Despite its continuing success as a server operating system, Linux has yet to loosen Microsoft’s stranglehold on the desktop. Linux’s lack of productivity applications and complex user interface has prevented it from becoming a viable Windows alternative for all but the technically inclined.
Linux has proven itself as a reliable server OS, but its less than user-friendly interface has hindered its appeal to people accustomed to having wily wizards and perky paper clips lead them through the technical labyrinth.
And even dedicated Linux users say they can’t delete Windows until their favorite application runs on Linux. Open-source coders have created many applications for Linux, but even they will admit these programs don’t have the features to match up with Photoshop, Word or Macromedia Flash.
“It seems that many people have their pet program, the one application that holds them to Windows OS,” said István Lebor, a systems administrator at OTP Bank Limited, the National Savings and Commercial Bank of Hungary. “You can have a dual boot computer, with Linux on one partition and Windows on the other, but there are technical issues there as well, and that’s more complex than most people want their machine to be.” Started in 1993, the WINE project aims to be a solution to the Linux application dilemma. WINE, which has been available as pre-release software, is a program that enables PCs running Linux or other versions of Unix to use Windows programs sans the Windows operating system.
In theory, WINE would provide the best of open- and closed-source software. But the reality has often been less than intoxicating for mainstream users, said Lebor, who has contributed code to the WINE project.
WINE doesn’t yet run all Windows applications flawlessly, and using WINE still requires a somewhat sophisticated level of technical ability, particularly when it comes to installing Windows programs, Lebor said.
But CodeWeavers, WINE’s primary corporate backer, promises great things when it releases version 1.0 in a few months.
“I think that few people realize just how amazing a project WINE is,” Jeremy White, founder and CEO of CodeWeavers, said. “This is the real deal — a complete implementation of the Windows API (application programming interface).”
White and other Linux gurus are quick to clear up the misconception that WINE is merely an emulator program, which attempts to duplicate the environment of a particular operating system. WINE is a layer of software that acts as a sort of mediator, translating instructions between Unix and Windows applications.
The application’s name reinforces that point. WINE is a recursive acronym that stands for “WINE Is Not an Emulator.”
But White acknowledges that WINE is not yet a complete replacement for those who need to run an extensive list of Windows programs.
“More programs fail to run under WINE than successfully run,” White said. But he said that WINE 1.0 will feature a lot of “very important internal changes,” including an easier and more efficient application installer.
Current users of WINE know that the installer often fails. Anyone who has ever tried to copy a program between Windows computers, only to be missing an obscure .dll or bit of code, knows the troubleshooting headaches that can ensue.
Wired – Jan. 25, 2002