wine users - Dec 2008 - Wine should use Mono and Gecko installed in the system

Wine FAQ says Wine is not an emulator, but in fact, it works like an emulator -
it
does not enhance Linux API, but simply creates a virtual Windows environment
completely isolated from other parts of the system.

* If one runs a .NET based program, Wine requires Win32 Mono to be installed
under Wine, instead of Mono already installed in the system.

* If a program tries to do html rendering, Wine requires a web engine to be
installed under Wine, not using already installed in the system.

* If a program needs Flash, Wine requires an instance installed under Wine.

* If a program uses some fonts, Wine requires the fonts to be in Wine's
fonts
directory and does not use already installed in the system (and Wine's fonts
cannot be used by a Linux application)

* Windows drivers loaded under NDIS wrapper cannot use Wine's APIs,
that's why
the functionality of NDIS wrapper is so limited (and Wine cannot load Windows
drivers even NDIS-compatible).

This leads to doubling in functionality, incompatibilities and limitations.
I think Wine should fully utilize the subsystems already provided with a
distribution and
allow other programs (those which may benifit from it, such as Mono and NDIS
wrapper)
to use Wine's APIs.

See this bugreport:
http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16448

Ansus wrote:
> This leads to doubling in functionality, incompatibilities and limitations.
> I think Wine should fully utilize the subsystems already provided with a
distribution and
> allow other programs (those which may benifit from it, such as Mono and
NDIS wrapper)
> to use Wine's APIs.

No, most of it is impossible to do.

Since your do not understand why Wine is not an emulator it's useless
explaining you why Wine can't use native mono, gecko, flash, etc.

On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 4:09 AM, Ansus <wineforum-user at winehq.org>
wrote:
> Wine FAQ says Wine is not an emulator, but in fact, it works like an
emulator - it
> does not enhance Linux API, but simply creates a virtual Windows
environment completely isolated from other parts of the system.
> * If a program uses some fonts, Wine requires the fonts to be in Wine's
fonts
> directory and does not use already installed in the system (and Wine's
fonts
> cannot be used by a Linux application)
Wine utilizes corefonts if installed natively.

Most of this other stuff is impossible to do or would take an obscene
amount of effort which is useless when we can simply use windows
versions (mono, flash, etc.). Often times, the windows versions are
better supported anyway.

-- 
-Austin

Austin English <austinenglish at gmail.com> at: Dec 10, 2008 8:21 AM (MST)
wrote about: Re: [Wine] Wine should use Mono and Gecko installed in the
system
>
>On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 4:09 AM, Ansus <wineforum-user at winehq.org>
wrote:
>> Wine FAQ says Wine is not an emulator, but in fact, it works like an
emulator - it
>> does not enhance Linux API, but simply creates a virtual Windows
environment completely isolated from other parts of the system.
>
>> * If a program uses some fonts, Wine requires the fonts to be in
Wine's fonts
>> directory and does not use already installed in the system (and
Wine's fonts
>> cannot be used by a Linux application)
>
>Wine utilizes corefonts if installed natively.
>
>Most of this other stuff is impossible to do or would take an obscene
>amount of effort which is useless when we can simply use windows
>versions (mono, flash, etc.). Often times, the windows versions are
>better supported anyway.
>
Here is something to think about and may clear this up:

If you had WindowsXP and Linux installed on separate partitions and functioning
as separate operating systems, you would not attempt to use the Windows version
of Flash, Mono or any other program under Linux.  It simply would not be
possible without an emulator (Wine) or a full blown virtual machine
(Parallels/VMWare).  Also, you would not complain about the 'waste of hard
drive space'.  Why is this so important when running Wine under
Linux/UNIX/MacOSX?  It should not be.  You have to install Windows native
versions of these programs under Wine or expect a very heavy overhead when
moving between the two operating system environments (or have a massive amount
of memory where everything can be stored.)  So, in order to avoid this, we
insist that native Windows versions be installed on Wine.  These applications
are not huge and provide functionality required by users.

So, Wine==native Windows, Linux==native Linux, MacOSX==native MacOSX.  Simple.

James McKenzie