NeTraverse informed us that they will be releasing Win4Lin 5.0 later this month. New features include:1. Winsock2 support
2. Novell Client support (IP, for connecting to NetWare servers)
3. Improved video performance
4. Preliminary support for DirectX
5. Improved audio support, better integration of audio with GNOME and KDE desktops, and LTSP
6. French, Italian, German, Spanish Windows Me support (non-upgrade, full versions only)
Win4Lin 5.0 will be priced at:
Win4Lin 5.0 Electronic Copy – $89.99
Win4Lin 5.0 CD-Box – $99.99
Their upgrade policy for existing 4.0 customers is: Anyone who purchased 4.0 since 1/1/03 will be entitled to a free upgrade to 5.0. Anyone with a previous version purchased before 1/1/03 can purchase an upgrade license ($29.99 for an electronic license or $39.99 for box copies).
Read our review of Win4Lin 4.0 with info and screenshots.
DirectX Support should be interesting. I wonder who well games will play on this.
Getting to where the small office can be run with normally trained workers (on linux) and save some cash over the total MS office solution of about $400 per device.
I don’t think they mean “3D support”. They do mean DirectDraw support though (as opposed to plain GDI).
Please read my review of Win4Lin 4.0 as linked from this story, where I explain that while I don’t expect full 3D support to work, I did expect DirectDraw applications to work (like DivX, Real Player and Media player and some simple 2D DirectX games).
If Win4Lin 5.0 has this issue fixed, plus fixed the font problem on the applications (Windows apps are using wrong fonts, for example the osnews.com site renders with huge fonts under IE), then Win4Lin 5 is truly a great application to buy!
?????
wow for a minute there I though Transgaming had some competition! I bought Win4Lin 2.0 when it came out, and it was a sweet product back then, I might give 5.0 a try.
These upgrade options sound far more reasonable than the 4.0 upgrade options did. FYI, I dunno if it will help anyone but I used Win4Lin 3 in winsock mode back some time ago, and I symlink my smb mounts into a directory inside the Windows fs so I have network drive access from inside Win4Lin.
I still have no idea why everyone is trying to migrate people away from windows to linux. In a small enviroment, such as 50 or less users its pointless. I can drop a dell server runnings windows 2000 sbs and setup all the clients. Everything just works. Its about a weekends worth of work but then everything flies. I have file, print, firewall, email, internet sharing, dns, web hosting all of it on one box. I just gotta TS into it and update it, patches holes etc. All the desktops run windows 2000. All patched and up to date. Everyone runs office xp as well. People need to load accounting software, or run quickbooks or peach tree or trutime or any of that, it needs windows. The cost of having some linux guy on staff to trouble shoot all the linux errors that come up, all the configging is just cost prohibitavie. When an employee is not working, you are loosing money. When an employee is screwing around trying to get something to work, your loosing money. When an employee repeatedly has his accounting software crash becaue linux is not that compadible wiht it, our loosing money. Its just not worth it.
Now if I am in a NOC, i dont mind loading openbsd as the dns server, or using sendmail for pop. I mean when you ahve IT staff on hand to trouble shoot that then its worth it. Small offices should not be running linux.
Since up to version Win4Lin emulates a DOS environment to run Win9X/ME into, it is impossible to support Win XP/2000 since they don’t run on top of DOS.
This makes me think what is the future of Win4Lin, since most applications are moving to WinXP only versions.
Woa, did I miss something here?
I believe that using “sendmail for pop” might be a struggle for any size office… <G>
Wally.
Rambus, exactly.
Again, read my review. I explain there that Win4Lin is based on DOS and Windows running on top of it. Exactly because NT technogloy does not run on top of DOS, it is impossible to have Win4Lin supporting any of the WinNT/2k/XP/3k OSes.
I’ve heard rumor that XP support is in the works. It’s going to take a MAJOR change on the back end though.
I also read this somewhere (2k/XP support in the works). Wasn’t there an interview posted with someone in the company who said there were working on it? I was hoping it would show up in the next version, but guess now.
Even still, for the time being, I don’t think it matters much, and probably won’t until Office 2k3 comes out, which won’t run on anything below 2000.
While Win2k/XP is more stable, I don’t think Win98SE would be too shaky running a limited number of apps, and some say it runs better under Win4Lin than it does natively.
BTW: Does this thing support USB? If it runs close to native speed and I could hook my Ronland XV-5050 up to it, that would be sweet
(Of course, that would only work assuming it could support an Audiophile 2496 sound card, which is doubtful.)
Many real computer experts say the most stable OS they’ve ever measured was Windows 95 with NOTHING else installed (literally – you couldn’t add ANY aftermarket apps). I’ll have to do some research to find articles to back that up, but I know I’ve read it.
I think you would have to have Win95 B (what was the second version called?) since the original version crashed after a certain amount of days when a buffer overflowed after 40-50 days of running.
Sure, it is easy to use an all Windows solution. But then you have to consider cost – which would be cheaper in the long run (unless you have absolutely no plans to expand further than where you are…)? And then security – would a virus roaming wild cause your office to loose important files and productivity?
So frankly, if I had an office, I would probably get a Linux server over a Windows server (or depending to the task, may choose another *nix like bsd). Administration is not as problematic as you think – it is get it up right once and it wouldn’t bother you anymore. Unless I really need Office.
And for the clients – I would see what work they do. If they are just doing stuff that can be done on Linux, I would use cheaper (short and long term) thin clients. If they are using applications/features only Windows provide – I see nothing wrong with using a Linux server (a LOT of Offices do that).
And besides, configuring a small network on Linux is not all that hard as some make it out to be. Sure, there is no wizard to guide you through (unless you are running one of those new distros from those new companies) but unless you have absolutely no idea how networking works (in which you probably should get a real sysadmin), the manual would do fine. Workstations is another story altogether – then again, it depends what you use the workstations for.
Be flexible.
No, it’s *not* ridiculous to migrate SME’s to Linux. I’ve done just that – from a Windows 2000 Server (running Terminal Services) to RedHat + LTSP. (Yes, RedHat filled the needs of the users…)
All workstations are now nice “dumb” terminals, letting me pull out their hdds and fdds, making them quieter, more secure and maintenance free. It’s also more user friendly – I was forever having to explain the difference between the vanilla Windows 9x (that the terminals were running) and the remote desktop connection. Not to mention any crashes that might happen (people *love* to fiddle) and the subsequent support needed.
Now, the workstations don’t even require a second thought. Result? I don’t waste time sorting them out if they are having a “bad day.”
Now, the linux box itself – A decent setup doesn’t *require* any buggerising around with. Besides updates (and additions of new open source software, which has so far allowed the business to optimise many business systems!), it doesn’t need to be touched!
This, again, is a long way from the “Bloody hell, the terminal server has BSODed again. Sorry everyone, I have to reboot it. Yes, you *have* lost everything since your last save…” followed by the six monthly “Well, I’ve got to re-install the terminal server again tonight. There goes a days sleep…” scenario.
Oh, and not having to reboot because you moved the mouse six inches is also a definite bonus.
I completely disagree that migrating to linux means more admin work and more *cough* rooting around. It’s cut my work down dramatically, which is always a Good Thing.
I completely agree that the general accounting packages are amiss in a linux situation. MYOB, Peachtree etc don’t run perfectly under linux. They do run, however. Quickbooks OTOH, is reported to run nicely with CrossOver Office – and CrossOver is dramatically cheaper than a Windows XP license.
There are, of course, solutions to these problems. Win4Lin is a fantastic one – the Win4Lin Server Edition product is absolutely brilliant, allowing more than one Windows session to run. Want MYOB or Peachtree? Set it up as the shell environment for a Win4Lin session and away you go – it’ll even appear seamless to the users.
Wine is a viable option, as is CrossOver Office. VMWare should also not be overlooked.
Finally, nobody should be afraid to upgrade either. OS Alternatives such as Compiere, GNUe, GnuLedger etc are also well worth looking into, as are the commercial offerings. I’ve found some of these alternatives to be far better than the mainstream commercial packages.
It seems that those that are still unprepared to migrate (not necessarily to linux, I might add – I was going to go FreeBSD but got sidetracked) are either unprepared to do a little research, lack expertise in anything but Windows, or simply are resistant to change & evolution.
Give it a go (in a development environment, of course). You might be pleasantly surprised.
I have and use Win4Lin 4 right now… the Novell support will be nice, but my biggest sticking point is the 128MB allocation limit… will that be lifted? I have a machine with 1.5GB of RAM, and most of it sits idle when I’m not gaming… it would be pretty cool to be able to allocate 512MB of RAM to Poser whilst running inside the Win4Lin shell, since Poser, Vue, and Bryce are memory hogs in their own right
/P