running wine automatically as a shell for w32 binaries

[Jukka A. Ukkonen]

Quoting Julian  Stacey:
> 
> Chris BeHanna wrote:
> > On Saturday 06 December 2003 10:19, Julian Stacey wrote:
> > > >       Hi all,
> > > >       I wrote a new imgact function for FreeBSD to start wine
> > > >       automatically as a sort of an "interpreter" for windows
> > > >       binaries.
> > > >       <http://www.mawit.com/~jau/imgact_wine-4.9.patch>
> > >
> > > Great idea !  If this small diff gets tested & merged into src/
> > > automatic MS support will be a real plus.
> >
> >     With the weekly proliferation of MS worms, trojans, and viruses,
> > do you *really* think this is a good idea?
> >
> >     Yeah, it's neat, nifty, and cool, but it comes with substantial
> > risk.
> 
> No risk to a normal BSD src/ based system if EG ports/emulators/wine
> is not installed, presumably ?  Or if anything is dangerous, & not
> yet switchable, could it be a sysctl or kernel option ?

	In my example implementation it is already controlled by
	a sysctl variable!
	When you set kern.w32emu to empty there is no automation.
	The kernel simply tries the next imgact function, if there
	is any left that has not been tried yet.

> I wouldn't suggest installing wine +MS apps on `real' BSD servers & 
> workstations, but for companies transitioning from MS to BSD, they 
> could install wine on their PCs, & use legacy MS support easier,
> reducing MS to FreeBSD migrations costs, boosting FreeBSD adoption.

	My thinking exactly. In my vision this automation has no
	place in shared environments, but only in personal systems
	like laptops helping to convert them away from MS.

> BTW I'm no MS apologist/lover:
>    My many machines all run pure BSD, (except one DOS 8086) No MS-Win 
>    excrement.     No wine either except on ports build engines.

	My own systems are also pure BSD and that is how my systems
	have always been. It is no reason though to make transition
	away from MS harder for others than it really needs to be.

> Risk:
>    I wouldnt install MS excrement on normal BSD systems, but companies
>    migrating from MS could install BSD + wine etc on their ex MS PCs.
> 
>    BTW I'd suggest a `sandbox' login for BSD admins to test & use    
>    MS support in, & for use by migrating MS users).  Even if all
>    the BSD system above the home dir. had correct safe permissions,
>    a BSD user running MS support wouldn't be safe: an MS virus or  
>    rogue program could still run berserk in & under the home
>    directory, but that's a risk for MS users no worse than they
>    already take.

	Exactly. The risk for an MS user becomes no greater than what
	it already is. The transition would still be towards a better
	environment. And given time people could eventually learn to
	use Mozilla & OpenOffice, etc. giving up the MS excrement.

	If needs be one could even force those converted former MS
	users to use jail(2/8) accounts to limit the risk to the rest
	of the system, though it maybe sounds a bit extreme.


	Cheers,
		// jau
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  /    Jukka A. Ukkonen,                            Mawit Ltd, Finland
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