Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Josep L. Guallar-Esteve" <jlguallar AT maduixa.net>]

A Dissabte 08 Desembre 2001 01:41 pm, vàreu escriure:

> What was the app you mentioned that lets Word, etc. run on Linix? I don't
> want to make a career out of learning curving right now; I need to share
> files that run on Windows, but I need to look ahead, to the next 18 months.
> Thanks
> Ed Wesolowski

Hi Ed!

There are 3 possible ways to run applications within Linux:

1.- VmWare. Is a prorgam that generates a "virtual machine" where you acn 
install any other PC OS, like Windows95, Windows2000, BeOS, Linux.... You 
need, though, a copy of the *ither* OS to install it. Yes, when you run the 
program, you get a "window" where you see a PC starting: BIOS messages, 
memory check etc etc. IMHO need a big computer / lots of resources to work 
nice and right. There's Windows and Linux versions (so you can try Linux 
without partitioning and all that). AFAIK, there's no support for DirectX.

2.- Win4Lin. It doesn't go that far as VmWare in recreating a (complete) 
virtual PC. You can install only WindowsOS (no Linux nor BeOS). IMHO is 
faster and more agile thatn VmWare.... or less than a "resource hog". IT can 
run in a Linux box with only 64 MB of RAM. No DirectX support, though. You 
need the Windows CD to install it. You can run it "full screen" or "WindowsOS 
as an X-Window application.  

You want to check what Tom's Hardware has to say about it (full review)

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/01q4/011205/index.html


3.- WINE. "Wine Is Not an Emulator". IT is a set of libraries that completely 
replaces Windows. Then, you can install , run and use Windows/32 bits 
applications on your Linux box. It is not perfect, it is not stable... yet. 
But is getting pretty darn close. There's some DirectX support.  

I have a WINE-HOWTO on my website. It is intended to run a Windows Game 
(using DirectX). But you can use it to get ready to install your favourite 
Windows application:

http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/Steel/linux_en.html

Some further information about WINE (what is it, applications that work, 
interesting links, ...) is in this page

http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/linux/linux_05en.html#wine

Also, some screencaptures of Windows applications running on Linux:

http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/linux/linux_03en.html#codeweavers


Do you want to have a good experience with Wine?Go use Codeweavers Wine 
distribution. It includes a nice GUI Wine Configuration tool. Easy to 
install, piece-of-cake to run:

http://www.codeweavers.com/technology/wine/

CodeWeavers also distributes a plugin to let you watch QuickTime stuff on 
Linux.


Hope all this helps. If you ahve more question,  you know my e-mail . And 
there's a Linux Users Group in the area: TriLUG http://www.trilug.org , 
meetings every second Thursday of the month (yup, next Thursday).



Salut,
Josep
-- 
Josep Lluis Guallar-Esteve