[Wine] Re: Wine for the End-user?

[David Rowell]

I started using Ubuntu Linux about 9 months ago.  I was looking to 
eventually replace Windows XP and avoid buying "Longhorn".  I can relate 
to all your apprehensions regarding a new OS - it IS a serious change. 
I started using Wine not long after I started using Ubuntu because I 
just couldn't find a Linux substitute for a couple of applications.

This forum and the WineHQ web site have been invaluable.  Thanks Daniel! 
  Consult the WineHQ Application Database for suggestions.  When you 
find how to do something new - share.

It all began to come together and make sense after about 3 months and 
makes more sense every day.  I've booted to Windoze 2 times since May. 
Before then, mostly to take some on-line courses that absolutely 
required IE & Win.  If you look for it there IS a good deal of "printed" 
information out there on the web.  And I hate to say this but (RTFM!) 
read the help files and man pages on any (I assume) recent Linux distro. 
  Documentation has come a long way in the last year.  If you really 
want to take the book approach there is a new Ubuntu book available or 
soon to be available.  BTW Firefox and Thunderbird are standard features 
of Ubuntu.  Subscribe to and read the back issues of TUX magazine on line.

I'm convinced that Linux, Ubuntu (Kbuntu) anyway, is a viable desktop OS 
at this time.  I believe that several other distro's are aimed more 
toward the corporate user and wouldn't be as useful to you.  I know of a 
computer semi-literate person whose brother installed Ubuntu on her 
brand new laptop, completely removing Windoze - she loves it.  I have 
almost no interest in or knowledge of mainstream Windows games so I 
won't comment there.

Windows compatibility is a moving target - it's (deliberately?) very 
poorly documented.  Wine will probably never run all Windows apps.  In 
all fairness Windows doesn't run all Windows apps perfectly either!

searbe at googlemail.com wrote:
> I've been watching Wine for about a year (well, checking back and
> reading updates) and progress all seems to be looking really good. I'd
> love to be able to use Linux, but firstly my applications won't run on
> it, and secondly the whole operating system seems a little overwhelming
> to me - especially with having to type in text commands every now and
> then to do complete commands that are a few clicks away in Windows
> (simply installing FireFox proved mission impossible for me). I guess I
> should invest in a Linux book to get me started!
> 
> Anyway back to the point, Wine seems to be getting towards a 1.0
> release... I was wondering if that means 100% (or at least a high
> percentage) compatibility with applications? Will applications be able
> to run on wine out-of-the-box? How about games, are you expecting brand
> new games to run out-of-the-box via Wine any time soon (or ever)?
> 
> Which brings me to another question, is Wine an end-user application?
> Could someone like myself (inexperienced linux user, who could do with
> reading a good tutorial or two) use it to run applications easily? Or
> is this more likely to be found in a third-party Wine distribution at
> some point?
> 
> I hope here's the right place to post this, and that it isn't a boring
> couple of questions that have been asked hundereds of times before :-)
> 
> Craig
>