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Windows-On-Linux Emulator Shootout
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.
If you have the funds, buy two computers and a switchbox. If you don't have the funds, configure your machine to dual boot.
Really, what's the point of running the emulation if you lose speed and capabilities?
I have a real-world problem and I was hoping this article had a possible solution. I want to move my home PCs to Linux where possible, but my 5 year old has lots of Windows games. I recognize that these reviews are targeted to corporations trying to save bucks by using Linux, and for them the bottom line is Word and Excel, but for the majority of
I'm not talking about Monster Truck Madness, I'm talking about Freddie Fish and Winnie the Pooh and Reader Rabbit. How do those fare under these emulators? I'm ready to dig into the configuration settings, create shell scripts, or whatever, so that he never knows he's on Linux -- he logs on and the emulator presents him Windows in full-screen -- but which emulator? Looks like none of them is up to it on our modest (400 MHz Duron) hardware.
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).
Another option is to run Windows and use VMWare to run Linux. This seems like the backward approach, but it could work. Has anyone tried it? Is it worth the trouble, or would dual-boot be better? (it's certainly cheaper, but reboots are annoyingly slow).
The ultimate solution would be to get Linux apps for my boy. Is there any educational/entertainment Linux software for kids? (commercial is OK, I'm not opposed to buying my software).
Thanks to all who answer
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Wrong. Apache is an enterprise-level product that is priced accordingly.
VMware GSX Server is an absolute must for any company looking to maintain multiple centralized development environments.
Wrong again. Removing MS Windows from all workstations is an absolute must for any company looking to maintain a decent development environment. Note change in wording: if the environment is centralized and multiple, you only have to maitain the "center" (server), and leaf node configuration is straightforward, right ?
Using VMWare, I can keep a stable base environment and develop and test code on multiple platforms: various Linux distros, plus multiple Windows flavors in my case.
In addition to that, I can install stuff that I'm evaluating in a virtual OS - including in a virtual Linux running on top of Linux - and if it causes any problems, I haven't affected my base environment.
With VMWare, the state of a virtual machine can be suspend in seconds, and you can shut down the physical machine and come back to exactly where you left off, right down to the state of the Caps Lock key and the mouse cursor. In the middle of some complex development and want to take a break to play a game? Just suspend the VM you're working in, play your game, and resume the VM you want.
I can save multiple configurations of each OS, and keep copies of old configurations to go back to if I need to. It's like having a whole swath of preinstalled partitions, except you don't have to reboot your machine to switch between them, and you can run more than one at the same time.
The only caveat to all of the above is that it needs a lot of memory and disk space to work well - figure at least 64MB per running VM, ideally more; and at least 1-2GB per VM disk image. Good CPU performance doesn't hurt, either. The upside is that these days, this is all pretty cheap. I currently run with 512MB RAM and 2x30GB disks, on a dual CPU box, and the only performance issue I'm ever aware of is a bit of mouse lag.
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)
Note: I don't profess that everything below is proven or easily-demonstrated fact. In fact, just to say right out, all of this is my opinion, but I feel my points are practical and easily applicable to many members of the Linux-using community.
"It seems to me that if the Open Source community was half as strong as they profess, there would be ample software that they would *rather* use on Linux
than Windows. "
Exactly.
I use Linux, and I've found good GPL programs that I've even found preferable over Windows programs. You don't hear me complaining about a lack of programs for Linux; the only game I play [besides simple things like mines, sol, same, tetris, and the like] is Quake II, which Linux runs without a hitch.
Now to address some of the points raised...
The most common webpage-reading-problem under UNIX is actually because of the way MS Word converts things to HTML (namely, *incorrectly* -- it does not adhere to the publicized HTML standards.)
And TrueType is actually... (yes, you guessed it) Macintosh technology! (details here) True, the fonts may be from Windows... although there's plenty of free TT fonts out there, and I use those for TT work [which I've done all of... once? hah], not the ones shipped by MS.
I don't dual boot, I don't use emulators, and I do plenty of meaningful work. I use things like AbiWord, LaTeX, vi, PHP, perl, ICON, gcc, Spice and the like to do what I need to do, which includes word processing, network administration, electrical circuit design, and programming in several languages.
Crappy browser? Lynx isn't crappy. It's incapable, sure... but if you want more capabilities, there's a spinoff project that adds all sorts of crazy features to lynx, called links -- it's like IE without graphics.
And if you want the graphics, there's always galeon, Konqueror, Netscape, Mozilla, or Opera...
I haven't gone back to Windows. Maybe that means I'm not an actual member of the community, hah! :)
And I frequently find it's easier to use Linux boot disks to fix DOS and Windows machines, due to the plethora of disk and MBR utilities available for free for Linux that fit easily on a floppy or two along with a few necessary boot files.
Oh yes, and before I forget, I'm not saying any of this to piss anybody off. I just want you to know that Linux works for me. Maybe I *am* an oddball [very likely true ;)] but I *do* use Linux successfully.
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive