[Wine] Re: question about WINEPREFIX

[Phobos]

huh?

that's really what is interesting.... wine puts the registry and windows fake dlls and exes as files inside the prefix... there's no real registry... (then again, all of windows in wine is artificial, so it is not to wonder..)

something like this is what thinstall does, it makes the apps use an artificial registry, so they don't completely interact with the real one (only to read some keys... like the window's ones)... I'm still not sure how they do this...

if the prefixes are done to work in this way (and the .lnk bug is fixed), they could be portable not only in wine, but also windows... I think that the main difference with the current implementation would be the fake dlls and stuff, since wine (and the fakes) needs a unix-like system underneath.. but I'm sure this can be solved

the difference of wine (and that is why I asked) with thinstall, portableapps and softgrid all target a per-app container... that is, they put only the registry keys and files the app uses together... while wine targets a per-drive container (virtualizes a "whole" drive c with a "whole" windows")

the difference with thinstall and portableapps is that thinstall automates all the process so the user can make their own containers, while portableapps do each app by hand and distribute them

each idea have their advantages, but in the end work very similarly... (ok, you don't believe me.... read how codeweavers promotes the bottles feature http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/bottles/ and now read what thinstall shows as their features http://www.thinstall.com/solutions/solutions.php and notice how they are very alike)

note: I'm writing via the forum, so you probably didn't notice that I modified one of my posts saying this:

"(Btw, not all the portable apps get tweaked by changing the code, many are made in a similar fashion as thinstall, intercepting the registry keys that it uses, adding them to the registry and then deleting them after the app closes)"

there are times when they can't change the code not to use the registry... so, the portableapps also make a "virtual" registry as a text file that gets loaded on the real registry using a NSIS script (that works as a wrapper) that later removes it when the app closes... and they come with their own files configuring the app to use a relative path instead of an absolute one

as you see, what portableapps do sounds easier than what the others do, as they do modify the app a little... while the others don't.... but is almost the same idea...

so, no one in the community is interested in this?.... maybe codeweavers will and enhance the bottles :P.... just look how well did thinstall and softgrid (the first sold each single license at $5000) that they got bought by vmware and microsoft respectively... seems like a good commercial product... if it's cheaper than that, I would buy it hehe

please, do tell me where I'm wrong or correct and what you think about this