the preferred method of Windows emulation thread

[abf]

I know, I know....microsoft is not 7h3 $3x, but software developers like to pull our (linux users) bacon and not give us the software we need sometimes... so my question is, how do you resolve your windows emu problem?

The options thats come to mind are:
Crossover Office
Wine
Cedega/WineX
Qemu with Win installed on a img
dual boot
just dont do it

what do YOU do to solve this problem?


i just got Qemu going, installing XP currently.... i don't "need" it, hell, i doubt i even want it, i guess i am just doing it for the hell of it to see what happens. I dont have wine installed, and my Cedega membership expired about 1/2 year ago and i didn't care to renew.

[seablade]

Heh, My Method? Have a powerbook with Mac OS X on it, and dont bother with Windows;)

Seablade

[seablade]

I should mention this will likely change on the release of Hero's Journey where I will probably set up Parallels to run it on some machine. Or just use my wife's

Seablade

[spincricket]

Lol, oops. should i have voted just dont do it?.....

I use wine for cs 1.6 and steam that is why.

[zakaluka2]

Dual-booting, until I get my new laptop (should be arriving tomorrow :)). Then, I will be doing linux + vmplayer/qemu.

[abf]

btw....an update: got XP going, stripped it for maximum speed... yey... my super-mighty 800mhz P2 + 512mb ram is really giving it a run for its money :lol:
lets just say its not great....but if i absolutely must run something, it will work...overnight

[jnev_89]

I've been using vmware server to emulate winxp for a few months now.. it's fairly fast with vmtools installed and I've even used it for some photoshop work. I mainly use it for syncing my pda (x51v) though..

[theoak]

I dual boot for only one program: Qtopia Desktop. I had a Sharp Zaurus 5500, which would sinc with Linux, but then I upgraded to a 6600 which they did not release a Linux sync program for :( I still cannot get over that blooper on Sharp's part!!

[Starcub]

Dual boot, since I use Linux primarily as a back-up OS and occasionally to diagnose problems.

[bayesian]

I have tried several distros and finally got Mepis (Debian derivative) to do enough to get work done. I have a Dell Inspiron 8100, P3 (833mHz) with 512 Kb and my third(fourth?) replacement harddrive is a 60 G Samsung. I am also now using a Linksys wireless card. I am very interested in this topic, although I have nothing useful to add.

I have converted almost all of my general office type work to OpenOffice which I am quite happy with. My Income Tax program will not run under wine (silently closes down) but I am willing to dual boot that one program - I have Windows XP home edition. I don't run any games other than internet chess.

My main problem: I use WinBugs: http://mathstat.helsinki.fi/openbugs/ through R: http://www.r-project.org/ and the current state of OpenBugs is problematic. The developers can't get OpenBugs to run in Linux (linbugs). Because of XP memory management, Winbugs is what is wearing out my harddrives (replacing them about every 9-12 months). Bytheway, WinBugs/OpenBugs won't run on a Mac or that would be my solution.

I have the max memory on this Dell (512) but i really need on the order of 4 G for some of the problems i am running - so XP limitations will always be a problem. Vista might someday solve the memory problems if i am willing to buy a huge machine and pay for Vista - but if i go that route i could get a nice Linux machine for less - assuming i could ever get linbugs to run.

Some people on the R list have been getting WinBugs to run in wine but my large datasets seem to make this a non-solution - i may be doing something wrong. I am not familiar with the VMware mentioned and i will try that.

thanks for the hints and if anyone has any other suggestions I would be happy to listen.
thanks
bob

[Starcub]

When Vista is released you will probably be able to benefit greatly from its SuperFetch and ReadyBoost technologies. The only problem then will be wether your 'dino-comp' will meet the min requirements for Vista. In the mean time, depending on how the program is using the hard disk, I would suggest either creating multiple drives on your HD on separate partitions with enough space on each partition to accommodate your optimal page file usage. Or, install the program itself on the different partions. The idea in both cases being that you can simply change the active partition once the one you are currently using fails. So if you have a 40GB HD and create 4 separate 10GB partitions, you could effectively quadruple the life of your HD.

[Chiefy]

Using Wine... for some apps, and cedega to run some games.

[bytefoo]

I use VMWare Server 1.0, since it is free now (as in beer, not speech). I can boot up XP anytime I want within Windows, no reboots! :D

[PDR60]

I use Cedega for gamesa and Vm Ware workstation for xp when I need it(only for work).

PDR60