Fw: PC Mechanic Tip of the Day: Running Windows Software on Linux

Jerry Feldman gaf at blu.org
Fri May 6 09:05:01 EDT 2005


On Friday 06 May 2005 7:47 am, David Ecklein wrote:
> What do you know about this?  How does it compare to Win4Lin (or other
> hamburger helpers)? Any actual experience with such things? 
I have used Win4Lin, and I use CrossoverOffice. 
The major differences are:
Win4Lin is a virtual machine that runs a [licenced] version of Windows (9x, 
XP, 2000) as a Linux process, where the Win4Lin Windows directory is 
normally a subdirectory of your home directory. it is lighter weight than 
VMWare, and it is easier for Linux to access Windows files directly since 
it uses the native Linux file system.

CrossoverOffice. As mentioned before, this is WINE with a few bells and 
whistles. The people at CodeWeaver also maintain the OpenSource version of 
WINE. Wine is essentially a set of libraries that provides a Windows API so 
that you can run Windows applications as if they were native Linux 
applications. It even comes with a "simulate Windows reboot" command. I use 
it primarily for MS Office in cases where I absolutely need a feature of MS 
office that does not work well in OpenOffice although I prefer to use 
OpenOffice. Last month we had a talk at the BLU discussing the differences 
between WINE and CrossoverOffice. For its low price, consider it a 
contribution to the OpenSource effort as a purchase of CrossoverOffice does 
support the entire WINE effort. Additionally, CrossoverOffice and WINE do 
not require you to have a licensed version of Windows. Of course, if you 
want to run a commercial Windows application you are obligated by the 
license of that application. CrossoverOffice does run Quicken, QuickBooks, 
and TurboTax. The CodeWeavers site lists applications that they have tested 
and support. 

Also, note that some Windows developers use the WINE libraries as a method 
to port their applications to Linux. These applications have been natively 
compiled under Linux in contrast to Windows applications running under 
WINE. 
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9



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