Wine Leaving Windows Behind? Bring your apps with you!

or

Dan Kegel / Cebit 2009

Pay attention, there will be a quiz at the end! Hyperlinked presentation online at www.kegel.com/cebit The opinions expressed in this talk are my own, not my employer's.

For most people, since about 1995, computer = Windows

And Linux is thought of as geeky and hard to use, if at all

So why does HP promote Linux on the Mini Mi?

And why do 30% of Dell Minis run Linux?

Because Linux is now easy to use, thanks to projects like Ubuntu

InfoWorld (Mar '09) says Desktop Linux: Ready for the mainstream
I was struck by how XP-like Ubuntu 8.10 is. And that's a good thing. It took me very little time to find where standard functions are, given the similarities. In fact, it's a much easier transition [than Vista].

And OpenOffice has become a very usable free office suite

PC World says (Mar 2009) 4 Ways to Save Money on Software OpenOffice can easily take the place of Microsoft Office

And Windows-only websites are now rarer thanks to great free browsers like Firefox

Moreover, Windows has issues. Windows Vista doesn't fit on most netbooks

And Windows costs $20-$50, which hurts a lot on laptops that sell for $250

And Microsoft limits Windows netbooks to 1GB RAM, 1GHz CPU, 16 GB Flash 10.2 Screen, no DirectX 10 to protect sales of more expensive computers

The restrictions are not subtle

Now that HP and Dell have chosen Linux, should you try it?

Linux comes with thousands of apps and free updates

You're free to install Linux wherever and whenever you like

You're even encouraged to share Linux with your friends

Any programmer in the world can fix or improve Linux

Linux upgrades never forced New versions of Ubuntu always free

Linux has ~1% as many viruses

(source: netlux.org)

Munich, Niedersachsen, France, Spain, China, Russia, and Brazil are using desktop Linux Reasons: flexibility, independence, cost

OK, I'm convinced, I should try Linux. But there's just one more thing:

I need this one app, can I take it with me?

You could use VMWare and Windows, but then you still have to deal with Windows licensing and upgrades

If Linux is a free clone of Unix, can't it be a free clone of Windows, too?

Yes! With Wine, Linux now runs many apps. Just add it in "Add/Remove Applications"

But isn't Wine complicated to use?

No! To install a Windows app, just double-click its installer

The app then shows up in the menu

And its files show up in wine's C: directory

Here's what Firefox's files look like

Wine is a work in progress WineHQ.org is where to go for support

Wine's App Database is your friend Check here before trying a new app

The appdb says Powerpoint 2007 needs a configuration tweak and wine-1.1.14 or later

Newer versions of Wine can be downloaded from winehq.org

Tweaks are done with Winecfg Six mouse clicks and one word later, Powerpoint is happy

Missing libraries or fonts can be installed with Winetricks

Wine is free? How can that work? What's Wine's business model?
Is it made by Heinzelmaenner?

A few dozen large customers and many volunteers are enough to sustain Wine

The Wine team is dozens of volunteers plus ~10 paid programmers

Selected user-sponsored improvements 1998: Corel WordPerfect 2000: Borland Kylix 2001: Lindows Office 2000 2003: Disney Photoshop 7 2004: Gupta Team Developer 2005: Google Summer of Code 2006: Google Picasa 2008: Google Photoshop CS2/CS3 Every time a large user sponsors bug fixes, Wine grows stronger. Thanks!

So who should try Wine?

Don't try Wine yet if you need: Win64 (2009Q4?) Direct3D 10 (2009Q4?) USB dongles (patch available) WPF / XAML (not started)

you need dozens of apps to work perfectly you don't want to help track down problems Wine probably isn't ready for you

If

or

then

you need a few apps to work perfectly you are willing to help track down problems Wine might be ready for you

If

and

then

But first, try to switch from Windows apps

to open source or Web apps

because direct support is always better

What if something goes wrong?

Free support options (forums, chat, FAQ, doc, wiki, bug tracker): Wine: www.winehq.org/help Ubuntu Linux: help.ubuntu.com Or any Linux user group

Commercial paid support options: Wine: codeweavers.com/support or codeweavers.com/services Ubuntu Linux: ubuntu.com/support or canonical.com/services Or any Linux support vendor

Case studies

Kindl & partnei Advoktn kancel Chomutov,Czech Republic Computers: 10 Native Apps: Firefox, OpenOffice Wine apps: ASPI (Czech legal software)

Mobile County District Attorney Mobile, Alabama Computers: 200 (MacOSX) Wine apps: IE6, media players Uses commercially supported Wine Engaged Codeweavers to improve codec support

Xavier School Manila, Philippines Computers: 600 Native Apps: Firefox, OpenOffice, Notes Wine apps: Winplot + custom VB6 apps

City of Munich Germany Computers: Windows(12800), Linux(1200) Apps: Firefox (all), OpenOffice (8000) Wine: GeoInfo, WS_FTP, a legal app (250) Deploying Linux is more about managing change than about technology

But what about quality? Is Wine developed with care?

True, Wine is developing rapidly

but each change passes rigorous tests

and bugs are tracked and fixed steadily

Why is it called Wine?

Wine Is Not an Emulator

-- it's a catalyst

QUIZ

If it costs 10 million EUR to fix all Wine bugs, and EU has fined Microsoft 1.7 billion EUR, Q. Can you think of a cost-effective way for the EU to use some of that money to stimulate competition in the operating system market? Q. How much would each of CeBIT's halfmillion visitors have to contribute to fix all known Wine bugs?

Slides/video online at kegel.com/cebit

Please copy - see Attribution-ShareAlike license If your group would like a Wine presentation, please contact me The opinions expressed in this talk are my own, not those of my employer

Questions?

Text copyright 2009, Dan Kegel