Windows Compatibility?

[Bart Silverstrim]

On Nov 17, 2005, at 7:51 PM, Peter Clutton wrote:

> On 11/18/05, Augusto Montenegro <amonte_777 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> I am looking into changing my Windows Operating system toFreeBSD or 
>> Linux.
>>   Most of my programs run in Windows. Can I use FreeBSD as my OS to 
>> run my programs?
>
> You can, with tools such as Wine, but all is not guaranteed to run
> smoothly. I have pretty much found a much much better replacement for
> everything I used to use on windows, and would never go back. If you
> search around, and have a willingness to learn, you will probably find
> the same.

What I've found it comes down to...

1) If you're looking for another platform and need an office suite, a 
web browser, an email client, etc...Linux or OS X are wonderful if 
you're willing to look around and learn your stuff.  Some distro's of 
Linux even strip away most of the necessity of thinking, with defaults 
and presets that would suit most users.
2) If you're just looking for another platform and need Microsoft 
Office, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express to run...stick with Windows. 
  Grafting those applications onto another platform is an exercise in 
frustration and, in my opinion, foolishness.  "You spent all that time 
installing Linux so you could run...Internet Explorer?"

I fall into the former.  When necessity dictates that specific 
applications must be run that only use the Win32 API, I usually use 
VirtualPC or Qemu (right now I'm using OS X with a lot of toys from 
Fink) to run them until I can go back to my usual platform.  If Wine 
can run the application, more power to the project, but for everyday 
usage I need a web browser and office suite, not necessarily a specific 
application.  If you primarily use a specific application that is made 
only for a specific platform, run that platform unless it *IS* very 
stable under Wine or can be used under an emulator (but why would you 
want to spend most of your working time in an emulator?).

If you're curious about another platform, try Knoppix (or Ubuntu Live, 
or any of the other live ISO's out there) or set up a dual-boot 
configuration on your system to give it a trial run.  But your first 
questions probably shouldn't be something like "Can I get 
Photoshop/IE/OE/<another Windows-specific application> to run on 
Linux?" if you're just curious about what's available out there.  You 
should probably be asking, "I use <XYZ> a lot...is there a similar 
application for Linux I could try?"

Windows compatibility just means Wine will run Windows email viruses 
and crash as regularly as Windows does.