Linux and Windows: virtualize, Wine or dual boot route?

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 13 November 2007 17:02

Opinion and Analysis

As I've mentioned in previous articles I currently have all the applications I need on my Ubuntu Linux desktop so I never need to use Windows. However, there are unfortunately still plenty of applications that some users need which are not available under Linux and have no equivalent. Adobe's Flash and Photoshop spring to mind, Turbotax is another that some miss, how about iTunes? Luckily for those users there are at least three options that will allow them to run the software they need while retaining Linux on their desktop. But which is the best one?

Most Linux newbies who have migrated from Windows will by default have partitioned their hard disk and have a dual boot system in place. This has some advantages and plenty of disadvantages.

In many cases dual booters will not have to boot up Windows too often. It would be hard to imagine that serious Flash and Photoshop users wouldn't have a dedicated machine - quite often a Mac - to do work such as professional image editing.

However, Turbotax, iTunes users and PC gamers will remain regular Windows users and little will change for them while they're running those applications. The good news is that they'll generally be using Linux to surf the net, check emails and do most of their work while they only use Windows for a few applications. The bad news is that they'll still have to maintain Windows with security software subscriptions and load regular critical updates from Microsoft. And of course, there's the hassle of restarting and switching between Linux and Windows.

Another option that is rapidly gaining popularity is using virtualization software to run Windows in a virtual window on top of your Linux distro. Packages such as VMware or the open source system VirtualBox have received good reviews for running Windows virtual desktops on Linux.

However, running Windows on top of Linux will naturally result in a performance hit, so it's not really an option for compute intensive applications such as games with heavy graphics requirements. From a security standpoint though, the virtualization option does provide Windows users a measure of security as their applications and Windows are sandboxed when they run inside a virtual window, protecting the system from malware nasties.

The other option is Wine, which is essentially an open source project that is attempting to enable Windows applications to run natively on Linux. Wine, funded by Minesota based software company CodeWeavers, works by recreating the Windows APIs necessary to run certain applications with Linux. The idea is that if you can run Windows apps natively on Linux then they're fast and you don't even need Windows.

The problem is that Wine is still a work in progress and really is still at alpha or beta stage for most useful applications. I installed the version that comes bundled with Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and found that Internet Explorer 7 would not run (a pity because it would have been handy for some sites) and neither would any of the Office 2007 products, not that I needed them. Notepad did run but thanks all the same I would rather use the far superior Linux text editor Gedit.

CodeWeavers does also sell a proprietary version of Wine called CrossOver Linux. It lists 117 supported Windows products on its database including various versions of Quicken, Quickbooks, Flash MX, Office and Internet Explorer. The problem is that in most cases the latest versions of the respective products are not supported and, judging by the remarkably honest compatibility rankings given to products on the CodeWeavers website, most of the implementations have bugs.

As I have no real need to run Windows applications, I could stick with the dual boot method. However, I have decided to give virtualization a try using VirtualBox given that I have a fairly heavy duty desktop machine.

Looking at the available options for Linux users who either wish or need to run Windows applications, it's fairly obvious that an ideal solution doesn't currently exist. However, as Linux desktop penetration continues to grow, as it surely will, the real solution will emerge because the likes of Adobe, Intuit and thousands of smaller developers will eventually be forced to port their products over - and the sooner the better.