Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Windows-On-Linux Emulator Shootout

Posted by timothy on from the fooling-some-of-the-programs-some-of-the-time dept.

securitas writes: "ZDNet has posted a comparative review of 5 Windows-on-Linux emulators from VMware (2), NeTraverse, WinToNet and Wine." The results encountered varied quite a bit -- none of the products are perfect, but it looks like they hit a particularly disappointing time with Wine.

4 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Re:OK, but which one? by greenfly · · Score: 2, Informative
    Which leads me to the next question (but since this is the first post I doubt many will see, let alone answer): What's the best free/open X Terminal for Windows? If I have to run Windows then at least give me a reasonable way to reach Linux on another box (VNC is nice but the lag time hurts).

    Have you ever tried the XFree86 Windows port from Cygwin? I've used it in the past to get a remote X login on windows 9x and 2000 machines I had to use at the time. And, yes, it's free.

  2. Re:So which one is faster?? by HeUnique · · Score: 3, Informative

    The conclusion is pretty simple..

    If you want to run your office apps and have Windows 95/98/98SE/ME (not sure about Win ME - anyone?) - then use Win4Lin 3.0

    If your app requires even a single call to any DirectX stuff (like full-screen with Direct Draw) - then it won't run on Win4Lin.

    Win4Lin run "normal" apps (that doesn't requires DirectX) much faster then VMWare.

    Now - if you want to run Windows NT/2000/XP or Another Operating system (Linux) then the only option you have is VMWare - but you'll need lots of memory (which is cheap), and a strong processor. VMWare however - is slower compared to Win4Lin but it runs much more software.

    Now - I didn't see they mention it - but if you need to run MULTIPLE VMWare sessions at once, with scripting support (VM1 turns on VM2 to do XYZ and then turns of VM2 etc...) - then you'll need VMWare GSX which got a pretty big price tag - $2500

    If you want to run some serious numbers of VM's at once (15,20,30 etc) - then you'll need VMWare ESX - which is an entirly different product (it's bootable VMWare without any hosting OS) - a really strong machine (4 processors minimum), tons of memory (gigabytes), and very fast hard drives and network. You'll get a special console which is Redhat 6.2 + perl scripts to do all the maintaining stuff - and for each user you'll need to install special KVM software (keyboard, video, mouse) - price tag - $11.200 + precentages..

    --
    Hetz (Heunique)
  3. Re:OK, but which one? by vovin · · Score: 2, Informative

    For an X server (I've not tried the cygwin XFree port, the OS/2 one isn't seamless ...) but on OS/2 I prefer HOBlink. They make an Windows version as well, and judging by the OS/2 one I suspect the windows one is also very nice.

    http://www.hobsoft.com/products/x11/x11.html
    http://www.hoblink.de

  4. Re:OK, but which one? by quinto2000 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Our school uses X Win 32. This is quite a capable and compact x windows server. It is a commercial product, but by far the best I have found.


    there are several projects to create kid-friendly linux software. a good place to start would be the Debian Jr. project, which aims to create an entire distribution. There are also some simple educational games around, like Tux Typer.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas un post