Windows and Linux



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. Introduction

Windows and Linux
Different software programs are designed for different operating systems, and most won't work on systems that they weren't designed for. Windows programs, for example, won't run in Linux because they contain instructions that the system can't understand until they're translated by the Windows environment. Linux programs, likewise, won't run under the Windows operating system because Windows is unable to interpret all of their instructions.
This situation presents a fundamental problem for anyone who wants to run software for both Windows and Linux. A common solution to this problem is to install both operating systems on the same computer, known as "dual booting." When a Windows program is needed, the user boots the machine into Windows to run it; when a Linux program is then needed, the user then reboots the machine into Linux. This option presents great difficulty: not only must the user endure the frustration of frequent rebooting, but programs for both platforms can't be run simultaneously. Having Windows on a system also creates an added burden: the software is expensive, requires a separate disk partition, and is unable to read most file system formats, making the sharing of data between operating systems difficult.


What is Wine?

Wine makes it possible to run Windows programs alongside any Unix-like operating system, particularly Linux. At its heart, Wine is an implementation of the Windows Application Programing Interface (API) library, acting as a bridge between the Windows program and Linux. Think of Wine as a compatibility layer, when a Windows program tries to perform a function that Linux doesn't normally understand, Wine will translate that program's instruction into one supported by the system. For example, if a program asks the system to create a Windows pushbutton or text-edit field, Wine will convert that instruction into its Linux equivalent in the form of a command to the window manager using the standard X11 protocol.
If you have access to the Windows program's source code, Wine can also be used to recompile a program into a format that Linux can understand more easily. Wine is still needed to launch the program in its recompiled form; however there are many advantages to compiling a Windows program natively within Linux.



Versions of Wine

Wine is an open source project, and there are accordingly many different versions of Wine for you to choose from. The standard version of Wine comes in intermittent releases (roughly twice a month), and can be downloaded over the internet in both prepackaged binary form and ready to compile source code form. Alternatively, you can install a development version of Wine by using the latest available source code from the Git repository. Latest stable release of Wine version 1.2.3 is on April 8, 2011 and the preview release version 1.3.34 is on February 2, 2012 at the time of making this report.

Alternatives to Wine you might want to consider

Probably the most obvious method of getting a Windows application to run is to simply run it on Windows. However, security, license cost, backward-compatibility, and machine efficiency issues can make this a difficult proposition, which is why Wine is so useful in the first place.
Another alternative is to use ReactOS , which is a fully open source alternative to Windows. ReactOS shares code heavily with the Wine project, but rather than running Windows applications on top of Linux they are instead run on top of the ReactOS kernel. ReactOS also offers compatibility with Windows driver files, allowing the use of hardware without functional Linux drivers.

Virtual Machines

Rather than installing an entirely new operating system on your machine, we can instead run a virtual machine at the software level and install a different operating system on it. Thus, we could run a Linux system and at the same time run Windows along with your application in a virtual machine simultaneously on the same hardware. Virtual machines allow us to install and run not only different versions of Windows on the same hardware, but also other operating systems, including ReactOS.


Native Applications
Instead of running a particular Windows application with Wine, one frequently viable alternative is to simply run a different application. Many Windows applications, particularly more commonly used ones such as media players, instant messengers, and file sharing programs have very good open source equivalents. Furthermore, a sizable number of Windows programs have been ported to Linux directly, eliminating the need for Wine (or Windows) entirely.