Skip to Main Content
Linux in a Windows World
book

Linux in a Windows World

by Roderick W Smith
February 2005
Beginner content levelBeginner
496 pages
16h 10m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Linux in a Windows World

Running Windows Programs in Linux

Linux is a mature OS that provides programs in all common, and many uncommon, desktop software categories. Nonetheless, sometimes native Linux programs just aren’t adequate. Perhaps you need a specific program to read existing data files or to exchange data with colleagues, customers, or clients off-site. Perhaps you need a program with specific features that aren’t available in Linux; or perhaps you need to run an exotic program for which no Linux counterpart is available. Sometimes, you can work around the limitation by running Windows programs from Linux. This approach has advantages and disadvantages compared to running the programs on a computer that runs Windows, so understanding why you might want to run Windows programs in Linux is critical. You should also know a bit about some of the options for doing the job; several tools are available, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Why Run Windows Programs in Linux?

Ordinarily, the best way to run a program is to run it on the OS for which it was designed. Any other OS will, at best, be emulating the target OS or placing an additional layer of software or protocols between you and the program you want to run. Such procedures are inevitably imperfect and often slow down operation. However, these drawbacks can be overwhelmed by certain advantages of running Windows programs in Linux:

Reduced hardware costs

Running Linux and Windows programs on one computer can reduce hardware costs ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Ubuntu Made Easy

Ubuntu Made Easy

Rickford Grant, Phil Bull
Ubuntu for Non-Geeks, 4th Edition

Ubuntu for Non-Geeks, 4th Edition

Rickford Grant, Phil Bull
Fedora Bible 2010 Edition: Featuring Fedora Linux 12

Fedora Bible 2010 Edition: Featuring Fedora Linux 12

Christopher Negus, Eric Foster-Johnson
Linux: Powerful Server Administration

Linux: Powerful Server Administration

Uday Sawant, Oliver Pelz, Jonathan Hobson, William Leemans

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596007582