. Please correct me on this.

Nope, I think that's one of the real constraints.  If "your mileage"
means NT Win4Lin is excluded forever, so far as I know.


-Bill