How does Wine work and how do I MAKE it work?
 

Hello, I'm an extremely new Linux user. (I just started using for the first time yesterday)
I'm running SuSE 9.0 Professional, and all seems well so far...except for the tremendously frustrating and confusing installation (I'm SOOO glad that part's over!).

Anyway, I've been using MS Windows ME for a long time, and I've come to rely on a few programs that I know their aren't any Linux equivelents to. In particular, Game Maker 5.2.

I hear there is this thing called "Wine" that's supposed to emulate Win/DOS programs on Linux, but I don't where it is, how to install, or how to configure it.

I was hoping that somebody here could help guide me through it...please. :)

Thankyou,
-TMG

First of all, Wine's main page is at http://www.winehq.com/. Start from there.
Second, see if by any chance Wine might be included in your SuSE. I doubt it, but who knows?
SuSE uses RPM, so you won't have that much of a problem getting the correct RPMs from rpmfind.net or from Wine web site and installing them using Yest.

Setting Wine, well that's another matter all together different...

Since you are a brand new Linux user, I'd suggest you first learn how to use your system and how to become comfortable with it. Learn to crowl before you can run deal, right? If your installation experience was "tremendously frustrating and confusing" then Wine will drive you so crazy you might end up going back to Windoze...;-)
Begin slow...find the correct RPM for your distribution. D/l it and install it.
Read the man pages. Read the FAQs. Try it. Test it. Write down all the error messages you get. Re-read the FAQs. Sit back and think a little.
Come back and ask some questions. There IS a specific UseNet group dedicated to SuSE, but the people there are slightly rude IMO to newbies and to people who say things such as "I hear there is this thing called "Wine" that's supposed to emulate Win/DOS programs on Linux, but I don't where it is, how to install, or how to configure it." Anyway, it's alt.os.linux.suse

Last, maybe you need to learn to live without your Windoze apps, or ask your self WHY you switched to Linux in the first place? That is somewhat an important question to ask before you can continue.

The installation was very frustrating because the Windows partition interfeared with Linux's, which meant I had to do a thousand things in both MS-DOS and Linux's most basic, DOS-like interface (I'm not very good in either). I finally found out the cause of all the trouble: Windows had been shut down improperly, and in doing so, harddrive data was incorrect.
I think I did pretty good for my first try. ;D

Okay, back on topic...

You were right; SuSE did automaticly install Wine. I got it to run...once. Only seems to work with Gnome though; can't even FIND wine when using KDE.

TheMusicGuy, you can also get SuSe WineRack which contains WineX and some other things that I don't quite understand.... :D But I'm sure that sence you would be manually setting it up it might work alittle better. *shrugs* Just trying to think of anything that will help.

My personal opinion would be to spend a couple dollars on Crossover Office.

You provide support to the hard-working coders that are responsible for wine and it's easier to use.

.... updated.. scratch that....

The SuSe package is much cheaper and contains all of the Codeweaver stuff.

Update:
Found the Wine executable on my system, set all .exe files to run with it...but it doesn't seem to work very well. Most of the programs I tried don't run and the ones that do are VERY glitched up...and slow.
hm...perhaps there's a way to fix this by configuring Wine?

And what is WineRack/WineX?

Wine does not run all applications correctly. It's still at the stage where most software requires somebody to sit down and fix problems with Wine until it runs.

Of course Wine can run lots of software perfectly but it's invariably the simple software that already has replacements natively on Linux - so nobody is interested in running them. As a result Wine gets a bad reputation as not being able to run stuff well when people are asking it to run things like Internet Explorer, DreamWeaver, Flash etc

Crossover Office currently runs Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX and Photoshop 7 with no issues that I have seen. All of the Office XP products (except Outlook) work fine under Xover Office.

Gimp is not a replacement for Photoshop... sorry. There is no replacement for Flash. And Dreamweaver is just nice to have for doing site layouts quickly.

The main reason for that is because Disney, paid the Wine developers a to make Photoshop 7 work under linux. Even though they paid for the development, they still saved money over paying for Windows licenses.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1210083,00.asp


Let's face it, until software developers start to see money in developing software for Linux, the linux desktop will lack in one area or another. We can't expect the whole world to switch just because the Operating System is better than Windows. People only care about getting the job done. If you aren't a computer enthusiast or developer, linux is painful to work with.

This is why projects like Wine are so important. The provide the ability for people to get the job done using familiar tools.