Main index

Introducing UNIX and Linux

Installing Linux

Overview
Starting out
Preliminaries
      Collecting information about your system
      Installation options
Single boot
Dual boot
      Booting from CD/floppy
      Booting from your hard disk
      A partitionless install
      A dedicated Linux partition
Emulators
      VMware
      WINE
Installing Linux
      Installer software
      Linux partitioning
            Typical partitions
            User accounts
      LILO
The window manager
KDE
      Desktop help
      Applications
      The KDE Control Center
      File access and the command prompt
Summary

WINE

WINE (which stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator") allows most Windows applications to be run natively under Intel versions of UNIX. WINE does this by providing low-level compatibility for Windows programs running under Linux. As a result, the applications run faster than they will under an emulator.

One of the main reasons for choosing WINE over an emulator is that it does not require extensive hardware resources. If you have a processor sufficiently powerful to run Linux then you will be able to run both WINE and Microsoft Windows applications under it. As far as disk space is concerned, you only need approximately 250MB of free disk to be able to store and compile the source code plus an additional 18MB of /tmp space (see below) and 50MB of disk in order to do the install. Another advantage of WINE is that it is free.

Corel has been using WINE to port its WordPerfect Suite to Linux so there are some well-documented success stories. However, there are difficulties with some of the Windows applications and so it is worth looking at the Application Database on the WINE web page before deciding whether this is going to be appropriate for your needs.

Once you have set up WINE on your computer, you can install Microsoft applications by invoking a terminal window and typing wine followed by the name of the set-up program. A similar procedure is used to run the application once it has been installed.

More details on WINE can be found at www.winehq.com.

Note