running wine automatically as a shell for w32 binaries
Julian Stacey
jhs at berklix.org
Sun Dec 7 16:34:42 PST 2003
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 ?
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.
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.
Most people use MS though, so automatic support could help migration to BSD.
Example: City of Munich are dumping Microsoft from 10,000 office PCs
(& going Linux)
http://berklix.com/~jhs/stadtmuenchen/
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/mgo-13.04.02-000/
Migration / retraining costs were major factors in the decision.
Ease the migration from MS & more can escape MS for BSD.
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.
Example Precautions Similar to Mozilla:
I use mozilla in 2 modes: java & coookies off under my own login,
& a 2nd empty login owning no files, used via
rlogin localhost -l jhs-untrusted"
xauth merge /tmp/xyz; setenv DISPLAY user:0
for mozilla with java & cookies & later flash
(ports/www/flashplugin-mozilla) turned on.
Anyone running wine + MS apps etc could do similar,
just copying the files needed to the untrusted sandbox/ login,
then copying back to the normal safe ~ directory when finished.
-
Julian Stacey. Munich Unix & Net Consultant. http://berklix.com
More information about the freebsd-hackers
mailing list