Win4Lin - simple, easy, solid

[gkedrovs]

I'm not pushing a proprietary product, I just wanna throw this out there for anyone else as frustrated with WINE as I was. I actually got a couple programs limping along in WINE... and, I don't blame WINE. I blame me. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and I need more productivity time than tinkering time. Anyway.

I got a 30-day free trial of Win4Lin and installed it per their instructions in the pdf file sent down with the installer software (RTFM, it helps a lot).

In a matter of hours, I had everything installed and working fast. I mean, FAST. It's solid.
1. Macromedia Studio MX (the whole shootin match: Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Freehand),
2. (check this out!) My HP 3400C scanner works! Yeah! Gotta use parallel not usb, but it works great!
3. PaintShop Pro.
4. My Bible programs: OnLine Bible KJV, OnLine Bible RV1960, and the Logos CompuBiblia RV1960.

Solid. I am now... 100% Linux. No need for dual boot.

Am I happy? Oh, yeah.

-Greg :-)

[DaveT47]

After reading your post, I bought Win4Lin via download and installed it. I have been using VMWare - but it costs 300$ for the upgrade version ($400 list) and when it's doing anything, i.e. using the cd - it hogs all the systems resources and Linux just crawls. Win4Lin works great and at $90 is a real bargin for those of us who still have to use a Win program or two.

DaveT47
Registered User

[gkedrovs]

Yep. That's the deal. With the price tag on VMWare, I didn't even consider it. Dual boot was cheap (although a pain in the proverbial a__). The migration to Linux on the desktop is in full swing, so many of the Windows programs I rely on (like Dreamweaver) will more than likely make it to Linux. Let's face it, where there is money to be made, someone will fill the demand (and I'd pay for stuff like DW and Flash MX ported to Linux).

But, like you said, in the interim, Win4Lin is a great option.

I'm happy with it.

BTW, if you have problems, their mailing list works. I got help fast, and lots of it. No flames (even over my newbie stupidities). Nice people. Willing to help.

-Greg

[oubipaws]

Why not just use BOCH's? From what I have heard its just as good or better than Win4Lin... I used Win4Lin on Red Hat 8 for roughly a week and after that I couldnt take it any longer, it was completely bogging down my system.:(

[gkedrovs]

...mostly cuz I never heard of bochs. Win4Lin runs without me noticing any performance difference on my box. ??

-gk

[do_guh_new]

good luck with bochs that thing can barely run dos

[gkedrovs]

Gee, that's good news...

Eh. Like I said, I got Win4Lin and I'm happy happy happy with the thing (and with the support I've received on the mailing list).

It might help that machine is heavy on bus speed and RAM. What do I know...

-gk

[mrBen]

The new version of Bochs is supposed to be a lot faster (10-20 times if you believe them)

Win4Lin is great (if you have the money ;) ), but doesn't support DirectX, so no subsitute for WINE if you want to run games - if you have the money buy WineX from Transgaming.

[mike8706]

I downloaded Win4Lin, But I cant find where to get an evaluation license. Do you know?:confused:

[gkedrovs]

Originally posted by mike8706
I downloaded Win4Lin, But I cant find where to get an evaluation license. Do you know?:confused:

Yeah, you gotta contact a sales rep. I can't remember who I traded mail with, but I just shot 'em an e-mail saying that I was seriously considering using Win4Lin, but wanted to test drive it first, before dropping 100 greenbacks on it. No problem. Got a 30-day virgin for free. Actually it's the full virgin, but your license code works for so many hours a day, for 30 days. If you like it, you buy it and they give you a "real" code. Nothing changes in all your set-up. You just give the current virgin of Win4Lin the real code and you're in bidness. :-)

sales@netraverse.com

And, yeah... I know I said "virgin" instead of "version." Sounds better, you know...? Plus, there's a funny story behind it, kind-of an inside thing with my Dad. :-)

-Greg

[Prophet621]

I've been thinking about giving win4lin a shot, how well does it run? Does it slow down your system at all? I have some Windows apps I can't let go of or find a decent linux clone of so this was another alternative. I have Xandros and it comes with a free trial if you decide to download it.

I didn't know that it doesn't support directX.. so much for completely dumping Windows.. will still need it for games I guess. I don't have the patience to try to set up wineX, or knowledge for that matter. Easier to boot into Windows than spend hours trying to get a damn game to work in Linux.

[gkedrovs]

Well, I'm no expert either - not on Win4Lin, and certainly not on Linux. But, I can tell you how well it's working for me.

I honestly cannot tell any difference in the performance of my system when Win4Lin is running and when it's not. But, take into consideration my machine: Pentium III, 1.3gHz processor speed, 500meg of RAM. I wanted a gig of RAM, but the prices skyrocketted on me when I bought this thing a while ago. Anyway, Linux apps run fine, and I usually have several up at a time: OpenOffice Writer, Opera, Sylpheed Mail, PAN, GTK-Gnutella, XMMS, GKrellm, some doc apps. I do run Fluxbox, so that memory footprint is small. I liked KDE because the "feel" was much the same as WinDoze. But, what a hog, and frankly... I don't want the "feel" of WinDoze anymore. GNOME is interesting - pretty. But... I don't need all the hoohah that comes with a "desktop" manager. Flux is perfect.

In Windows 98SE on Win4Lin, it's the same deal. It actually "boots" faster than a normal Windoze session. And everything runs pretty much the same. I use 3 different Bible programs at the same time (while I have all my Linux stuff open). I run searches, do copy-and-paste, check out passages. Then I iconize Windoze window and continue working in Linux. No problems at all.

Here are a couple minor hitches I've run into thus far:
1. I got my HP 3400c Scanner to work using the parallel interface instead of the USB. USB won't work under Win4Lin (for the scanner). Two problems: speed and the printer interface. Supposedly you can "daisy chain" a printer onto the scanner (parallel port on the box, to the scanner, another cable from a port on the scanner to the printer). Linux barfed on boot. Didn't like the "image" the hp scanjet gave it, so I couldn't use my printer. Problem #2 was speed. It's actually easier and faster for me to do all my scanning work in Windoze, using the USB, rather than fight the parallel port in Linux.
2. Dreamweaver. Runs just as fast as in Windoze. Hung on me a couple time. The WYSIWIG graphical interface isn't as clear and sharp in Win4Lin as in WinDoze.

I can't help you on the games. I have a demo of Quake and Unreal Tournament (not the new one) on my Windoze partition. Since I don't play 'em that much, I leave 'em there and don't worry about it. Sure would like to give Helix and Soldier of Forture a try, though. :-) I love first person shooters. What a blast. :-))

I'm no WINE expert either. I worked my butt off to get Dreamweaver working under it. I got it going, but it was a horrid mess - fonts, GUI, size. Just a mess. I dropped 70 bucks on Win4Lin, and I had it up and running in one weekend's time.

I did see a thread on the mail list about Xandros in the last couple of days. I didn't pay attention to it since I don't use Xandros. So, you might wanna poke around on the Win4Lin web site, find the "Support" section and subscribe to the list. I had some configuration problems with my LAN and Dreamweaver when I first installed Win4Lin. I got help - lots of it, immediately, professional, in-depth. I mean, there were 2 guys in particular that were supergeeks that just went way outta the way to help me fix and tweek what needed to be done. And all that knowing I'm basically an idiot-stick Linux newbie.

Hope that helps. Post again if I can fill in anymore holes.

Good luck. :-)

-Greg

[clane]

I'm using Win4Lin on an AMD K6-2 333Mhz box. The Good:
---Not much (if any) noticeable decrease in speed vs when I was running Win98 natively. Granted, I don't do 3d games or other bleeding edge stuff, but I'm satisfied with the speed.
---When (not if) Windows crashes, I can XKill it if necessary. How sweet is that? The reboot time for Windows is MUCH faster than if I was loading Windows from a cold boot.
---I like to use ALT-TAB to flip between programs that I am running. When I run Win4Lin with WindowMaker, I can ALT-TAB the Windows programs only. Maybe this works with other Window Manager / Desktops too, but I wasn't able to figure it out.
---It allowed me to use my USB camera on the Linux box. How, you say? I have another PC running WinME networked to my Win4Lin/Linux box. I couldn't get my camera (a Kodak DC290) to work on my Linux box, and USB doesn't work with Win4Lin. So I plug my camera into the USB port of my WinMe box. When I flip the switch to "connect", a new drive is created on the WinMe box. I right-click the new drive and make it a shared drive. It is then visible in Win4Lin and I can view the contents (images) that are in the camera over my local network using my Windows graphics program. I use Ulead PhotoImpact BTW. It's very good and MUCH cheaper than PhotoShop.
---I haven't noticed nearly as many Win98 crashes. Is it possible that Linux is able to put a leash on Windows memory management problems? I don't know, but it seems like Windows doesn't crash as much.

The bad.
---Can't access SCSI stuff, like my SCSI scanner. I emailed the Win4Lin tech support about this. They have no plans on implementing SCSI support.
---Can't access the USB port, unless you do it as I described above. I emailed Win4Lin tech support about this. They ARE planning on supporting USB in the future. Better late than never.....Although, if you think about it, it's a miracle that they can get Windows to even run at all from inside Linux. It can barely do it natively.
---If 3d gaming is important, you'll be disappointed. No DirectX support.