How do you use Windows apps?

[hizaguchi]

I'm in a situation where there are some Windows apps that I absolutely have to use, but I'm finding my once familiar OS very painful to use. I'm spoiled by Xgl, and Banshee, and Kate, and Nautilus, and Beagle. So I wonder how everybody else who is occasionally forced to use Windows-exclusive apps deals with it.

[BigDave708]

I'm in a situation where there are some Windows apps that I absolutely have to use, but I'm finding my once familiar OS very painful to use. I'm spoiled by Xgl, and Banshee, and Kate, and Nautilus, and Beagle. So I wonder how everybody else who is occasionally forced to use Windows-exclusive apps deals with it.

Whilst in Ubuntu I use Wine, but I also dual-boot.

[G Morgan]

I don't mean to be pedantic but VMware and Xen are emulators (well Xen is half an emulator but you get it) while the others are API translations (Cygwin being a POSIX API layer for Win32).

Personally I use all 3 for different things.

[Engnome]

In the beginning I wanted to run everything in wine. Far from everything worked. But you learn to replace the apps you like in windows after a while. Some of them are better and some are not so good. But they are in 99.9% cases libre wich I like alot. Now I rarely use wine and never boot windows.

Voted wine as I use it sometimes.

[Ziox]

i choose other...because i don't use windows apps, and the only time that i use it is when helping other people, who still have M$ Window$ on it...

half the time, i'm fixing spyware problems and virus problems...:)

[mostwanted]

Wine, Cedega, etc. is not emulation. They implement the Windows API's and system calls and run the software natively.

Emulation is when you emulate a complete computer in software and interpret binary code with it, that's why it can be very slow to emulate an N64 on relatively modern hardware.

[AndyCooll]

The best solution obviously depends on what you need to use Windoze for. If you play lots of graphics intensive games for instance, then dual-booting may be the only option.

I use a WinXP VMware image as the only two things I need to do in XP are play Football Manager (which is number crunching intensive rather than graphics) and use Connect software for the missus' Sony mp3 player. My VMware image is ideal for this, no need to dual-boot and Wine doeswn't handle FM very well.

:cool:

[slugkilla]

The only thing I need windows for is to get my pictures form the camera. Yeah, anything else I use wine for. And if wine won't run it, I don't need it.

[FISHERMAN]

I use Wine for 3 programs. For the rest I only use native GNU/Linux programs.
I still have a WinXP partition, but I haven't found the time to delete it yet.

[beercz]

I don't :-)

[cstudent]

There is not much I use Windows for anymore. I use it at work all day, but at home I am pretty much strictly Ubuntu. I dual boot my main desktop and my laptop. I don't play games and I don't have a lot of graphic requirements, so Ubuntu meets my needs very well. I would personally never use wine or any other such mechanism to run a Windows program. To me, if you're going to run a Windows program then run it on Windows. Why add another layer of complication into the mix? But to each his own.

[gruvsyco]

Not sure how to vote so I won't. I have some apps installed with Wine and my system is set up dual boot to XP but, I've been running Linux almost exclusively for going on 4 weeks and I'm trying to give the "supposed" OSS counterparts to my commercial apps a fair go so, I haven't actually been running any of my Windows apps unless I absolutely have to.

[FISHERMAN]

Why add another layer of complication into the mix? But to each his own.

Because I don't want to reboot everytime I want/need to start Win-application.

[hizaguchi]

Because I don't want to reboot everytime I want/need to start Win-application.
Yes, exactly. Dual booting is a pain on many levels. Some people just can't escape the need for certain Windows software. I'm only recently experiencing how badly this sucks, and I wonder how to best deal with it.

Yeah, I don't know the difference in emulation and virtualization. I just know that some methods require you to run a whole OS while others don't. That's probably the distinction I should have made.

[Praetorian]

I dual-boot and use wine.
unfortunally not all games run under wine for example: Rome Total War witch is my one of my favorite games.
But every time I boot I am using Ubuntu.
On the moment I like to play a game witch won't work in Ubuntu I reboot my computer.

[cstudent]

Because I don't want to reboot everytime I want/need to start Win-application.

And that's why I have multiple computers running 24/7.

[josys36]

Personally I use both VMWare and Wine. Wine runs somethings just fine, but I need VMWare for things like IBM System i Access and Lotus Notes.

Jason

[GameManK]

Wine Is Not an Emulator

I had a dual boot until I got a new hard drive and had to return my good video card (not connected, but around the same time). Now I haven't bothered reinstalling windows and use wine when needed.

[der_joachim]

Two words: Guild Wars. Still crappy under Wine. :(

[MethodOne]

The only Windows app I depend on is iTunes because my sister likes to use it for downloading music from there, but I don't really use it that much. Also, my sister prefers the official IM clients to Gaim. I'll dual-boot with Kubuntu and Windows until I get an iMac.

[s6dalane]

I can manage just fine without using them. :)