Orange Crate has an interview with Jim Curtin, CEO of Win4Lin, a company that makes software that allows users to run Windows from within Linux. The company recently restructured, and they have big plans to “play a lead role in un-coupling applications from operating systems and hardware dependencies” and “make end user computing as cost-efficient, stable and secure as possible.”
hmm interesting.. they talk of running winxp/2k on sparc + s390’s… so they must be using some form of cpu emulator.. and in that sense, I really cant see them beating VMWare by a long shot, admittedly its two different markets tho so..
wonder if they purchased fabrices qemu turbo++ pro ng mega top++ booster module…..
time will tell I guess…
I love the Win 4 Lin 5 Product but Win 4 Lin Pro is really lacking so far. It’s a great idea and it does work but there is no GUI installer or updater. Support Windows 2000 but if you go over SP2 then Windows 2000 gets spotty. And I couldn’t get Windows XP to work. š
I hope they pull it together. I am looking forward to this product being better.
What I am hoping for is a way to run Windows applications without you seeing that you are running a full verson of Windows. It would be cool if for each application you want to run that you would run an instance of Windows behind it but only require that it use enough memory and CPU as required by the applicaton you want to run!
I suggest you folks take a look at the Qemu Developer’s mailing list archives here:
http://mail.freesoftware.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel
I would guess that there is some interesting information in regards to this there…
Jason
(Sorry, I don’t want to give away the boat w/o having you guys look around a bit
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2005-03/msg00063.html
wow!!
but couldn’t get Win4Lin Pro to work so far.
I bet soon it will run its 15-day trial period .. ah well.
Wish there was a review on the product so that I least I can see people’s opinion and the screenshot in action.
As to GUI installers .. interfaces and ease-of-installation has never been Win4Lin strengths – a small price to pay for the excellent product that it is.
About other commercial emulators
I don’t like working with Vmware .. but need it for Visual Studio; so that was vital purchase.
Crossover is OK for botch jobs (and emergencies), still the least stable of the lot (freezes specially) .. and why I can’t have the “Save for the Web” functionality in Photoshop 6/7 is still beyond me.
All 3 have their particular strength and specific utility from time to time.
Win4Lin is my favourite though.
If Win4Lin Pro works exactly the same but with Windows XP loaded .. I definitely would purchase that.
I run qemu from cvs, and I cant even get win2k pro to install properly. So I know I wont be buying win4lin-pro.