Wine and industrial communication like OPC

[Mike Hearn]

Rickard Svensson wrote:
> My short question is:
> Can I use Wine to make OPC communication work on a Linux system.

Answer: almost certainly yes, with a catch:

1) Wines current builtin DCOM is not up to scratch for what you want, 
and it will take a long time to get there. Really, given how 
unglamourous network DCOM hacking is and how few people have worked on 
it, it's unlikely to happen until funding is available.

2) So ... you'd have to use "native" DCOM. This is a redistributable 
that can be downloaded from microsoft.com and installed into Wine. You'd 
have to read the EULA very carefully but I suspect you need a Windows 
license in order to use it.

However, even if you do, simply buying a copy of Windows then throwing 
away the box may actually still be easier than switching your project to 
another OS entirely.

> OPC "OLE for Process Control"
> A "general" standard for communication in industrial systems, that
 > unfortunately is totally depending on Windows(DCOM)

Could you be a bit more specific? What kind of industry? Do you mean 
things like controlling robots on production lines? Yep I know am I 
pretty ignorant about anything related to factories :)

> On www.opcfoundation.org ther are same companys how have made Unix OPC clients, but the license costs are hi.
> Ther is also OPC true XML that is now a real product, that looks promising.

Yes, I saw that. They are pushing the DCOM to Unix port that Microsoft 
did. It's probably cheaper to license Windows and then just use native 
DCOM than use that but you'd have to check. What are the prices?

thanks -mike