Re: How good *is* WINE really?

[Werner Kliewer <VKliewer mpi mb ca>]

WINE (Wine Is Not and Emulator) runs Windows applications in the 
Linux environment using Windows libraries and drivers, and provides the 
interfaces to let the Windows drivers share your Linux devices. You can 
have Windows applications and Linux applications running side-by-side 
on the screen. Only some Windows apps will actually work in this 
environment, but if what you need is among them, this can be very nice.

VMWare turns the base operating system into a Virtual Machine engine. 
You then install and run whole operating systems and their applications 
on top of this. So now you can run Windows 2000, Linux, SCO, BEOS, 
Win98 all at the same time. Each one thinks it has the computer to itself. 
You have to switch from one environment to another (using hot-keys) the 
windows from one won't show on the screen at the same time as the 
others. It means if Win98 blows up, you reboot that, but all the rest keep 
working. This is a much more sophisticated way of doing things and can 
be very effective for some purposes, but it is a commercial product. This 
means it costs money, but also has some incentive behind it to make it 
work better.


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Werner (Vern) Kliewer
Sr. ITS Analyst
Mid-Range Support
Manitoba Public Insurance
(204)-985-7745
vkliewer mpi mb ca
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>