On Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 10:35:08AM -0600, Chris Montgomery wrote:
> I suspect that most of the aforementioned products require having Linux
> and Windows running on two systems at the same time, but I could be wrong.
I'm afraid you are wrong.
There are two approaches involved. One is to intercept and interpret
Windows-specific API calls into equivalent Linux OS and X-windows GUI
operations, with appropriate 'shim' code to carry out this transformation,
and the other is to attempt to emulate the target system from within the
host application.
The first is the approach taken by Wine. The upside to this approach
is that it's relatively light-weight--thus requires fewer system
resources and a less powerful host computer, and can be faster--and
doesn't require a copy of the target environment. The downside is that
Microsoft doesn't document everything neatly, so discovering what needs
to be interpreted/converted and how is a trial- and-error process.
The second approach--emulation--is taken by both of the major contenders
in this arena, Win4Lin and VMWare, albeit to different degrees.
I haven't used Win4Lin, so take this as second-hand, but last I looked
it does Win98 emulation only. VMWare actually is a full virtual machine
emulation--it can run virtually any x86 operating system/environment,
looking to the target as if it is running on a fairly generic Intel box,
and can (within the raw processing capability of the host hardware)
run multiple concurrent instantiations of either the same environment
or different ones. That is, you can--with enough CPU and memory--run
a copy of DOS, Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP at
the same time in different windows. (Note that to do all those, you'd
better have one honkin' big/powerful system.) The downside to this is,
as mentioned, the hardware requirements to support, effectively, both the
host Linux system and the target environment's full machine needs; and that
you've got to have a (presumably licensed) copy of each operating system/
environment you're going to run. Moreover, running two instantiations of,
say, Windows NT Server means two server licenses, plus associated CALs,
and so on for any applications.
I'm ignoring cost of the host applications--VMWare is exceedingly capable,
but somewhat pricy. Win4Lin lives in the middle, and Wine is, I believe,
free.
The short answer to your question, "Can I do this", is an unmitigated yes.
The cost depends on what you need to run--some applications work fine with
Wine today, some under Win4Lin, and VMWare seems to fill the top billet (in
both flexibility and cost.)
Cheers,
--
Dave Ihnat
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