How to use windows based softwares in Linux ?
 

hi,
I facing virus issue in windows 7.Though I have installed antivirus but still my laptop is full of viruses.Mostly I work on office 2010 and adobe acrobat for presenting my slides.
Fedora,Ubuntu is the alternate of windows desktop pc.The question is how can I use windows bases applications in Fedora 16 or Ubuntu.

2- Does Ubuntu/Fedora support all hardware drives like NVIDIA and Wireless card which is built-in in my laptop ?

Thanks
gardenair

Office 2010 runs almost fine in wine.
You can find some more info on the WineDB pages:
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?appId=31
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManage...ication&iId=10
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManage...ication&iId=11
Even Adobe acrobat runs good enough, but depends by the version:
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?appId=847
Still, you can even use native applications for accomplish most of the jobs.

1. For a good portion of windows programs to be used in Linux, you need wine (or cedega). Wine is pretty good with most applications, but you should look at winehq.org page to double check. There are other options though, such as LibreOffice or OpenOffice (both of which are also available for Windows if I recall correctly) which also work in Linux.

2. Give me a second to use my telepathy to read your mind to know what laptop you have as well as its hardware.

Easy, the answer is pretty much yes but YMMV.

"but still my laptop is full of viruses."

This is also an issue. If you fail to use best practices in linux, you may also end up with malware and errors. The reasons you got virus's is that you failed to use best practices in windows. There are many and you need to learn and use as many as you can to avoid this sort of stuff.

I am somewhat astonished that someone who is member here since 2004 and has more than 500 posts has to ask this questions and then does it in that bad way.

Anyways, please post your hardware specs so that we can answer the hardware questions.
Also, while Microsoft's Office and Acrobat may run with Wine I would look if there are any native Linux equivalents that are sufficient for your purpose. It is always better to run native programs.

And +1 to what jefro said.

As far as ridding your wins 7 from viruses you can do it with a live-cd like hiren,s boot cd, as far as the office program that are comparable to ms office, OO & Libreoffice can be set to have documents save in ms format.

Linux fans who feel the need to run a Windows app or two can take advantage of WINE, which enables most programs written for Windows to run on the Linux desktop. But what about those seeking the opposite -- Windows fans that need to run Linux apps?

If you're lucky, someone has already ported your favorite Linux app over to Windows. If not, here are some options for getting Linux apps on your Vista or XP desktop. It sounds daunting, but don't be scared -- all of these methods utilize the incredibly popular and easy to grasp Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Sorry I forgot to write the model of my laptop.It is ".Dell MXG071". Really wine is a cool thing.

Another option to mention: Crossover. This is the commercial (paid) version of WINE, and includes a user-friendly interface + support. Quite often, things will work in Crossover that will not work in plain WINE without some tweaking. They are the principal supporter of the WINE project and it's good to support them if you can afford it.

i would recommend not trying to use microsoft office on linux and instead install open-office.
also evince could open pdf files.

You should be careful with wine as well as you can end up with windows viruses running under that too!

One other option that i didn't see mentioned is virtualization. You install Windows inside a virtual machine under Gnu/Linux and use any crucial Windows programs under that. It is a little resource taking but sometimes a program will not work under wine but work flawlessly under the vm. It's still Windows though, and you can catch Windows malware on the vm which some can transfer over to your Gnu/Linux host if you've enabled networking, (to my understanding). I have a virtual machine for Windows 7 but it never connects to the internet, and only gets used for a game called rpg maker xp.

thanks for your guideline.Yes I think it is batter to use visualization under linux.Well which virtual Box is smart for using windows xp or windows 7.
Thanks.

There is only one Virtualbox. It is capable of running XP and 7.

There are several visualization suits of software. One is called 'Virtual box' Virtual box is capable of running many operating systems including Windows 7 and Xp.
There are others such as 'kvm' and 'vmware'. I'm sure these virtualization suits of software are just as capable as virtualbox, but i have only used Virtualbox so i can't comment on them because i haven't used them.
I've used Virtualbox to run a Windows 7 virtual machine, and it is very satisfactory. Satisfies the small need i have for it. It is also open source software, (perhaps Free) and many distros provide a repo to get the latest version.

Perhaps they may have been referencing the fact that VirtualBox had an open and closed source version up until version 4 was released?

I have chosen not to use VirtualBox now as I prefer not to have anything to do with Oracle, given their history with open source software. My chosen solution now is qemu with aqemu as a frontend for creating and administering vm's.

links for what they've done please? (-:

Hmmm that's a tough one - let me think...

Open Solaris

As a result of the above Open Office was basically left for dead, due to fear of the same, and we got this - that could be a plus point for Oracle though as it was a good outcome for everyone.

Ah and then there is MySQL moving closer towards closed source - another reason to use PostgreSQL maybe.

And lets not forget those Java/Android lawsuits, do you want me to go on?

Don't think i was doubting you mate; i have simply neglected to keep up with such issues and was interested. I did leave a smily face. lol. Thanks for the links. Maybe i'll consider an alternative too.

No problem, it is info for others to consider too :)

I think VirtualBox is actually a good bit of software. If it went under the umbrella of another concern that had a good open source track record then I would probably use it full-time again.

VirtualBox and MySQL, as many others, are STILL Open Source and I can't see why we had to prevent using them only beacause maybe they will not be anymore. In the case I will not use them anymore. I cannot tollerate Oracle behaviour and I hate their business model, but this is a personal matter.

VirtualBox and MySQL both have open and closed source components, so these products are not open source as a whole.

As far as I know, you can download the open source tarballz, shrink closed source and rebuild them.

I don't understand what you are saying......anything that you receive that has an "open" license, must be kept open---regardless of what other code is added.

I don't know about MySQL, but i think i know what Nixblog means in regards to Virtualbox. For the record, i'm not 100% sure on this information.
To my knowledge, Virtualbox is opensource software, but the extension that allows usb connection and probably other functions which is available at the websight, is proprietary software.

As I understand it, VirtualBox base is open but the addons are closed. Up until version 4 (i think) there were two distinct versions - one open and one close source version. From version 4, the core merged to open source leaving the propriety closed extensions as closed source.

Yep, but some code (e.g. the extension pack in Virtualbox) is closed.
If someone doesn't want closed source software just avoid to use that part, not the whole project!

Or use something like qemu which is a good enough alternative and completely bypass projects that don't truly adhere to the open source philosophy but, that's a personal choice for someone at the end of the day.

Yes, but in this case we're talking about Windoz emulation! If you embrace this philosophy why emulate a totally closed-source O.S.?
The things are in contrast.
I like open-source and I develop my software trying using only (if possible) GPLv3 but it doesn't mean I refuse to use closed software at all.
Let's face reality: we cannot fight Micro$oft (or Oracle) empire with this attitude.
I use Windoz for my work and I cannot avoid it or I can't get paid, most of the times. But everytime I can, if a open source alternative is possible, I suggest my customer using it.
In my opinion it's not everytime a ideological battle.
And what about closed-source in Kernel?
I try to avoid this kind of discussions since I know that it's often a ideological battle and can degenerate in flames.
Simply: one is asking a question - I answer the better I can. No intent to pull who's asking to a part or another.
I'm definetly NOT an extremist and I think that freedom can be, in some cases, the choice to not to be free.

since its being discussed. is virtual box (not the extension) open source software or Free software?

Look at Virtualbox Licensing FAQ:

it seems to be Free software. if oracle decide to close the source; people can still fork what's already a quality product. I think that's how libreoffice was formed.

Exactly. Since Virtual Box is released even under GPLv2 if Oracle decide to close the source the pieces of code under the GPVv2 remains under that license.
Everyone can makes changes on it, extend it and redistribute the source to the public domain with the same license.

Yes, I will gladly wait for a true open source fork of VirtualBox complete with free addons - it will happen. Until then I will use qemu, actually I'm beginning to enjoy qemu as it's lightning fast on my machine even though it requires a bit more work. If I remember correctly, VirtualBox was forked from qemu.

As long as the name is changed.