Win4Lin

Last updated
Win4Lin
Initial release2006;18 years ago (2006)
Final release
5.5 / June 4, 2008;16 years ago (2008-06-04)
Operating system Linux
Type Hypervisor
License Proprietary

Win4Lin is a discontinued proprietary software application for Linux which allowed users to run a copy of Windows 9x, Windows 2000 or Windows XP applications on their Linux desktop. [1] Win4Lin was based on Merge software, a product which changed owners several times until it was bought by Win4Lin Inc. Citing changes in the desktop virtualization industry, the software's publisher, Virtual Bridges, has discontinued Win4Lin Pro. [2]

Contents

Products and technology

In 2006, Win4Lin came in three different versions, depending on the virtualization requirements of the user. [3]

The Win4Lin 9x/Pro (henceforth the only technology discussed in this section) operates by running Windows applications in a virtual machine. [1] Unlike Wine or CrossOver which are compatibility layers, virtualization-based software such as VMware or Win4Lin require users to have a Windows license in order to run applications since they must install a full copy of Windows within the virtual machine. [4]

Unlike VMware, however, Win4Lin provides the virtual guest operating system with access to the native Linux filesystem, and allows the Linux host to access the guest's files even when the virtual machine is not running. [1] [4] In addition to the convenience this offers, Computerworld found in their 2002 review that Win4Lin gained significant performance over VMware by using the native Linux filesystem, but also noted that this approach (unlike VMware's) limited the installation of only one version of Windows on a Win4Lin machine. [4]

When the Win4Lin application starts it displays a window on the Linux desktop which contains the Windows desktop environment. [5] Users can then install or run applications as they normally would from within Windows. [5] Win4Lin supports Linux printers, internet connections, and Windows networking, but as of 2000, does not support DirectX and by extension most Windows games. [5]

They also offered Win4BSD for FreeBSD. [6]

History

Win4Lin was initially based on Merge software originally developed at Locus Computing Corporation, and which changed hands several times until it ended in the assets of NeTraverse, which were purchased in 2005 by Win4Lin Inc., which introduced Win4Lin Pro Desktop. [7] This was based on a 'tuned' version of QEMU and KQEMU, and it hosted [Windows NT]-versions of Windows.

In June 2006, Win4Lin released Win4VDI for Linux based on the same code base. Win4VDI for Linux served Microsoft Windows desktops to thin clients from a Linux server.

Virtual Bridges discontinued support for Win4Lin 9x in 2007. The Win4Lin Pro Desktop product ceased to be supported in March 2010.

Reception

Many users reported that the 9x version ran windows software at near-native speed, even on quite low-powered machines, such as Pentium-IIs.[ citation needed ]

Nicholas Petereley praised Win4Lin in two of his columns in the year 2000, for its significantly faster performance than its competitor VMware. [5] [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BeOS</span> Discontinued operating system for personal computers

BeOS is a discontinued operating system for personal computers that was developed by Be Inc. It was conceived for the company's BeBox personal computer which was released in 1995. BeOS was designed for multitasking, multithreading, and a graphical user interface. The OS was later sold to OEMs, retail, and directly to users; its last version was released as freeware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandriva Linux</span> Linux distribution

Mandriva Linux is a discontinued Linux distribution developed by Mandriva S.A.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syllable Desktop</span> Operating system

Syllable Desktop is a discontinued free and open-source lightweight hobbyist operating system for Pentium and compatible processors. Its purpose was to create an easy-to-use desktop operating system for the home and small office user. It was forked and expanded AtheOS after the developer of AtheOS moved on to other projects in July 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xandros</span> Linux distribution

Xandros, Inc. was a software company which sold Xandros Desktop, a Linux distribution. The name Xandros was derived from the X Window System and the Greek island of Andros. Xandros was founded in May 2001 by Linux Global Partners. The company was headquartered in New York City with its development office in Ottawa, Canada.

Virtual PC is a discontinued x86 emulator for PowerPC Mac hosts and a hypervisor for Microsoft Windows hosts. It was created by Connectix in 1997 and acquired by Microsoft in 2003. The Mac version was discontinued in 2006 following the Mac transition to Intel, while the Windows version was discontinued in 2011 in favour of Hyper-V.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Live CD</span> Complete, bootable computer installation that runs directly from a CD-ROM

A live CD is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading from a hard disk drive. A live CD allows users to run an operating system for any purpose without installing it or making any changes to the computer's configuration. Live CDs can run on a computer without secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive, or with a corrupted hard disk drive or file system, allowing data recovery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual file system</span> Abstract layer on top of a more concrete file system

A virtual file system (VFS) or virtual filesystem switch is an abstract layer on top of a more concrete file system. The purpose of a VFS is to allow client applications to access different types of concrete file systems in a uniform way. A VFS can, for example, be used to access local and network storage devices transparently without the client application noticing the difference. It can be used to bridge the differences in Windows, classic Mac OS/macOS and Unix filesystems, so that applications can access files on local file systems of those types without having to know what type of file system they are accessing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooperative Linux</span> Software to run both Windows and Linux

Cooperative Linux, abbreviated as coLinux, is software which allows Microsoft Windows and the Linux kernel to run simultaneously in parallel on the same machine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IRIX Interactive Desktop</span> Computer software desktop environment

IRIX Interactive Desktop is a discontinued desktop environment normally used as the default desktop on Silicon Graphics workstations running IRIX. The IRIX Interactive Desktop uses the Motif widget toolkit on top of the X Window System found on most Unix systems. The default window manager on the IRIX Interactive Desktop is 4Dwm.

WinFax is a discontinued Microsoft Windows-based software product developed and published by Delrina designed to let computers equipped with fax-modems communicate directly to stand-alone fax machines, or other similarly equipped computers.

On Microsoft Windows, a special folder is a folder that is presented to the user through an interface as an abstract concept instead of an absolute folder path. Special folders make it possible for any application to ask the operating system where an appropriate location for certain kinds of files can be found; independently of which version or user language of Windows is being used.

Criticism of Windows XP deals with issues with security, performance and the presence of product activation errors that are specific to the Microsoft operating system Windows XP.

The following is about Virtualization development. In computing, virtualization is the use of a computer to simulate another computer. Through virtualization, a host simulates a guest by exposing virtual hardware devices, which may be done through software or by allowing access to a physical device connected to the machine.

MojoPac was an application virtualization product from RingCube Technologies. MojoPac turns any USB 2.0 storage device into a portable computing environment. The term "MojoPac" is used by the company to refer to the software application, the virtualized environment running inside this software, and the USB storage device that contains the software and relevant applications. MojoPac supports popular applications such as Firefox and Microsoft Office, and it is also high performance enough to run popular PC Games such as World of Warcraft, Minecraft and Half-Life 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VMware Workstation</span> Hosted hypervisor for Windows and Linux

VMware Workstation Pro is a hosted hypervisor that runs on x64 versions of Windows and Linux operating systems. There used to be an IA-32 version for earlier versions for the software. It enables users to set up virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical machine and use them simultaneously along with the host machine. Each virtual machine can execute its own operating system, including versions of Microsoft Windows, Linux, BSD, and MS-DOS. VMware Workstation is developed and sold by VMware, Inc. Until version 17.5.2 there was a free-of-charge version called VMware Workstation Player, for non-commercial use. Ready-made Linux VMs set up for different purposes are available from several sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parallels Desktop for Mac</span> Virtual machine software

Parallels Desktop for Mac is software providing hardware virtualization for Macintosh computers with Intel processors, and since version 16.5 also for Apple silicon-based Macintosh computers. It is developed by Parallels, since 2018 a subsidiary of Corel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VirtualBox</span> Open-source x86 virtualization application

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a hosted hypervisor for x86 virtualization developed by Oracle Corporation. VirtualBox was originally created by InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, which was in turn acquired by Oracle in 2010.

Binary-code compatibility is a property of a computer system, meaning that it can run the same executable code, typically machine code for a general-purpose computer central processing unit (CPU), that another computer system can run. Source-code compatibility, on the other hand, means that recompilation or interpretation is necessary before the program can be run on the compatible system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtualization</span> Methods for dividing computing resources

In computing, virtualization (v12n) is a series of technologies that allows dividing of physical computing resources into a series of virtual machines, operating systems, processes or containers.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hsiao, Aron (July 7, 2005). Sams teach yourself Red Hat Fedora 4 Linux: all in one. SAMS Publishing. p. 678. ISBN   9780672327070 . Retrieved Nov 14, 2012.
  2. "Win4Lin Pro". Virtual Bridges. Archived from the original on February 8, 2010. Retrieved Nov 14, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 McCallister, Michael (2006). Suse Linux 10: Unleashed. SAMS Publishing. pp. 191–192. ISBN   9780672327261 . Retrieved Nov 14, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 Bushong, Charles (April 4, 2002). "Windows Emulators for Linux: VMware, Win4Lin Face Off". Computerworld . pp. 1–2. Retrieved Nov 14, 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Petreley, Nicholas (Nov 20, 2000). "Get Win4Lin and Windows users won't feel disenfranchised under Linux". InfoWorld . Retrieved Nov 14, 2012.
  6. "win4bsd FreeBSD". www.freebsdsoftware.org. Archived from the original on 2008-02-04.
  7. So You Want To Run Windows 2000 and Windows XP Apps On Linux? Win4Lin Out From Under Windows 98 Bondage, 2005
  8. Petreley, Nicholas (11 December 2000). "Am I the only one who doesn't know why to use VMware?". InfoWorld . p. 60. Retrieved 2012-11-14.