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Re: dumping the spare machine



Hmm, lots of confusion I see here lads, so lets make things clear, shall we?

ok....

> > - VMWare Express which runs Win9x costs $50. AFAIK, Win4Lin does not
> > cost $12.5.
>
> it was $300 last time I checked. I am glad to know they have a cheaper
> product, sadly I see it's not compatable with kernel 2.4, and my new
> Reiser partitions are not compatable with old kernels, I can't go back.
> Win4Lin supports 2.4.3 at the moment, It's a setback I can live with.

Lin4Win costs $79.95 - not including Windows. VMWare EXPRESS costs $50 - but 
this is a small version of VMWare that we all know and love/hate (depends on 
you). You cannot install multiple versions of OS's, you cannot install NT or 
2000 - only 9x. And no, not even another Linux version. It also doesn't 
support native partitions if I'm not mistaken.

> > - The speed is certainly not x0.2, more like x0.75.
>
> compared to Win4lin? MSWord zooms up in 3-4 seconds according to what I
> read, no need to boot an entire VM. plus it uses native processes, and
> therefore takes advantage of my SMP WS better.

The speed of VMWare is rougly about 50% of a native machine - depends on what 
you throw at vmware to do. Try to compile a kernel inside VMWare and you see 
how happily it goes down to %20 of speed...

> > - VMWare uses no more disk space than Win4Lin.
>
> VMW needs its own partition (I'm not going to use a slow virtual FS file
> on a fragmented linux partition) and take up the pre-allocated room,
> while win4lin will use the MUCH faster native ReiserFS (or ext2) and
> take up exactly what its files need.

Not exactly. Win4Lin DOES needs the space for your Windows installation EVEN 
when you finished installing it to the end user. Don't ask me why, and yes, 
win4lin seems to be faster using the ReiserFS (or SGI's XFS on my last test).

> even more: VMW Express can't boot from partitions, it ONLY uses a
> virtual FS file.

True.

> bottom line: even with the price advantage, looks like Win4Lin is the
> right technological solution for my needs, so I'll ask again. does
> anyone have experiance with US-win98 and Office2k on Win4Lin (2.x or
> 3.x) and Hebrew Office files?
>
> Thanks.

If we were living in U.S.A or if you only use english - then I definately 
agree with you that people should use Win4Lin.

Unfortunately for me and other who wants to use sometimes Hebrew, or use Word 
(you know, C.V's and stuff) - we cannot use Win4Lin because it's very picky 
on the OS it's uses (only 9X) and can only install English/German/French 
windows. Other versions simply totally fail, because it's patches the windows 
right in the middle of the install.

-- 
Hetz Ben Hamo
hetz@kde.org

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