[KLUG Members] run windows within linux

[Bruce Smith]

> ok I'm fairly a newbie to linux. I've already got redhat and mandrake 
> installed on 2 different old hdds. now I was wonder what is the most 
> effective way to run windows apps and maybe some fairly low end games within 
> linux? I have heard everything from vmware, to wine to just running a linux 
> distro like xandos or something like that. most of the apps I really need to 
> keep running sadly are things like VB. I would enjoy nothing more than to 
> move to linux and toss MS out the window. any help would be greatly 
> appreciated.

VMware lets you run multiple operating systems at once.  Inside Linux,
you run an entire Windows OS and all of it's applications.  The
advantages are it can run almost every application.  It may have
problems with apps, like games, that need a lot of speed.  Otherwise, 
it runs almost everything I've tried very nicely.

The disadvantages of VMware is it's commercial (costs money), and you
legally need to own a copy of Windows to run inside it (in addition to
the applications).  And it's heavy on resources.  You're running two
OS's at once, so you need enough memory and resources to do it.

Wine, OTOH, is free (like Linux), it uses less memory/resources, and it
runs just the applications (no Windows OS required).

The disadvantages of Wine is not all applications run in it, and it can
be more difficult to get working.

Personally I would stay away from both of them unless absolutely needed.
I'd rather find native Linux applications to replace the Windows apps. 
i.e.  Use OpenOffice or StarOffice instead of M$ Office.

And of course you could always triple boot Redhat/Mandrake/Windows. 

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Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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