ramodkk

Hey can I install Windows based programs on Ubuntu?? for example, could I install MSN Live Messenger or The Sims 2 on it??

Thanks in advanced!

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BluePlum

Ull need wine and that other program, cikhada or something. Ubuntu cant open .exe files without the help of those programs, and some time it wont work, or work well. Example, can play wc3 under wine but cant play online. You should do your research about those programs that you want to install. Ubuntu comes with peidgion with can run MSN. And sims to have no idear.

tlarkin

There are several ways you can accomplish this.

One, is to run a virtual machine of windows on your linux machine. This requires a lot of RAM because virtual machines basically make a virtual layer over your OS and use it for another OS, using all the same existing hardware. Which is why it is so much faster than emulation. However, the down side is you need to be running a decent amount of RAM for your Linux install and for Windows. I would say at least 2 gigs for Linux + XP VM, or 1gig for each. Now, some more advanced VM applications like Parallels or VMware Fusion, allow you to run virtual machine in a windowless mode. So, if you were to launch MS office on your Linux machine in this mode, it would launch the application and the windows virtual machine but you would never actually see the windows desktop,it would just launch in the background. That is the best I can explain it.

Second option would be to try to run it in WINE, which is a set of APIs that allows windows applications access to hardware and a virtual registry to fool the application into thinking it is running in windows. Some things work well, some okay and a lot of things work so-so in WINE.

Third, find a Linux alternative. For video games this may be hard but for your instant message application I am sure there is an open source version based on jabber or what not that supports AIM, MSN, yahoo, etc and can be ran natively on Linux. There is almost always a Linux alternative you can use that is similar.

Of course a fourth option would be to dual boot, but in this day and age who wants to reboot into another OS? I mean I would just run a virtual machine. The down side is virtual machines don't quite perform as well as running anything heavy with graphics natively. Basic apps you may not see a difference, I know I don't. But with more advanced apps you may notice that it doesn't run well or in some cases run at all. This of course is really referring to higher end applications and gaming.

ramodkk

Thanks for all the info. Basically my sister's computer is running slow we've tried all sorts of programs to fix it has been doing better but it's still kinda slow. So I thought I could maybe install Ubuntu on it and see how it works. Oh and her comp has like 512MB of RAM so therefore, no Virtual OS

Also, would the mobo drivers work on Ubuntu just like they would on Windows??

Btw, what is WINE? is it a program? or some kind of driver you install?

Again, thanks for the thorough response!

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"If at first you don't succeed, you're not Chuck Norris"
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BluePlum

WINE is a free source program

ramodkk

Thanks.

Can somebody explain me exactly how to install the WINE program? I tried doing the steps on this page (http://www.winehq.org/site/download-deb) but when I put the "sudo apt-get install wine" command, it tells me that the wine program could not be found. Where do I get it? I don't understand, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks guys!

__________________
"If at first you don't succeed, you're not Chuck Norris"
E2160 @ 2.7GHz
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Rosewill RD500 500W
Rosewill Modded Case
3DMark06: 10,017
Winner of Photo Tourney: What were they thinking? & Grass

BluePlum

I stopped doing linux a month ago so i forgot. But did you Put in the repository? Sounds like you didn't. And remember You dont need to install MSN comes with a unviversal messager

tlarkin

WINE is not a program it is a set of APIs. In all honesty, it is probably going to be more work than it is worth. What OS is currently on the machine?

BluePlum

Nor rly, installing wine takes 30 secs. Then it's just a matter of setting up the shortcut with a command.

ramodkk

Right now, its runnnning Ubuntu.

__________________
"If at first you don't succeed, you're not Chuck Norris"
E2160 @ 2.7GHz
AC Freezer 7 Pro
Gigabyte P35-DS3L
2GB BallistiX Tracers DDR2-1000
Sapphire HD3870
Rosewill RD500 500W
Rosewill Modded Case
3DMark06: 10,017
Winner of Photo Tourney: What were they thinking? & Grass