I know its odd but i need to run some programs that are Windows based. Actually 3dsMax, Flash, Dreamweaver and Autocad. ive been looking for linux-likes but couldn't find one that suited.
I'm wondering if there's a possibility of launching the whole Windows system on my Linux partition but using the Windows partition to store data.

I've tried Wine to launch specific programs, but hasn't worked.

Or is there another way of launching those specific programs i have installed on my second partition, without having to shutdown the whole linux system? I run Debian 3.1.
Thanx for your help.

vmware, xen, wine, crossover, cedega

andygo@ ~/downloads $ ls /usr/portage/app-emulation/
aranym emul-linux-x86-medialibs point2play vm-arm
basiliskII emul-linux-x86-qtlibs pose vmips
basiliskII-jit emul-linux-x86-sdl qemu vmips-cross-bin
bochs emul-linux-x86-soundlibs qemu-softmmu vmware-console
cedega emul-linux-x86-xlibs qemu-user vmware-linux-tools
coldfire frodo sheepshaver vmware-workstation
crossover-office-bin fuse simh win4lin
crossover-office-pro-bin gxemul skyeye wine
dinero hercules softgun winesetuptk
dlx i8086emu spectemu winex
dosemu lib765 spim winex-cvs
e-uae libdsk tiger winex-transgaming
emul-linux-ppc-glibc libspectrum transgaming-fontinstaller xcopilot
emul-linux-x86-baselibs metadata.xml transgaming-mozctlinstaller xen
emul-linux-x86-compat mol uade xtrs
emul-linux-x86-glibc pearpc uae xwine
emul-linux-x86-gtklibs plex86 vice

andygo you posted every app that would help!

vmware and xen (mostly the second for its performance) is the solution for what you asked

but I suggest you if you don't want to eat your time through xen installation and kernel hacking

try using a distro that has it from default like SuSE 9.3 and above

Thnx.
I got BOCHS working, ive done some testing with .iso´s and other distros, but i wonder if I can acces my second partition now installed with Win XP. Wouldn´t this freak out my Windows Configuration?, Is it safe to run Bochs on a /dev/hda2 ????

Thanx for the help.

On the XEN page says it doesn't support running windows

I don't think Bochs will be able to directly access a hard drive partition. In any case, it's horribly slow (at least the last version I tried), to the point of being unusable. Bochs is great for some things, but I wouldn't necessarily suggest it for what you're attempting. You may want to simply shell out for VMWare, which can boot a hard drive partition as a virtual machine. VMWare has a free and complete thirty day trial version so you can at least see if it will do what you want before opening your wallet. Otherwise you might try your apps under WINE (or have you already?).

Edit to add: There's also qemu, which is supposedly faster than Bochs, but I am not sure if it will be able to boot a virtual machine off of a hard drive partition.