Windows Emulation on Linux
When you just can't avoid using a Microsoft Windows-based application,
and
dual booting
just isn't good enough, there are several alternatives available.
-
VMware
can run nearly any version of Windows in a "virtual machine",
which appears as an X window under Linux (or vice versa, if you
happen to be running Windows as your primary OS :-). This is a
commercial product, with a price (as of October 2001) of
approximately US$300 for the workstation version. An
evaluation copy
is available.
-
NeTraverse Win4Lin
is a Windows emulator for Linux. Version 3.0 (current as
of October 2001) supports Windows 95 and Windows 98 only, for a
cost of US$80. They don't offer an evaluation copy, but they
do promise "a 30-day money back guarantee and full purchase
refund upon request".
-
Lindows
is a Linux-based operating system that claims to run both Linux
and Windows binaries.
- In contrast to the above,
Plex86
and
Bochs
are
open source
projects. As of October 2001 Bochs supports Windows 95 and NT,
while Plex86 is still in development.
- No list of Windows emulators would be complete without the
non-emulator,
WINE
- Finally, if MS-DOS is all you need, there's always
DOSEMU
Last Update: 2002/03/25
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