I'll put it very simply : I want to use windows apps in Linux, and who doesn't. Anyway, I was wondering a few things about Wine:

1. Is it on URPMI
2. Is it complicated to set up and use
3. Is it safe and/or stable?
4. How are the makers staying out of a lawsuit with M$?

1) yes
2) I find it simple to setup and use - read the instructions.
3) It is quite safe/stable
4) Why should there be a lawsuit? There is *no* Windows code in wine. Wine is a "compatability layer", that intercepts winAPI calls made by a program, and converts them to appropriate Linux calls. They make it work by trial and error; e.g., they run a windows program and see what doesn't work. Code for that problem, and try again. I am sure MS isn't *happy* about wine, but they don't have a legal leg to stand on.

Thanks, I'll work on that after Mandriva LE 2005 is finished downloading off BT.

A few more questions:

Dop the following work with wine:
itunes
msn messenger 7
FrontPage
Windows Media Player 10

How much configuring of wine does the urpmi rpm do for you (ie where do i start in the wine documentation?)

I'm sure I'll have more soon.

Anyone? I dont mean to sound rude with this, but please!

Why I haven't replied:[list=1][*]Itunes: I have no idea - never used it, probably never will.[*]msn messenger 7: I don't know - most Linux users use gaim or kopete to chat on msm: native Linux clients.[*]FrontPage: I don't know. Linux has Quanta, and nvu, and others for creating webpages.[*]Windows Media Player 10: I don't know. Linux has xmms, amarok, kaffeine, totem, etc. for playing music/videos.[/list=1]

As for wine configuration, IIRC, I just installed the wine rpm (and wine-utils?, I think) and ran with it. But I admit I may have had a wine config file left from some previous incarnation.

Actually, I found a thing on winehq.com that installs MS internet explorer (hate it, but active X works with it) and WMPlayer 7, but I dont know why I want that, its a horrible program. It also lets you install MSN messenger 7. Sorry I didnt post about it earlier, but I had to go to school, and I'm posting this from school.

However, I do want iTunes, so I'll do some intense googling and post my results.

Ok, I've screwed up wine, so I wanted to start over. I installed winetools and now I want to know how to uninstall that and wine... any help would be great!

Basically, I want to start over with wine without screwing my system over.

did you install with rpms? if you did, mandrake takes them off really easily in the software installer section of your "configure your computer" section.

Ok, I figured it out- I installed an older version of wine, now everything works!(I can even use Windows Update, lol!) Thanks to everyone, I never thought it would be this easy!

what version of wine did you use? how did you install it? how did you get it to work? what programs work with it?

A newbie question :

is there a gui for wine ?