How to run Windows programs on linux

You can run windows applications on Linux PCs using any one of the several software technologies available today. The windows applications that you can run on Linux PCs include OEMU from Fabrice Bellard, Win4Lin from Win4Lin Inc., VMware from VMware, an EMC company, CrossOver Office from CodeWeavers Inc., Cedega from TransGaming Technologies Inc. Let us discuss in detail about the various software technologies that allow windows applications to run on Linux and their pros and cons.

There are two main options from which you can run Windows applications in Linux namely Virtualization and Emulation. Emulations allow running of Windows applications by using translation layer. The advances made by commercial project, WINE project, Cedega, applications are unsupported. Depending on hardware configuration support for applications may vary. Virtualization runs Windows on Linux as advancement. It can run entire windows or operating system directly from Linux desktop. With application VirtualBox, a virtual machine can be created and any Windows version can be installed. Virtual machine can be switched off and on just like normal PC. However the operating system runs inside window on the Linux desktop. Windows applications can be installed on virtual machine and used. Running application in windows using virtual machine is reliable than translation layer. Virtualisation has its own drawbacks. When virtual machine is run on windows, two operating systems are effectively can be run simultaneously on a single computer. There are performance drawbacks also. The office type applications can be easily run through this way. Insistence on particular windows specific software, lack of DirectX support and performance issues hampers game applications. It is necessary to successfully run windows applications at full capacity by installing boot operating systems Linux and Windows. Two operating systems can be installed side by side in the dual booting process. They have to be operated and run independently. A menu will be presented in this method by a list of operating systems whenever the computer is switched on. The OS can thus, be chosen for all the tasks whether it is gaming or work. Windows XP and Ubuntu 7.04 can be run on dual boot system. While Windows XP is useful for gaming, Ubuntu can be used routine day to day tasks. Duel booting allows gives access to the features of operating systems so that the computer can be used to its maximum potential.

Fabrice Bellard developed OEMU as generic open source emulator for free of cost. One operating system, like Windows, can be run by OEMU, within another operating system like Linux. It can freely be downloaded from web site of Fabrice.