Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ecs] Win4Lin ? Ingo Pakleppa Mon, 07 Jun 2004 23:34:04 -0700

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There are actually quite a few products that do this. The two market
leaders are VMWare and Microsoft's Virtual PC. I didn't even know
Win4Lin is still around; it always had the reputation of a cheap
knockoff that didn't work as well. One limitation of Win4Lin that I
recall is that you can run only one instance of Windows. For that
matter, it only supports the DOS-based Windows versions, not the
NT-based ones. VMWare supports dozens of operating systems.

VMWare used to be quite pricey, but competition brought down the price,
and last I heard was that it was only about twice as much as Win4Lin.

VMWare and Virtual PC allow you to run any number of instances at the
same time. VMWare also allows you to run all kinds of host and guest
operating systems in almost any combination.

I have never used any of these products myself, so please consider this
second-hand information.

There are a number of limitations you need to be aware of. First off,
it's going to be slower than running Windows directly. Second, and for
you likely particularly important, Windows does not run on actual
hardware. It runs on emulated hardware. For instance, you don't get to
install the video driver for the actual graphics card that you have, but
rather a video driver for the VMWare or Virtual Server "card". I believe
that Virtual Server emulates a fairly standard graphics card, while
VMWare comes with a proprietary driver for the various host and guest
operating systems.

Similarly, there will be other hardware that you can't access. A while
ago, I heard that there were problems with USB support, for example
(although I'm sure that has been solved).

It is true that many Windows apps will run under Win4Lin, or any of the
other products. But don't expect all apps to run flawlessly, mostly
because the hardware is still emulated. And if you want to do driver
development - I would certainly expect problems.

Most people I know who actually use VMWare like it not just because it
saves the dual-boot hassle, but also because if you mess up your
installation, destroying and recreating your Windows installation is a
snap.

Ingo

On Sun, 2004-06-06 at 06:40, Mark Gilmore wrote:
> Has anyone tried this pgm (which installs and runs Win98 *in* Linux) ?
> The reviews are glowing: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1112
> As an evaluation effort for a customer that wishes to gradually migrate to 
> Linux,
> I am considering the purchase of this pgm and a Win98 full install disk 
> (which Win4Lin requires).
> btw, I am aware of WINE, but there are Win pgms it can't run (*all* Win 
> pgms should run under Win4Lin).
> Thanks,

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