Linux Conversion, Complete.

by Joe on November 12, 2007

in Blogging,Bragging Rights,Geeky

This weekend, I committed myself to fully converting to Linux and to quit Windows. I took a look at my usual computer usage and what applications I really used and made certain I had a reasonable alternative.

I would admittedly rate myself as 4/10 on a scale from Linux Neophyte to 1337 Hax0r. I can navigate the file system, recover things, compile things, and understand the fundamentals of Linux. So, this was a daring challenge when I wanted to switch over.

Never fear, Wine is here. No, put down the Chardonnay, I’m talking about Windows Emulator “Wine is Not an Emulator” (WINE). I discovered that it isn’t just for installing some silly freeware Windows junk. You can literally take your software with you, if you have some time to get into it.

I was able to successfully run AOL 5.0 <g>, Microsoft Office 2003 and uTorrent. Amazingly, they all had compelling performance compared to their native counterparts. I was able to download a torrent at 95% of my connection speed, so it stayed. Office works like a charm, including all necessary fonts and glitz and glam. AOL actually works well* and renders FDO as its supposed to, but the browser doesn’t work because Wine lacks IE. Overall, I am quite satisfied.

* This statement is intended that running a Windows app is certainly a challenge, let alone something as proprietary as AOL. ;-)

I’ve configured my Thunderbird, Firefox, Pidgin, and Skype with all their bells and whistles and am a happy computer user. So let me break down what the comparable applications are:

AIM/AOL/Yahoo/MSN/Gtalk/mIRC/IM: Pidgin
Office: Open Office, MS Office under Wine, Abiword
Winamp/iTunes/Music: XMMS, Amarok, Rhythmbox
Skype/VoIP: Skype, TeamSpeak
Command Prompt: Bash
Task Manager: ps aux, top, System Monitor (Gnome)
Photoshop/Paint Shop Pro/Graphics: Gimp, Photoshop under Wine
McAfee/Norton/AVG/Anti-virus Software: None! It’s Linux!
Dreamweaver/Notepad/Text Editor: Bluefish, Screem, Gedit (Gnome), vi
Windows/Operating Systems: Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, SuSE, Mandriva, and many others.

There you have it. No excuses. If you’re on the fence, you’ll enjoy the multitasking ability of Linux, no freezes or crashes and the impressive uptime.

I’ve included a screenshot for the curious. Enjoy!
Screenshot of Ubuntu Gutsy (7.10) with Several Apps.

Update 11/28: From the comments below, WINE probably means “Wine Is Not an Emulator,” instead of my own interpretation “WINdows Emulator.” Thanks, Ed!

Update 12/4: I went into further detail on the recursive acronym in the comments below, as well as struck out my typo. Thanks!

Tagged as: Linux, Software, Ubuntu, Windows

  • Joe
    Rogan,

    Guilty as charged -- until I was corrected by another commenter, Daysleeper Ed, about the recursive WINE acronym. Maybe it's me, but I've only previously heard WINE mean "Windows Emulator." Indeed, it's a myth that WINE is an emulator. However, let's also understand that an "emulator" can have more than one meaning.

    WINEHQ states that Wine is typically known as, "Wine Is Not an Emulator," or more colloquially, "Windows Emulator." They provide an abstract explanation on emulation, too.

    I admit that I'm still fairly a novice to Linux (compared to true unix sysadmins), since I spend several hours daily working in Windows XP without much choice. However, Wine does help run the proprietary Windows applications I need while I learn deeper concepts in the Linux Environment.

    Thanks for your comments. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on my other entries here. :-)

    Sources:
    - http://www.winehq.org/site/myths
    - http://www.winehq.org/site/docs/winedev-guide/a...
    - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/emulator

    ~ Joe
  • WINdows Emulator? 10 years of experience with windows still = 0 experience with linux.
  • Joe
    Thanks for the helpful comments, Slack.

    The only thing that prevents me from exploring untraveled territory with other Linux OSs is I have fairly unique hardware in my machine, soft-RAID and an ATI graphics card. This makes driver conundrums very frustrating and I do my best to avert the "all-day driver installations."

    I don't play that many games on it, yet. So far CS:S runs pretty well, albeit some minor lag sometimes. I've heard of Cedega and I'd be interested in it probably later on.

    For Web development, I use Bluefish. However, I'll give Quanta+ a shot and see how I like it.


    Thanks for the good words. :-)
    ~Joe
  • Ahh shit! And don't forget Quanta+ for Web Dev! SO freakin cool!
  • Congrats on the move, Joe! Welcome to real computing. ;) If you are pretty new or novice to Linux, I'd recommend checking out Gentoo. You will learn SO freakin much about the guts of Linux by installing and building a Gentoo distro. And if you are half as OCD as I am, the more you learn about it the more you will redo your Gentoo install to get things JUST RIGHT. :) These days I find myself on Kubuntu and am loving every minute of it. OH! And, speaking of Wine, give Cedega a look see. It's a fork of Wine that is specially tweaked for gaming. ;)

    PS: Your buddy is right about the backronym, and for fuck sake NEVER call Wine an Emulator. Major no no.
  • Joe
    Ed,

    Thanks for the comment. I always thought that the WINE acronym as you described was a joke. I guess I'll make the edit.

    You are right that tinkering with the MSI Installer can be a pain, but once you install DCOM98 and a few other packages (as described in many online tutorials), then it's easy.

    "wine .wine/drive_c/windows/system32/msiexec.exe" is where the replacement MSI installer is.

    ~ Joe
  • Hey, nice to see you're using Ubuntu. You might want to try installing IEs4Linux to get AOL working. I also read you need to configure the .msi replacement in Wine to get things working. The guides in Frank's Corner (frankscorner.org) is a good place to start. And WINE is a backcronym for Wine Is Not an Emulator -- no flame intended.
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