Wine basics for beginners. Running Linux applications on Windows - fantasy or harsh reality
A huge number of programs have been written for Linux-based operating systems. Despite this, sometimes it becomes necessary to run Windows programs under Linux. This mainly applies to games and some specialized programs that have no analogues in Linux. In addition, some users, switching from Windows to Linux, are already accustomed to a certain set of software and want to use it in the future. In this case, it is still preferable to find similar programs for Linux and master them, since the programs usually work better and more stable in the native operating system. Therefore, we recommend running Windows programs under Linux only after you are sure that there are no analogues of the required programs under Linux, or they are not suitable for you.
You can run a program written for Windows on Linux in several ways: using Wine and products based on it, using virtual machines and emulators: VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels Workstation, QEMU. Theoretically, it is still possible to port programs from Windows to Linux if you have the source code and programming skills, but we will not consider this option here.
Programs running under Wine usually run faster than running in virtual machines. This is especially true for modern 3D games. Wine does not require installation of an operating system and allows you to quickly change the system version, libraries and other parameters. You can run programs directly in the Linux environment. On the other hand, you will still have to spend some time setting up Wine, and possibly more than once when launching individual programs and games. Virtual machines run original versions of Windows and other operating systems that must first be installed and configured. The system is allocated certain computer resources and standard equipment is emulated. Before executing the program, you must first launch the emulator and load the operating system, which requires additional time. It should be noted that some programs are protected from running under virtual machines.
Installing Wine
Open the terminal using a key combination Ctrl+Alt+T. Add a repository with Wine with the command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
Enter the administrator password. During the installation process you will need to press the " Enter».
If you upgrade your system, for example, upgrading Ubuntu 13.10 to Ubuntu 14.04, you will have to repeat the above operation after the upgrade, since non-standard repositories are deleted during the upgrade process.
After adding the repository, update the package information:
sudo apt-get update
Now you can install Wine with the command:
sudo apt-get install wine1.7
The latest, at the time of writing, test version of the program will be installed. To install an older, but more stable version, you need to run the command:
sudo apt-get install wine1.6
Perhaps, when you read this article, newer versions will already appear, then instead of wine1.6 or wine1.7, you will need to install wine1.8 or wine1.9. The current version number is listed on the official Wine website: http://www.winehq.org
Although you don't have to specify a version during installation, the version of Wine in this case will depend on the version of the operating system:
sudo apt-get install wine
You can check which version is installed using the command:
wine --version
Setting up Wine
After installation, you need to configure the program with the command:
winecfg
Rice. 1. Winecfg settings window
This command will create a .wine directory in the user's home directory, where system files with settings will be located - an analogue of the Windows registry and drive_c - a directory for Windows applications. Using winecfg, you can select default Windows versions and for individual applications, library versions, configure graphics and sound, desktop integration, and select drives from which Windows programs are allowed to run.
You can edit the registry using the usual command:
Rice. 2. Regedit window under Wine
After this initial setup, you will be able to install and run programs using Wine. But many programs will not work because they require certain libraries, fonts, etc., which will have to be installed separately. To do this, we will use the winetricks program, which is included in the standard Wine software package. Winetricks, in addition to fonts and libraries, also allows you to install popular programs and games and configure Wine.
Let's try to install Internet Explorer 7 using winetricks, to do this we type in the terminal:
winetricks ie7
Let's wait a while until the necessary files are downloaded and the installer starts, click the "Next" button and wait for the installation to complete. To launch Internet Explorer later, you will need to run the command:
wine "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore"
But it is better to run programs from their native directory. Go to the directory (if there is a space in the file name, then you need to put a backslash “\” in front of it):
cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Internet\ Explorer/
And run the program:
wine iexplore.exe
To avoid typing these commands every time, you can create a simple script. Go to the home directory:
Create the ie.sh file using the nano editor:
nano ie.sh
Paste the lines into the file:
cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Internet\ Explorer/ wine iexplore.exe
Save the file - Ctrl+O and exit the editor - Ctrl+X. Making the file executable:
chmod +x ie.sh
Now to launch ie just type:
~/ie.sh
Or you can copy the file to your desktop and run it with the mouse:
cp ie.sh ~/Desktop/
Installing a program from a CD or DVD can be done using the following command:
wine start "D:\setup.exe"
You can install other programs and libraries in the same way. You can also use the program's graphical interface by typing winetricks without parameters. Then select “Select the default wineprefix”.
Rice. 4. Select winetricks action
And check the boxes for the libraries that need to be installed. You can do the same using the command line, for example:
winetricks d3dx9 dotnet20
Thus, we will install two components at once: d3dx9 and dotnet20. To ensure that popular fonts are displayed correctly in programs, install them:
winetricks allfonts
Libraries are a little more complicated. Different programs may require separate settings, specific versions of Windows and libraries. To do this, you can create multiple Wine configurations by specifying the settings directory using an environment variable WINEPREFIX. By default WINEPREFIX=~/.wine To create new settings in the ~/.wine2 directory, type:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine2 winecfg
Thus, any number of configurations can be created. To configure and install fonts and libraries, type:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine2 winetricks
To run the installed program:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine2 "C:/path/to/program/program.exe"
You can terminate the program using the command:
killall -9 program.exe
And to shut down all programs running under Wine, you need to type:
wineserver -k
To remove settings and all programs in the ~/.wine2 prefix, you just need to delete the directory:
rm -r ~/.wine2
You can also delete the main Wine directory in the same way:
rm -r ~/.wine
Be careful, this will also remove all Windows applications that are installed in this directory!
winefile- launch a file manager, with which you can launch Windows applications, copy and delete files, etc. You can find out which applications and games run under Wine and how to make settings for specific applications on the website: http://appdb.winehq.org/ The site is in English. To search for applications, you need to select “Browse Apps” in the menu and enter the name of the program in the “Name” field. Versions of programs that launch and work without errors or with minor problems are rated “Platinum” or “Gold”. If the program does not work at all, then it is assigned a "Garbage" rating.
PlayOnLinux
PlayOnLinux is a program that greatly simplifies the installation and configuration of Windows applications to run under Wine. It automatically downloads from the Internet and installs all the necessary components to run specific programs, as well as the programs themselves, if they are distributed free of charge via the Internet. Otherwise, you will need an installation disk with the program. We install the program in any way, for example in Ubuntu with the command:
sudo apt-get install playonlinux
and run it:
playonlinux
Using the program is extremely simple. Click the “Install” button.
Rice. 5. PlayOnLinux main window
Select the program to install. If you don’t find the program you need in the selection window, you can try clicking “Install a program not in the list” at the bottom of the window.
Rice. 6. PlayOnLinux program selection window
All you have to do is click the “Next” button several times, and in some cases select the program configuration. After installation, program shortcuts will appear in the main PlayOnLinux window, from where they can be launched by double-clicking or by clicking on the “Launch” button. You can also create shortcuts to Windows programs on your desktop using the Shortcut button.
Rice. 7. PlayOnLinux main window with FireFox Windows program installed
Other Wine-based programs
There are also paid software products based on Wine. CrossOver allows you to run various versions of Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop and many other programs and games under Linux. WINE@Etersoft is aimed mainly at supporting popular business programs: 1C:Enterprise, ConsultantPlus, GARANT and others. You can get acquainted with these programs on the official websites: http://www.codeweavers.com/products/ http://etersoft.ru/products/wine
VirtualBox
VirtualBox is one of the most popular virtualization programs that allows you to run different operating systems simultaneously on one computer. You can install VirtualBox on Ubuntu in the standard way by typing in the terminal:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dkms
sudo apt-get install virtualbox
You can download VirtualBox for various operating systems here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. After the installation is complete, add the user to the vboxusers group; instead of username, you must specify the correct user name under which VirtualBox will work:
sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers username
Now you can run the program through the menu, or by typing in the terminal:
virtualbox
Rice. 8. VirtualBox Manager with already installed operating systems
Now let's install the operating system; for this you need to have an installation disk or its image. Click the “Create” button and the wizard for creating a new virtual machine will start:
Rice. 9. New Virtual Machine Wizard
Click the “Forward” button, enter the name of the virtual machine, for example “Windows XP”, and below select the appropriate type and version of the operating system:
Rice. 10. Selecting the operating system version
We chose Windows XP because it is less demanding on computer resources, takes up less space, and loads faster. But support for this system has already been officially discontinued. Naturally, you can install other versions of Windows that VirtualBox supports: Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012. Next, select the amount of RAM that will be allocated to the virtual machine:
Rice. 11. Selecting memory capacity
The choice depends on the OS version, the amount of physical memory, planned tasks, and the number of guest systems running simultaneously. Depending on the version of the operating system, VirtualBox will offer different default settings, but they are usually minimal, it is advisable to increase them. In any case, for normal operation of modern operating systems, you need at least 1-2 Gigabytes of RAM (512 MB is enough for Windows XP) and you still need to leave memory for the main host system. Next, create a new virtual hard disk or select previously created ones.
Rice. 12. Virtual hard disk
On the next screen, select the disk type, standard VDI by default.
Rice. 14. Selecting virtual disk attributes
Specify the disk size, leaving the location as default (the disk will be located in the folder ~/VirtualBox VMs/System name.
Rice. 15. Selecting the location and size of the virtual disk
All that remains is to click the “Create” button.
Rice. 16. The last stage of creating a new virtual machine
The virtual machine has been created. Select it in the VirtualBox manager and click the “Properties” button.
Rice. 17. System selection
Here you can configure the created virtual machine in detail. First of all, you need to specify the disk from which we will install the system. To do this, click on “Media” on the left, select an empty disk, click on the disk icon on the right and specify the distribution image, or check the “Live CD/DVD” box and insert a physical disk.
Rice. 18. Selecting an installation disk
Rice. 19. System settings
If the speed of working with graphics is important, go to the “Display” tab, increase the amount of video memory and enable acceleration.
Rice. 20. Configuring display settings
Go back to VirtualBox Manager and click the “Start” button. Next, we install the system as usual. After installing the guest system, load it and select “Install guest OS additions” in the “Devices” menu. Instead, you can press the key combination right Ctrl+D. After installing the add-ons, the system will be ready for use.
Rice. 21. Installed and ready to use Windows XP in VirtualBox
The guest operating system is loaded after starting VirtualBox using the “Start” button. The mouse pointer switches between the main and guest systems automatically, but you can force it using the button right Ctrl(Host key - can be changed in settings) and right Ctrl+I. This same button, in combination with various keys, performs a number of functions:
Host key+F- switch to full screen mode and back.
Host key+Del- replaces the combination Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Host key+I- disable mouse integration.
Host key+C- switching to scaling mode, in which you can set an arbitrary window size, returning to standard mode using the same key combination.
Host key+D- installation of guest operating system add-ons.
Host key+T- take a photo, save the OS state. You can restore the system from a saved state in the main window of the VirtualBox manager by clicking on the “Snapshots” button. A very convenient function for fighting viruses, testing and debugging programs that can damage the system. You can always roll back the system to a stable state.
Host key+S- open the settings window.
Host key+R- reboot the system.
Host key+Q- close the virtual machine (log off the system).
The use of Linux or UNIX applications on Windows can be dictated by a lot of reasons - from a banal habit of certain programs to the inability to run a separate machine with Linux. Some people want to use native versions of the software for debugging, while others hope that in this way they can force users to smoothly migrate to a full-fledged distribution.
Before fencing with emulators, it’s better to look for ported versions or analogues of your favorite programs. The same GIMP, Audacity, Pidgin and many other utilities have native builds not only for Windows, but also for Mac OS X. To obtain any specific functionality, a full-fledged analogue of Linux software is often not required. For example, you get used to Tab completion in the bash shell very quickly, but in the Windows command line there is no trace of this. The clink utility will help correct this and other annoying omissions.
Standard console utilities, for example from the GNU Coreutils package, have long been ported to Windows. There are both fairly old sets of GNUWin II and , as well as constantly updated UWIN (not recommended for use) and . For the latter, after completing the installation of the basic installer, you need to sequentially run the download.bat and install.bat files, and then copy the gnuwin32 folder to any convenient location and run the update-links.bat file from it. After running the last script, the StartMenu subdirectory will contain links to launching the command line with the GNU environment and documentation for the utilities.
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Owners of Windows Vista/7 in the maximum and corporate versions, as well as server versions of Microsoft OS, don’t have to bother at all. A subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) or Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX (SFU) are available for them. This set of basic utilities is present directly in the system components. Additional software packages can be downloaded. Finally, the last on the list and the first most popular solution for running UNIX programs is Cygwin. This package is easy to install and contains a large set of applications ported to Windows. It is recommended to use it.
Now we can talk about something strange - launching a non-Windows-native KDE system. In fact, the KDE on Windows project has existed for several years, and at first it was simply impossible to use it due to regular crashes, which did not drive the unfortunate system into BSOD. However, the developers did not sit idly by, and in the current reincarnation of the project you can safely install it - errors are quite rare, and even those are not critical. There’s probably no point in installing everything at once, but some applications might appeal to you.
Unfortunately, ported applications do not always behave the same as in their native environment, or may conflict with other programs. Therefore, the only option, besides installing a “penguin” OS on bare metal, is to emulate Linux. For one-time use, you can use a shell for QEMU called MobaLiveCD, which will help you launch LiveCD/USB with various distributions without unnecessary fuss. For permanent use, it is better to install Linux in a virtual machine: in VirtualBox or VMWare Player. Just don't forget to install Guest Additions for a more comfortable experience. An alternative option is to use VDI solutions with the ability to seamlessly integrate Linux applications into Windows running on a separate host, which can also be virtualized.
The best option for running Linux applications is to use the coLinux environment. It, relatively speaking, runs the Linux kernel at the Windows kernel level and has access to all hardware resources of the machine, due to which there is practically no loss of performance. At the same time, it remains fully compatible with Linux applications, allowing you to launch them directly. Based on coLinux, there are ready-made systems for quick startup, Topologilinux (Slackware), (various distributions) and Linux (Ubuntu). The only unpleasant limitation of coLinux and all packages based on it is the need to use a 32-bit version of Windows 2k/XP/2k3/Vista/7. As an example, let's look at the minimal configuration of Debian Squeeze. First of all, let's install the latest version, refusing to download ready-made images and installing WinPcap at the same time.
Now you need to archive the disk image with Debian and unpack it into the folder where coLinux was installed. The size of the rootfs_2gb.img disk can be increased if desired. The squeeze.conf file will have to be edited a little. The minimum changes are to increase the amount of allocated RAM (mem), allow access to the C: drive via COFS and add a TAP network interface. Please note that when using COFS, it is best not to access the same files with folders from Linux and Windows at the same time.
Kernel=vmlinux cobd0="rootfs_2gb.img" cobd1="swap_128mb.img" root=/dev/cobd0 ro cofs0="C:\" initrd=initrd.gz mem=512 eth0=slirp eth1=tuntap
After running squeeze.bat you will be taken to the Debian console. The default login is root, but there is no password. Using nano, we will edit the parameters of network interfaces in the file /etc/network/interfaces. Let's add a section for eth1. We use any IP address as long as there is no intersection with other local subnets. In Windows, in the IPv4 settings of the TAP-Win32 Adapter V8 (coLinux) network adapter, you must specify an address from the same subnet.
Auto eth1 iface eth1 inet static address 192.168.100.2 netmask 255.255.255.0
Exit nano and save the changes - F2, Y, Enter. Now let's create a folder where drive C: will be mounted...
Mkdir /mnt/windrvc
...add one line to the end of the /etc/fstab file and save it:
/dev/cofs0 /mnt/windrvc cofs defaults 0 0
Now we will install the X server, but for now, for simplicity, we will export the DISPLAY variable to the ~/.profile file (this will need to be done for any other users). For the IP address, use the one specified for the TAP adapter in Windows. After this, you can reboot with the reboot command.
Export DISPLAY=192.168.100.1:0
It would be useful to install a set, including Cyrillic ones. Optionally, you can browse through font directories, including C:\Windows\Fonts, using the mkfontdir and mkfontscale utilities from Cygwin. Now everything is ready to install the X server. Immediately after this procedure, we add the IP address of the TAP interface in Debian to the X0.hosts file (in our example it is 192.168.100.2).
Let us “thank” Windows for its vigilance and in the standard firewall we will change all the rules regarding Xming from prohibiting to allowing, otherwise programs simply will not reach the X server. Now we launch the XLaunch utility, in which you can select the X-window display mode and set additional parameters. It is important for us to configure support for Russian and English layouts with switching by Alt+Shift and optionally set the DPI. At the end, the settings file must be saved as name.xlaunch. In the future, double-clicking on this file will launch the X server with the parameters we specified.
Xkblayout us,ru -xkbvariant basic,winkeys -xkboptions grp:alt_shift_toggle -dpi 96
To make things less boring, let's install the synaptic graphical package manager for more convenient software installation and some lightweight panel with an application menu, for example lxpanel. For simplicity, we will add the latter to autorun upon login by adding the lxpanel& command to the end of ~/.profile.
Apt-get update apt-get upgrade apt-get install synaptic lxpanel
To complete the picture, let's add sound support. Download the Pulseadio archive from here and unpack it into some directory, in which we create a text file default.pa. We fill this file with the following lines. Here 192.168.100.0/24 is our TAP subnet.
Load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-ip-acl=127.0.0.1;192.168.100.0/24 load-module module-esound-protocol-tcp auth-ip-acl=127.0.0.1;192.168.100.0/24 load-module module-detect add-autoload-sink output module-waveout sink_name=output set-default-sink output
We launch pulseaudio.exe and once again go to edit the permissions in the Windows Firewall. We install the necessary utilities and libraries in the Debian console.
Apt-get install libpulse0 libasound2-plugins alsa-utils
In the file /etc/pulse/client.conf we add the IP address of the host machine running the Pulseaudio server - default-server = 192.168.100.1, and in /etc/asound.conf the following parameters:
Pcm.!default (type pulse) ctl.!default (type pulse) pcm.pulse (type pulse) ctl.pulse (type pulse)
To check its functionality, you can try playing one of the test files.
Aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
Pulseaudio is automatically launched when Debian starts by adding the following command to the end of the squeeze.conf configuration file.
Exec0="X:\path\to\folder\pulseaudio\pulseaudio.exe"
This trick doesn't work for an X server. In principle, what has already been done is enough to get the job done. However, it would be nice to add a new non-root user to Linux, set up autologin for him with mingetty, install coLinux as a Windows service and set Xming to autostart. For convenience, you can install the Desktops utility, which creates several virtual desktops in Windows, and run the X server in full screen mode on the second desktop.
As a result, we got a fast environment for almost natively running Linux applications on Windows. It can be used for writing and debugging web applications, cross-compiling drivers and other tasks. But there is no reasonable graphics acceleration for heavy applications yet, and the 64-bit version began to be developed only a few months ago. However, coLinux is quite suitable for everyday use. To further explore the capabilities and settings of this system, please refer to the project wiki. Well, for now we’ll close the topic of the symbiotic relationship between Windows and Linux through different places. Good luck!
The possibilities of Linux are now wider than ever. With Steam offering over a thousand games for Linux and the general trend toward web-based apps, Windows is becoming less and less needed. As a result, you will be able to watch videos from online cinemas in Linux without any additional tricks and even run Microsoft Office applications here - at least their Internet versions.
But sooner or later there comes a time when it becomes necessary to run some Windows program on a PC running Linux. This can be done in several ways. And here's what you need to know for this.
Wine allows you to run Windows software in a Linux environment without requiring the installation of the Microsoft operating system itself. Wine is an open-source "Windows-compatible software layer" designed to run Windows applications directly on a Linux PC. Essentially, the contributors to this open source project attempted to recreate from scratch a subset of the Windows environment that would be sufficient to run Windows applications without the presence of the OS itself.
This is the only method that does not require a copy of Windows. The disadvantage is that not all applications work correctly. You may experience errors or slow performance, especially if you use Wine to run video games. But if we are talking about some popular game released several years ago, no complications usually arise. For example, many people use Wine to play World of Warcraft on Linux. You can get information about the operation of specific applications and the settings that need to be made for their normal functioning on the Wine Application Database website (appdb.winehq.org).
Wine version of PlayOnLinux running Ubuntu
First, download Wine from your Linux distribution's repository. Then you should download the files. exe Windows applications and double-click them in Wine. Then you can try out the very convenient PlayOnLinux interface (playonlinux.com), which is installed on top of Wine and helps you install popular programs and games for Windows.
Codeweavers offers a commercial version of Wine - CrossOver Linux. You'll have to pay for it, but Codeweavers promises official support for common applications (Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop and the most popular PC games) and guarantees that they will work correctly. Codeweavers also contributes to the development of the main Wine project.
Virtual machines
Virtual machines are a very convenient way to run Windows software on a Linux PC. Once PC performance has improved, virtual machines take up less and less resources.
In this case, a copy of Windows is installed in the “virtual machine” program VirtualBox (virtualbox.org), VMware, or KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine, linux-kvm.org), specially created for Linux. The copy of Windows thinks it's running on real hardware, but in fact it's running in a Desktop window. Modern virtual machines even allow you to extend Windows programs beyond this window, presenting them as regular windows on the Linux desktop.
VirtualBox on Ubuntu Linux
This solution is more reliable than Wine. By running Windows applications on a real copy of Windows, you eliminate the possibility of errors.
However, using a virtual machine requires a full copy of Windows and places additional stress on the hardware since the copy of Windows runs alongside the main operating system. This especially affects resource-intensive games that require direct access to the video card, in which case it is better to use Wine. As for office applications Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, a virtual machine will be an excellent solution for them.
Dual boot systems
Dual booting isn't really a way to run Windows software in a Linux environment, but many Linux users run Windows programs that way. Instead of accessing them in a Linux environment, they reboot the computer, select Windows from the menu, and load the Microsoft operating system. Thus, the Windows software functions in its native environment. Thanks to modern solid state drives, the reboot process is faster than ever.
This option is especially good for those game lovers who cannot completely move away from Windows. Not wanting to give up Windows games, they simply reboot the computer whenever they want to return to their favorite game. And because Windows accesses the hardware directly, there are no performance or compatibility issues.
The best way to create a dual boot system is to install Windows first. If your computer came with the Microsoft operating system already pre-installed on it, this is quite enough. Next, install the Linux distribution of your choice. You can then select the operating system you want directly when you boot your PC.
In practice, the best choice depends on what you want to do. If you need to run one app or game that works well with Wine, Wine is the perfect option. If you need to use many different applications (for example, the latest versions of Office or Photoshop), it is better to choose a virtual machine. And for gamers looking to enjoy the latest Windows products, dual-boot systems will provide performance that Wine is unlikely to achieve.
Currently, there are 2 ways to run Windows applications in a Linux environment:
1) The mechanism for creating virtual machines. Such programs include, for example, VMWare And Win4Lin. For them to work, you must have Windows installed on your computer.
2) Run Windows programs as X Window applications. The most famous and legendary program of this kind is Wine(Wine Is Not an Emulator).Actually, VMWare is a powerful virtual machine system. This program does not specialize in emulating specific operating systems - it simply emulates the computer itself, inside of which another OS runs. In short, a virtual computer is a special program that runs on Linux and simulates a physical Intel x86 computer. The virtual computer monitor is the X Window graphical shell window into which information is displayed.
A virtual computer is “built” from the following set of virtual devices:
IDE and SCSI virtual hard drives, virtual CD-ROM drive;
standard floppy drive;
Intel 82371 PCI Bus Master IDE hard drive controller, supporting two primary and two secondary IDE drives;
SCSI disk adapter compatible with BusLogic BT-958;
standard PCI graphics adapter, standard 101/102-key keyboard, PS/2-compatible mouse;
AMD PCNET Family Ethernet adapter (PCI-ISA) network card;
serial ports COM1-COM4, parallel ports LPT1-LPT2;
Sound card compatible with Sound Blaster 16.Naturally, two operating systems running simultaneously on one physical computer somehow compete for the real resources of the base computer, and therefore the requirements for it are quite high. In addition, VMWare is demanding on the version of the kernel and graphics libraries. You can read more about VMWare, for example, in this article.
The general conclusion is that it is a large and clumsy program, but with great capabilities.
1.2) Win4Lin - http://www.netraverse.com.
This is also a virtual computer emulator, but it is created and optimized specifically for running Windows on Linux. Moreover, it uses not a regular, but a patched Linux kernel. Therefore it is faster and more reliable than VMWare. In general, Win4Lin is currently the best of these programs! Emulation is almost 100%, and in the Linux window there are all known programs written for Windows (The site lists such applications - MS Office, Intuit Quicken, Lotus SmartSuite, Adobe Photoshop, Intuit TurboTax, MS Internet Explorer, Palm Desktop, Netscape Navigator, Winamp , and much more). Also, a special function of the program is the protection layer, thanks to which even if the application crashes, it is easily restored without affecting the performance of the system. The new version of Win4Lin 3.0 even has Microsoft network support. The only drawback is the lack of DirectX support, so you won't be able to play games. In general, everything goes very quickly compared to VMWare and you even forget for a while that you are in Linux :).
Installation: First you need to download the installation file from http://www.netraverse.com/download.
After this, setup itself determines the type of your kernel and offers to download the patched version of the kernel (Win4Lin-Improved Kernel).
2.1) More information about installing or using Win4Lin can be read in English, or. There are also documents in Russian. (Addition from 01/24/02: There is another interesting article about installing Win4Lin - it is located). General conclusion - The best!! WINE
(Wine Is Not an Emulator) - http://www.winehq.org., developed by Transgaming).
The developers of Wine and WineX have already achieved some success in launching powerful Windows applications. (For example, modern games run perfectly under WineX 2.0). Wine does not create a virtual computer, but rather attempts to run Windows applications in graphical Linux applications. Therefore, VMWare and Win4Lin require Windows to be installed on the computer, but Wine does not require Windows to be installed on the computer. (But usually various files taken from Windows are used - for example, DLLs).
Let's say you have an application that only runs and works well on Windows. Such a program has no equivalent in Linux, and does not work in another Windows API emulator - CrossOver for Linux.
Is it possible to run this program without leaving Linux? Yes, it is possible: Using a hypervisor to run a Windows virtual machine (VM). A VM allows you to run a guest operating system on top of another operating system. From the guest's point of view, the system appears to be running on its own PC, but in reality it is running in a limited virtual subsystem of the PC, a virtual machine. The virtual machine, in turn, is controlled by a program called a hypervisor. This way we get the perfect.
Windows emulator on Linux
There are many excellent desktop hypervisors for Linux, such as VMware Player, Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM), and my favorite, the free VirtualBox from Oracle. I prefer VirtualBox because it is the easiest hypervisor to set up and run virtual machines.
Neither VirtualBox nor any other hypervisor makes Windows any safer to use than it actually is. All existing Windows security holes will also exist and run in the virtual machine.
Windows emulator on Linux? What can VirtualBox do for you? VirtualBox will be trouble-free Windows emulator for Linux
Windows in VirtualBox can be limited. For example, disabling the network, which might make it a little safer. I usually do the same standard security measures in a Windows virtual machine that everyone does on a real computer, installing an antivirus to ensure that my files that I will provide to people are free of viruses. In addition, I usually open one shared folder for Windows from Linux, for ease of file sharing.
VirtualBox, like any other hypervisor, likes decent system resources that it will use. Therefore, if you want to have a comfortable Windows emulator in Linux, in other words, running Windows in a Linux window, then you should not have an old PC, since such a computer will not be able to use VirtualBox to run Windows.
In my experience, you can run Windows on top of Linux using VirtualBox on a system with 1GB of RAM, but it won't be very comfortable. At the very least, you need to have 2Gb of RAM and a 1GHz (GiH) AMD or Intel processor.
After setting up virtualization, you will get the same Windows experience without leaving Linux. For all your practical purposes, you will use real Windows operating systems.
You can configure VirtualBox so that your Linux system and your Windows guest operating systems, as I said above, can exchange files. Use directories (folders): copy, paste and edit files from one operating system to another. And even have a shared clipboard. Once you get the hang of managing two operating systems at the same time, you'll realize that it can be very convenient.
All this means is that when you run Windows in VirtualBox, all your applications will access disks, files, or the Internet. So be careful, any Windows programs in your virtual machine that require network access may be subject to all the virus threats as if you were running on a regular PC.
Is the game worth the candle? Of course yes! By using Windows in a virtual machine, instead of running it on a real PC to perform certain tasks, you will have excellent WIndows emulation in Linux, save time, and also be able to be independent of having Windows on your hard drive as a full-fledged systems. Over time, day by day, you will gain more and more experience with Linux, and eventually you will be able to completely abandon Windows, once and for all.
