Friday, March 30, 2007
UUUGHHHHHHH
Have you ever been soooooo close to something, yet it remains just out of your reach? Slipping, sliding, falling and yet the branch is just *inches* away. Knowing that if you twitch, you will slide into oblivion, yet, you must continue to twitch in hopes of grasping that branch and pulling yourself to freedom?
WINE for Linux (or should I call it "Whine")
Guess what!, I have ACT! (version 6.0) running on my Linux box, screenshots to follow...
There is a product out there called "WINE" for Linux. It's not a Windows Emulator, nor is it a "virtual machine" that encapsulates your Windows apps. It's a compatibility environment that creates a virtual drive on your box that will run Windows software. The application "runs", it's not running inside a pretend Windows OS (with the start bar, task bar and all that crap). Your app runs like any other app under Linux.
A couple of things I learned along the way; The "Windows" drive is a hidden device. That's to say that you won't find it using your file manager programs. You need to get there by changing directories to ~/.wine. (Don't you love Linux?) . Again, this is done in a terminal window.
Once you're in the .wine folder, you'll see a few things; a DOS folder, a "drive_c" folder and two config files. The config files contain a bunch of stuff, but from what I can tell, they replicate the Windows Registry as it relates to any programs you have installed.
If you change to the "drive_c" folder, you'll see a Program Files and a windows directories, and changing folders again to the Program Files folder, you'll see where your programs get installed.
Learned thing number 2: IF a folder has a multiple word name like "Program Files", you'll type "cd Program\ Files" to get there. An easier way is to type "cd" then a letter or two of the folder you want to go to, and then hit the tab key. Linux will fill in the blanks. So by typing "cd Pro (tab)" will result in "cd Program\ Files", then hit enter. By the way, if you don't know it already, LINUX IS CASE SENSITIVE. Program and program are NOT the same thing.
Learned thing 3: If you do want to install ACT!, it needs internet explorer.
Finally, unless the program you want to run is part of the path (i.e., its in a folder Windows always looks in like c:\windows\system\), you'll need to point at it specifically. Example. One I got ACT installed, I needed to make a desktop icon for it. The startup command is basically:
"wine "~/.wine/drive_c/Program\Files/ACT/act.exe". It is soooooo cool.
If you want to know how to do it step by step, let me know and I'll help you out the best I can. Remember, I'm learning too.
There is a product out there called "WINE" for Linux. It's not a Windows Emulator, nor is it a "virtual machine" that encapsulates your Windows apps. It's a compatibility environment that creates a virtual drive on your box that will run Windows software. The application "runs", it's not running inside a pretend Windows OS (with the start bar, task bar and all that crap). Your app runs like any other app under Linux.
A couple of things I learned along the way; The "Windows" drive is a hidden device. That's to say that you won't find it using your file manager programs. You need to get there by changing directories to ~/.wine. (Don't you love Linux?) . Again, this is done in a terminal window.
Once you're in the .wine folder, you'll see a few things; a DOS folder, a "drive_c" folder and two config files. The config files contain a bunch of stuff, but from what I can tell, they replicate the Windows Registry as it relates to any programs you have installed.
If you change to the "drive_c" folder, you'll see a Program Files and a windows directories, and changing folders again to the Program Files folder, you'll see where your programs get installed.
Learned thing number 2: IF a folder has a multiple word name like "Program Files", you'll type "cd Program\ Files" to get there. An easier way is to type "cd" then a letter or two of the folder you want to go to, and then hit the tab key. Linux will fill in the blanks. So by typing "cd Pro (tab)" will result in "cd Program\ Files", then hit enter. By the way, if you don't know it already, LINUX IS CASE SENSITIVE. Program and program are NOT the same thing.
Learned thing 3: If you do want to install ACT!, it needs internet explorer.
Finally, unless the program you want to run is part of the path (i.e., its in a folder Windows always looks in like c:\windows\system\), you'll need to point at it specifically. Example. One I got ACT installed, I needed to make a desktop icon for it. The startup command is basically:
"wine "~/.wine/drive_c/Program\Files/ACT/act.exe". It is soooooo cool.
If you want to know how to do it step by step, let me know and I'll help you out the best I can. Remember, I'm learning too.
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