Migrating to Linux Desktops with Wine

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Migrating to Linux Desktopswith Wine

• Dan Kegel
• June 2006

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What is Wine?

• Wine implements the Windows API
• Lets you run Windows apps natively on x86 Linux,
  Solaris, MacOSX, etc.
• Free, no Microsoft licenses required
• Development driven by sales of Crossover Office,
  but lots of work done by the open source
  community, too

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Wine History

• Development started in 1993
• Commercial Support Available since 2001
• Many commercial apps shipped using Wine Corel
  Wordperfect, Borland Kylix, Musicmatch, Gupta
  TeamDeveloper, Crossover Office, Google Picasa...

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Wine Today

• Wine still not at 1.0
• Core apps run well
• Many apps do not yet even install or run, but
  bugs are increasingly shallow
• Progress is rapid and accelerating
• Cost to support any particular additional app
  decreasing

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Example Apps

• Well-supported MS Office, Firefox, Picasa
• Some issues Visual C 6, Kid Pix
• Runs, but not well Visual Basic 6

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Planning a desktop migration

• Divide users by how many apps they need
• Easy Lots of apps dont migrate
• Easy All apps available on Linux migrate!
• Hard One or two Windows-only apps

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Running Windows apps on Linux

• With or without Windows license
• With VmWare, Citrix, etc.
• Without Wine

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Porting apps to Linux with Wine

• First, test to see how well Wine runs them
• File bugs for any problems you find
• Commercial support for Wine helpful
• Good bug reports often get fixed for free
• Summer intern may be good for early look

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In-House Apps and Wine

• VB6 or Access apps written in-house? Wine can
  help here, too
• App test suites can be very helpful
• Developer buy-in useful
• Probably have to work around a bug or two
• Commercial support for Wine helpful

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Summary

• Wine can help you migrate to Linux
• Free, but youll want to buy support
• Ready for early adopters now
• Slides online at kegel.com/wine