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how to get win32 software to run on linux

Hi,

I have offically switched my machine to linux redhat 7.3
I was wondering can any tell me what is the best way to run a win32 application in linux?
What is the difference in vmware, wine em2dos etc...?
Which one is the best to first setup?
I have never tried any of them. I had softwindowns for my SGI which ran win95 and that sucked! It was so slow.

Thanks onestar

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

samri

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samri

OK, I got wine working with some basic windows program. My system is running Rh7.2 full install. Have win98 (in /dev/hda2 mounted at /mnt/win98).

You will need to create a directory .wine in your home dir. I logged in as root, and create the dir .wine, and create the file wine.conf in that dir. Basic config would look like (copied from a website -- forgot the link already).

----------
[Drive C]
Path=/mnt/win98/
Type=hd

[wine]
Windows=c:\windows
System=c:\windows\system
Path=c:\windows;c:\windows\system
Temp=c:\temp
----------

to run a program, I cd'ed to /mnt/win98/windows, and try;
winelauncher winmine.exe

voila; you got Minesweeper running.

SOme basic windows program should run, calc.exe, notepad.exe. haven't got a chance to try others.

good luck.

onestar

ASKER

Do you have to have windows installed on a drive to use wine?

samri

Onestar,

I believe it won't be necessary if you were to run some standalone Windows program (like notepad, calc). However in most cases, some windows program might be calling other DLL's that is required. It is best to have an exact windows directory tree (mine is available since I mount the partition for win98 under /mnt/win98).

Licensing would be an issue is you have one windows installation, and you copied it over to your linux dirs. But by mounting it under linux, it should be OK.

Perhaps you might want to check Wine FAQ at http://www.winehg.com/

I kinda like VMWare, since it's a virtual machine running on top of Linux, whereas Wine is just an emulator.

cheers.

fremsley

> The problem is, you might need a huge mem, and fast
> processor.

I use NT4 in VMWare with a K6/300MHz 128MB machine -- it's
'good enough.'

> SOme basic windows program should run [with Wine]

And some others too; Photoshop 4.01 for example.

> It is best to have an exact windows directory tree

Most programs work fine when they have been installed
using a normal Windows installation. After setup the
program's directory tree can be moved to a place using
the same path in Wine. When needed DLLs are missing,
Wine will print an error message, so one can find the
missing libraries.

> Licensing would be an issue is you have one windows
> installation [...]

No problems in the European Union as long as both
installations are on the same computer.

Hope it helps

samri

onestar,

any luck?

onestar

ASKER

Thanks for the help,

I got wine to work for some small exe files. I downloaded a trial of vmware and got it to work for redhat 7.3. I will keep testing it out but it seems pretty good.

Onestar