Windows Apps on Linux May Not Be Such a Great Idea
As I write this, many otherwise sane Linux people I know are going gaga over the idea of running Win- dows applications on Linux with Lindows. “It’ll make Linux the operating system for the desktop once they can get Office XP running on it,” gushes one of my friends.
As I write this, many otherwise sane Linux people I know are going gaga over the idea of running Win- dows applications on Linux with Lindows. “It’ll make Linux the operating system for the desktop once they can get Office XP running on it,” gushes one of my friends.
Oh, please! It won’t do anything of the sort. First, while MP3.com millionaire Michael Robertson certainly has the bucks to pursue the dream of a cheap operating system that can run both Linux and Windows programs, it’s vaporware now. I’m told that there are plans for a beta release by the end of 2001 and a shipping product in the first quarter of 2002.
Right, a company founded in September will have a shipping operating system by March 2002. I don’t think so. Can they put a DOS/Windows emulator on Linux by then? Sure, the company is working with the Wine Windows 16/32-bit emulator, which dates back to 1993. However, even before Wine, DOS/Windows on Unix had already been done, over and over and over again.
We’ve had Microsoft operating system emulators and virtual machines for Unix since before Linux was around. I wrote my first review of DOS on Unix systems for Computer Shopper in 1990 using Interactive Systems VP/ix and Locus Merge.
Today I’m running NeTraverse’s Win4Lin 3.0 (a Merge descendent) on Caldera OpenLinux Workstation 2.3, and I’m writing the first draft of this…
Please log in to view this content.
Not Yet a Member?
Register with LinuxMagazine.com and get free access to the entire archive, including:
