I've been watching Wine for about a year (well, checking back and reading updates) and progress all seems to be looking really good. I'd love to be able to use Linux, but firstly my applications won't run on it, and secondly the whole operating system seems a little overwhelming to me - especially with having to type in text commands every now and then to do complete commands that are a few clicks away in Windows (simply installing FireFox proved mission impossible for me). I guess I should invest in a Linux book to get me started! Anyway back to the point, Wine seems to be getting towards a 1.0 release... I was wondering if that means 100% (or at least a high percentage) compatibility with applications? Will applications be able to run on wine out-of-the-box? How about games, are you expecting brand new games to run out-of-the-box via Wine any time soon (or ever)? Which brings me to another question, is Wine an end-user application? Could someone like myself (inexperienced linux user, who could do with reading a good tutorial or two) use it to run applications easily? Or is this more likely to be found in a third-party Wine distribution at some point? I hope here's the right place to post this, and that it isn't a boring couple of questions that have been asked hundereds of times before :-) Craig
I started using Ubuntu Linux about 9 months ago. I was looking to eventually replace Windows XP and avoid buying "Longhorn". I can relate to all your apprehensions regarding a new OS - it IS a serious change. I started using Wine not long after I started using Ubuntu because I just couldn't find a Linux substitute for a couple of applications. This forum and the WineHQ web site have been invaluable. Thanks Daniel! Consult the WineHQ Application Database for suggestions. When you find how to do something new - share. It all began to come together and make sense after about 3 months and makes more sense every day. I've booted to Windoze 2 times since May. Before then, mostly to take some on-line courses that absolutely required IE & Win. If you look for it there IS a good deal of "printed" information out there on the web. And I hate to say this but (RTFM!) read the help files and man pages on any (I assume) recent Linux distro. Documentation has come a long way in the last year. If you really want to take the book approach there is a new Ubuntu book available or soon to be available. BTW Firefox and Thunderbird are standard features of Ubuntu. Subscribe to and read the back issues of TUX magazine on line. I'm convinced that Linux, Ubuntu (Kbuntu) anyway, is a viable desktop OS at this time. I believe that several other distro's are aimed more toward the corporate user and wouldn't be as useful to you. I know of a computer semi-literate person whose brother installed Ubuntu on her brand new laptop, completely removing Windoze - she loves it. I have almost no interest in or knowledge of mainstream Windows games so I won't comment there. Windows compatibility is a moving target - it's (deliberately?) very poorly documented. Wine will probably never run all Windows apps. In all fairness Windows doesn't run all Windows apps perfectly either! searbe@googlemail.com wrote:> I've been watching Wine for about a year (well, checking back and > reading updates) and progress all seems to be looking really good. I'd > love to be able to use Linux, but firstly my applications won't run on > it, and secondly the whole operating system seems a little overwhelming > to me - especially with having to type in text commands every now and > then to do complete commands that are a few clicks away in Windows > (simply installing FireFox proved mission impossible for me). I guess I > should invest in a Linux book to get me started! > > Anyway back to the point, Wine seems to be getting towards a 1.0 > release... I was wondering if that means 100% (or at least a high > percentage) compatibility with applications? Will applications be able > to run on wine out-of-the-box? How about games, are you expecting brand > new games to run out-of-the-box via Wine any time soon (or ever)? > > Which brings me to another question, is Wine an end-user application? > Could someone like myself (inexperienced linux user, who could do with > reading a good tutorial or two) use it to run applications easily? Or > is this more likely to be found in a third-party Wine distribution at > some point? > > I hope here's the right place to post this, and that it isn't a boring > couple of questions that have been asked hundereds of times before :-) > > Craig >
searbe@googlemail.com wrote:> I've been watching Wine for about a year (well, checking back and > reading updates) and progress all seems to be looking really good.Indeed!> I'd love to be able to use Linux, but firstly my applications won't run on > itWhich applications?> and secondly the whole operating system seems a little overwhelming > to me - especially with having to type in text commands every now and > then to do complete commands that are a few clicks away in Windows > (simply installing FireFox proved mission impossible for me). I guess I > should invest in a Linux book to get me started!Oh, maybe. Which version of Linux are you using? If it's not Ubuntu, maybe you should give that a try. There's a lot less commandline fiddling needed with modern Linuxes like Ubuntu than there used to be.> Anyway back to the point, Wine seems to be getting towards a 1.0 > release... I was wondering if that means 100% (or at least a high > percentage) compatibility with applications?I think for 1.0 the main goals are "installers should all just work" and "quite a few games should work well". I think it's unrealistic to expect 100% or even a high percentage of apps to really run well with 1.0. Most likely the top dozen or so apps will run really well, maybe 25% of apps will run well enough to use, 50% will run but be quite annoying, and 25% won't run at all. Those numbers should improve as Wine ages.> Which brings me to another question, is Wine an end-user application? > Could someone like myself (inexperienced linux user, who could do with > reading a good tutorial or two) use it to run applications easily? Or > is this more likely to be found in a third-party Wine distribution at > some point?Good question. I suspect that for now, Codeweavers Wine is the right way to go for most end users (or maybe Cedega's wine for games) who need things to be polished. But there's no reason not to try plain old Wine first; it might work ok for you. - Dan