Windows 7 Machine DOA

[Zundfolge]

...If you have a specific Windows-based program you NEED to use, you can emulate in WINE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_(software)). It's got a few bugs and I've never used it, but others do. However, because it brings Windows style emulation...

Uh ... WINE is not an emulator

[CS1983]

True... I mean, it is in the name as not being the case (and it's not, since it translates rather than truly emulating), but I'm not going to get into a finer-points discussion and confuse him. Its own FAQ shows the hair splitting on this:

1.3 Is Wine an emulator? There seems to be disagreement

There is a lot of confusion about this, particularly caused by people getting Wine's name wrong and calling it WINdows Emulator.

When users think of an emulator, they tend to think of things like game console emulators or virtualization software. However, Wine is a compatibility layer - it runs Windows applications in much the same way Windows does. There is no inherent loss of speed due to "emulation" when using Wine, nor is there a need to open Wine before running your application.

That said, Wine can be thought of as a Windows emulator in much the same way that Windows Vista can be thought of as a Windows XP emulator: both allow you to run the same applications by translating system calls in much the same way. Setting Wine to mimic Windows XP is not much different from setting Vista to launch an application in XP compatibility mode.

A few things make Wine more than just an emulator:

Sections of Wine can be used on Windows. Some virtual machines use Wine's OpenGL-based implementation of Direct3D on Windows rather than truly emulate 3D hardware.
Winelib can be used for porting Windows application source code to other operating systems that Wine supports to run on any processor, even processors that Windows itself does not support.

"Wine is not just an emulator" is more accurate. Thinking of Wine as just an emulator is really forgetting about the other things it is. Wine's "emulator" is really just a binary loader that allows Windows applications to interface with the Wine API replacement.

https://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#Is_Wine_...e_disagreement

[Zundfolge]

Cav, the jokes aren't funny if you have to explain them

[68Charger]

And while Linux has a lower percentage of end-user deployment, the percentage is MUCH higher on internet servers (host systems)... cheaper, faster, and more secure than windows...

The only way to get good with it is to use it... after picking up management of several linux servers at work, I learned more in 3 months than 5 years of having an Ubuntu machine at home.... except that the home machine used WINE, and the host systems at work are all native linux apps.
Some will allow dual-boot so you can wean yourself off Windoze, or you could setup a VM (virtual machine) to run native windows instead of WINE, but now we're getting a bit more advanced configuration using hypervisor... and likely overkill unless you're hosting or have a compatibility problem with WINE.

Even Gaming is possible with most programs in WINE: https://appdb.winehq.org/

[Bailey Guns]

...but I'm not going to get into a finer-points discussion and confuse him.

Too late!



I may just install it and try it out. I learn best that way.

[Bailey Guns]

I do internet surfing and shopping, this forum and a few others, stream movies and videos from Netflix and such, some MS Word or Excel stuff here and there and manage my pictures. That's about it. I'm hardly an expert but not a novice...probably a low-intermediate user. I like shit to work when I wanna use it.

[CS1983]

Sounds good. Let us know if you need any help with anything.

Any idea which you will go with for a variant?

[Bailey Guns]

No. I'll do some research and figure it out. Thanks for the info and taking the time to learn a newb something useful.

[Bailey Guns]

I installed Linux Mint (Cinnamon) on a computer (alongside Win 7). It was a little tricky figuring out how to make a bootable USB drive but I figured it out (translation: I searched and found instructions). Got it installed and then had to figure out how to get it to recognize my wireless network. Now I just need to tweak a few things and start learning how to use it effectively.

I have to say, just knowing I'm not using Windows is kinda fun. I'm gonna try to completely wean myself from Microsoft, Google, etc...

[CS1983]

So you configured dual boot and got it to connect online. You're more of an IT guy than some of the folks I've worked with!

There's a lot of neat features with Mint. I think you will enjoy it.

Before you get it too set up with personal files and such, go ahead and click around on everything to see where things are, how they work, etc. That way if you break it, a re-install won't be painful due to data loss.