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Running Windows Viruses Under Linux

Posted by timothy on from the under-is-the-right-preposition dept.

ResQuad writes "Everyone loves Windows viruses, right? Well, the crazy people over at NewsForge (owned by the same people that own Slashdot) decided to try running Windows viruses with Wine. So next time you receive an email virus, strike up Wine and see what you can do (or not)."

8 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. Wine is not an Emulator. by wot.narg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lets see just how non emulator wine is... If the virii own it, its an emulator, if not, its telling the truth.

    Bwhahahh...

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    1. Re:Wine is not an Emulator. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are correct.

      We have "bling bling" and "ain't" in dictionaries. Marijuana is legally classified as a "narcotic", when in pharmacology only opiates can be narcotics.

      The language changes. It may suck, but it's reality.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    2. Re:Wine is not an Emulator. by m50d · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, just like lame ain't an mp3 encoder. Names aren't always the full story. Wine definitely is an emulator in that it emulates, it just does it on a different level than most emulators, so it doesn't have many of their drawbacks, like the slowness.

      --
      I am trolling
    3. Re:Wine is not an Emulator. by dinivin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just because that's what the developer's claim, it doesn't make it so.

      If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it's gonna be a duck.

      Wine, acronym or not, is an emulator.

      Dinivin

  2. Re:His point? by kempokaraterulz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The point being its not a zip file to begin with. its simply disguised as one.

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  3. Re:Native ports now! by airConditionedGypsy · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Yes, it is a solution. Especially in situations where you have persuaded your friends and relatives to use Linux, but they still want to use some crappy Windows software because they are used to it, and there are no free/open-source ones.

    Furthermore, the 2% of Linux users don't really constitute a meaningful profit motive for these companies. We need to do more to get Linux on the desktop before they'll jump off the MS ship.

    --
    I bootleg Fizzy Lifting Drinks.
  4. No desire by Schezar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's simple. A lot of specialty software is very boring, and there just isn't any interest in the OSS community in developing similar software.

    Many businesses, especially real estate, banking, auto repair, fast food, and hotel management, rely on software written for windows many years ago that, for them, functions just fine.

    They're not techies: computers are not their business. Their business is their business. They're not going to invest resources in developing what they already have just so it can run on "another kind of computer." WINE is the perfect solution for these applications.

    Maybe, years from now, when they're running -ALL- of their software under WINE, they might realize that there's a better way.

    Until then, good luck finding good programmers who are psyched to write hotel reservation management software that will interface an archaic database platform for free.

    Projects like Open Office and The GIMP don't suffer from this problem largely because they're applications that Linux users need on a regular basis. When was the last time you needed to track your fast food orders?

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  5. Re:Damn worm writers... by einhverfr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Programmers these days, don't they even CARE about cross-platform compatability!?

    Right. At least the Morris Worm was distributed with the Source Code and was cross-platform. Go look for something like this today.

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