Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 08:03:12 08/10/04
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On August 10, 2004 at 09:43:24, Tim OConnor wrote:
>I do seem to be addicted to using computers. I would be willing to try Linux
>again. The only reason I switched from Macintosh was it couldn't run all of the
>programs I wanted.
That's the big problem for Linux users as well: not being able to run some
popular Windows software for which there is no Linux equivalent - not yet.
Fortunately there are now at least 2 satisfying solutions to this problem:
1) Win4lin allows you to install a copy of Windows 95/98/98SE/ME on top of the
Linux desktop. It acts as a set of drivers that redirect Windows system calls to
Linux system calls and runs applications at their native speed. You will be able
to run 99% of Windows applications with it. No support for Windows device
drivers however. The files of the Windows sessions are directly accessible from
Linux (Win4lin uses the Linux file system - simple and elegant). Copy/paste
between Linux and Windows works. The Windows session will be able to
automatically use the Linux Internet connection if there is one, no need to
configure anything.
2) VMware is a little bit more expensive and will create a virtual PC on your
Linux desktop. Compared to Win4lin it adds Windows 2000/XP/2003 support if you
really need it (as well as upcoming Longhorn). It will be able to run 99.9% of
Windows programs including device drivers. VMware also allows you to run a bunch
of other OSes, including DOS, Netware and... Linux!
I would personally recommend Win4lin as the first choice. It is easy to install,
not very expensive ($89) and will run most applications so well that it should
be more than enough for most needs.
Christophe
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