documentation/introduction.sgml - wine - Git at Google

   <chapter id="introduction">
     <title>Introduction</title>

     <sect1 id="overview">
       <title>Overview / About</title>

       <sect2>
         <title>Purpose of this document and intended audience</title>
         <para>
           This document, called the Wine User Guide, is both an easy
           installation guide and an extensive reference guide.  This guide
           is for both the new Wine user and the experienced Wine user,
           offering full step-by-step installation and configuration
           instructions, as well as featuring extensive reference material
           by documenting all configuration features and support areas.
         </para>
       </sect2>

       <sect2>
         <title>Further questions and comments</title>
         <para>
           If, after examining this guide, the FAQ, and other relevant
           documentation there is still something you cannot figure out,
           we would love to hear from you.  The <ulink
           url="http://www.winehq.org/site/forums">mailing lists</ulink>
           section contains several mailing lists and an IRC channel, all
           of which are great places to seek help and offer suggestions.
           If you are particularly savvy, and believe that something can be
           explained better, you can file a <ulink
           url="http://bugs.winehq.org/">bug report</ulink> or <ulink
           url="http://www.winehq.org/site/sending_patches">post a
           patch</ulink> on Wine's documentation itself.
         </para>
       </sect2>

       <sect2>
         <title>Content overview / Steps to take</title>
         <para>
           In order to be able to use Wine, you must first have a working
           installation.  This guide will help you to move your system
           from an empty, Wineless void to one boasting a fresh, up to
           date Wine install.  The first step, <link
           linkend="getting-wine">Getting Wine</link>, illustrates the
           various methods of getting Wine's files onto your computer.
           The second step, <link linkend="config-wine-main">Configuring
           Wine</link>, shows how to customize a Wine installation depending
           on your individual needs.  The final step, <link
           linkend="running">Running Wine</link>, covers the specific
           steps you can take to get a particular application to run
           better under Wine, and provides useful links in case you need
           further help.
         </para>
       </sect2>

     </sect1>

     <sect1 id="what-is-wine">
       <title>What is Wine?</title>

       <sect2>
         <title>Windows and Linux</title>
         <para>
           Different software programs are designed for different
           operating systems, and most won't work on systems that they
           weren't designed for.  Windows programs, for example, won't run
           in Linux because they contain instructions that the system can't
           understand until they're translated by the Windows environment.
           Linux programs, likewise, won't run under the Windows operating
           system because Windows is unable to interpret all of their
           instructions.
         </para>
         <para>
           This situation presents a fundamental problem for anyone who
           wants to run software for both Windows and Linux.  A common
           solution to this problem is to install both operating systems on
           the same computer, known as "dual booting."  When a Windows
           program is needed, the user boots the machine into Windows to
           run it; when a Linux program is then needed, the user then
           reboots the machine into Linux.  This option presents great
           difficulty: not only must the user endure the frustration of
           frequent rebooting, but programs for both platforms can't be
           run simultaneously.  Having Windows on a system also creates
           an added burden: the software is expensive, requires a separate
           disk partition, and is unable to read most filesystem formats,
           making the sharing of data between operating systems difficult.
         </para>
       </sect2>

       <sect2>
         <title>What is Wine, and how can it help me?</title>
         <para>
           Wine makes it possible to run Windows programs alongside any
           Unix-like operating system, particularly Linux.  At its heart,
           Wine is an implementation of the Windows Application
           Programing Interface (API) library, acting as a bridge between
           the Windows program and Linux.  Think of Wine as a compatibility
           layer, when a Windows program tries to perform a function that
           Linux doesn't normally understand, Wine will translate that
           program's instruction into one supported by the system.  For
           example, if a program asks the system to create a Windows
           pushbutton or text-edit field, Wine will convert that
           instruction into its Linux equivalent in the form of a command
           to the window manager using the standard X11 protocol.
         </para>
         <para>
           If you have access to the Windows program's source code, Wine
           can also be used to recompile a program into a format that Linux
           can understand more easily.  Wine is still needed to launch the
           program in its recompiled form, however there are many advantages
           to compiling a Windows program natively within Linux.  For more
           information, see the Winelib User Guide.
         </para>
       </sect2>

       <sect2 id="wine-features">
         <title>Wine features</title>

         <para>
           Throughout the course of its development, Wine has continually
           grown in the features it carries and the programs it can run.
           A partial list of these features follows:
         </para>
         <para>
           <itemizedlist>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Support for running Win32 (Win 95/98, NT/2000/XP), Win16
                 (Win 3.1) and DOS programs
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Optional use of external vendor DLL files (such as those
                 included with Windows)
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 X11-based graphics display, allowing remote display to any
                 X terminal, as well as a text mode console
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Desktop-in-a-box or mixable windows
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 DirectX support for games
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Good support for various sound drivers including OSS and ALSA
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Support for alternative input devices
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Printing: PostScript interface driver (psdrv) to standard
                 Unix PostScript print services
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Modem, serial device support
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Winsock TCP/IP networking support
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 ASPI interface (SCSI) support for scanners, CD writers,
                 and other devices
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Advanced unicode and foreign language support
               </para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>
               <para>
                 Full-featured Wine debugger and configurable trace
                 logging messages for easier troubleshooting
               </para>
             </listitem>
           </itemizedlist>
         </para>
       </sect2>
     </sect1>

     <sect1 id="wine-versions">
       <title>Versions of Wine</title>
         <sect2>
           <title>Wine from Wine HQ</title>

           <para>
              Wine is an open source project, and there are accordingly
              many different versions of Wine for you to choose from.  The
              standard version of Wine comes in intermittant releases
              (roughly once a month), and can be downloaded over the
              internet in both prepackaged binary form and ready to compile
              source code form.  Alternatively, you can install a development
              version of Wine by using the latest available source code on
              the CVS server.  See the next chapter, <link
              linkend="getting-wine">Getting Wine</link>, for further details.
           </para>
         </sect2>
         <sect2>
           <title>Other Versions of Wine</title>
           <para>
             There are a number of programs that are derived from the
             standard Wine codebase in some way or another.  Some of these
             are commercial products from companies that actively contribute
             to the Wine project.
           </para>
           <para>
             These products try to stand out or distinguish themselves
             from the standard version of Wine by offering greater
             compatibility, easier configuration, and commercial support.
             If you require such things, it is a good idea to consider
             purchasing these products.
           </para>
       <table><title>Various Wine offerings</title>
         <tgroup cols=3 align="left">
           <thead>
             <row>
               <entry>Product</entry>
               <entry>Description</entry>
               <entry>Distribution Form</entry>
             </row>
           </thead>
           <tbody>
             <row>
               <entry>
                 <ulink
                 url="http://www.codeweavers.com/products/office">CodeWeavers CrossOver Office</ulink>
               </entry>
               <entry>
                 CrossOver Office allows you to install your favorite
                 Windows productivity applications in Linux, without
                 needing a Microsoft Operating System license. CrossOver
                 includes an easy to use, single click interface, which
                 makes installing a Windows application simple and fast.
               </entry>
               <entry>
                 Commercial; 30-day fully-functional demo available.
               </entry>
             </row>
             <row>
               <entry>
                 <ulink
                 url="http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxofficeserver">CodeWeavers CrossOver Office Server Edition</ulink>
               </entry>
               <entry>
                 CrossOver Office Server Edition allows you to run your
                 favorite Windows productivity applications in a
                 distributed thin-client environment under Linux, without
                 needing Microsoft Operating System licenses for each
                 client machine. CrossOver Office Server Edition allows you
                 to satisfy the needs of literally hundreds of concurrent
                 users, all from a single server.
               </entry>
             </row>
           </tbody>
         </tgroup>
       </table>
      </sect2>
     </sect1>

     <sect1 id="alternatives">
       <title>Alternatives to Wine you might want to consider</title>
       <para>
           There are many ways to run software other than through Wine.  If
           you are considering using Wine to run an application you might
           want to think about the viability of these approaches if you
           encounter difficulty.
       </para>

       <sect2>
         <title>Native Applications</title>
         <para>
           Instead of running a particular Windows application with Wine,
           one frequently viable alternative is to simply run a different
           application.  Many Windows applications, particularly more
           commonly used ones such as media players, instant messengers,
           and filesharing programs have very good open source equivalents.
           Furthermore, a sizable number of Windows programs have been
           ported to Linux directly, eliminating the need for Wine (or
           Windows) entirely.
         </para>
       </sect2>
       <sect2>
         <title>Another Operating System</title>
         <para>
           Probably the most obvious method of getting a Windows
           application to run is to simply run it on Windows.  However,
           security, license cost, backward-compatibility, and machine
           efficiency issues can make this a difficult proposition, which
           is why Wine is so useful in the first place.
         </para>
         <para>
           Another alternative is to use <ulink
           url="http://www.reactos.com">ReactOS</ulink>, which is a fully
           open source alternative to Windows.  ReactOS shares code
           heavily with the Wine project, but rather than running Windows
           applications on top of Linux they are instead run on top of the
           ReactOS kernel.  ReactOS also offers compatibility with Windows
           driver files, allowing the use of hardware without functional
           Linux drivers.
         </para>
       </sect2>
       <sect2>
         <title>Virtual Machines</title>
         <para>
           Rather than installing an entirely new operating system on your
           machine, you can instead run a virtual machine at the software
           level and install a different operating system on it.  Thus, you
           could run a Linux system and at the same time run Windows along
           with your application in a virtual machine simultaneously on the
           same hardware.  Virtual machines allow you to install and run
           not only different versions of Windows on the same hardware, but
           also other operating systems, including ReactOS.
         </para>
         <para>
           There are several different virtual machine offerings out there,
           and some are also able to emulate x86 hardware on different
           platforms.  The open source <ulink
           url="http://bochs.sourceforge.net/">Bochs</ulink> and <ulink
           url="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</ulink> can run
           both Windows and ReactOS virtually.  Other, commercial virtual
           machine offerings include <ulink
           url="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</ulink> and Microsoft's
           <ulink url="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/">VirtualPC</ulink>.
         </para>
         <para>
           There are significant drawbacks to using virtual machines,
           however.  Unlike Wine, such programs <emphasis>are</emphasis>
           emulators, so there is an inevitable speed decrease which can
           be quite substantial.  Furthermore, running an application
           inside a virtual machine prevents fully integrating the
           application within the current environment.  You won't, for
           example, be able to have windows system tray icons or program
           shortcuts sitting alongside your desktop Linux ones, since
           instead the Windows applications must reside completely within
           the virtual machine.
         </para>
       </sect2>
     </sect1>
   </chapter>

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	<chapter id="introduction">
	<title>Introduction</title>

	<sect1 id="overview">
	<title>Overview / About</title>

	<sect2>
	<title>Purpose of this document and intended audience</title>
	<para>
	This document, called the Wine User Guide, is both an easy
	installation guide and an extensive reference guide. This guide
	is for both the new Wine user and the experienced Wine user,
	offering full step-by-step installation and configuration
	instructions, as well as featuring extensive reference material
	by documenting all configuration features and support areas.
	</para>
	</sect2>

	<sect2>
	<title>Further questions and comments</title>
	<para>
	If, after examining this guide, the FAQ, and other relevant
	documentation there is still something you cannot figure out,
	we would love to hear from you. The <ulink
	url="http://www.winehq.org/site/forums">mailing lists</ulink>
	section contains several mailing lists and an IRC channel, all
	of which are great places to seek help and offer suggestions.
	If you are particularly savvy, and believe that something can be
	explained better, you can file a <ulink
	url="http://bugs.winehq.org/">bug report</ulink> or <ulink
	url="http://www.winehq.org/site/sending_patches">post a
	patch</ulink> on Wine's documentation itself.
	</para>
	</sect2>

	<sect2>
	<title>Content overview / Steps to take</title>
	<para>
	In order to be able to use Wine, you must first have a working
	installation. This guide will help you to move your system
	from an empty, Wineless void to one boasting a fresh, up to
	date Wine install. The first step, <link
	linkend="getting-wine">Getting Wine</link>, illustrates the
	various methods of getting Wine's files onto your computer.
	The second step, <link linkend="config-wine-main">Configuring
	Wine</link>, shows how to customize a Wine installation depending
	on your individual needs. The final step, <link
	linkend="running">Running Wine</link>, covers the specific
	steps you can take to get a particular application to run
	better under Wine, and provides useful links in case you need
	further help.
	</para>
	</sect2>

	</sect1>

	<sect1 id="what-is-wine">
	<title>What is Wine?</title>

	<sect2>
	<title>Windows and Linux</title>
	<para>
	Different software programs are designed for different
	operating systems, and most won't work on systems that they
	weren't designed for. Windows programs, for example, won't run
	in Linux because they contain instructions that the system can't
	understand until they're translated by the Windows environment.
	Linux programs, likewise, won't run under the Windows operating
	system because Windows is unable to interpret all of their
	instructions.
	</para>
	<para>
	This situation presents a fundamental problem for anyone who
	wants to run software for both Windows and Linux. A common
	solution to this problem is to install both operating systems on
	the same computer, known as "dual booting." When a Windows
	program is needed, the user boots the machine into Windows to
	run it; when a Linux program is then needed, the user then
	reboots the machine into Linux. This option presents great
	difficulty: not only must the user endure the frustration of
	frequent rebooting, but programs for both platforms can't be
	run simultaneously. Having Windows on a system also creates
	an added burden: the software is expensive, requires a separate
	disk partition, and is unable to read most filesystem formats,
	making the sharing of data between operating systems difficult.
	</para>
	</sect2>

	<sect2>
	<title>What is Wine, and how can it help me?</title>
	<para>
	Wine makes it possible to run Windows programs alongside any
	Unix-like operating system, particularly Linux. At its heart,
	Wine is an implementation of the Windows Application
	Programing Interface (API) library, acting as a bridge between
	the Windows program and Linux. Think of Wine as a compatibility
	layer, when a Windows program tries to perform a function that
	Linux doesn't normally understand, Wine will translate that
	program's instruction into one supported by the system. For
	example, if a program asks the system to create a Windows
	pushbutton or text-edit field, Wine will convert that
	instruction into its Linux equivalent in the form of a command
	to the window manager using the standard X11 protocol.
	</para>
	<para>
	If you have access to the Windows program's source code, Wine
	can also be used to recompile a program into a format that Linux
	can understand more easily. Wine is still needed to launch the
	program in its recompiled form, however there are many advantages
	to compiling a Windows program natively within Linux. For more
	information, see the Winelib User Guide.
	</para>
	</sect2>

	<sect2 id="wine-features">
	<title>Wine features</title>

	<para>
	Throughout the course of its development, Wine has continually
	grown in the features it carries and the programs it can run.
	A partial list of these features follows:
	</para>
	<para>
	<itemizedlist>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Support for running Win32 (Win 95/98, NT/2000/XP), Win16
	(Win 3.1) and DOS programs
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Optional use of external vendor DLL files (such as those
	included with Windows)
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	X11-based graphics display, allowing remote display to any
	X terminal, as well as a text mode console
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Desktop-in-a-box or mixable windows
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	DirectX support for games
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Good support for various sound drivers including OSS and ALSA
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Support for alternative input devices
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Printing: PostScript interface driver (psdrv) to standard
	Unix PostScript print services
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Modem, serial device support
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Winsock TCP/IP networking support
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	ASPI interface (SCSI) support for scanners, CD writers,
	and other devices
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Advanced unicode and foreign language support
	</para>
	</listitem>
	<listitem>
	<para>
	Full-featured Wine debugger and configurable trace
	logging messages for easier troubleshooting
	</para>
	</listitem>
	</itemizedlist>
	</para>
	</sect2>
	</sect1>

	<sect1 id="wine-versions">
	<title>Versions of Wine</title>
	<sect2>
	<title>Wine from Wine HQ</title>

	<para>
	Wine is an open source project, and there are accordingly
	many different versions of Wine for you to choose from. The
	standard version of Wine comes in intermittant releases
	(roughly once a month), and can be downloaded over the
	internet in both prepackaged binary form and ready to compile
	source code form. Alternatively, you can install a development
	version of Wine by using the latest available source code on
	the CVS server. See the next chapter, <link
	linkend="getting-wine">Getting Wine</link>, for further details.
	</para>
	</sect2>
	<sect2>
	<title>Other Versions of Wine</title>
	<para>
	There are a number of programs that are derived from the
	standard Wine codebase in some way or another. Some of these
	are commercial products from companies that actively contribute
	to the Wine project.
	</para>
	<para>
	These products try to stand out or distinguish themselves
	from the standard version of Wine by offering greater
	compatibility, easier configuration, and commercial support.
	If you require such things, it is a good idea to consider
	purchasing these products.
	</para>
	<table><title>Various Wine offerings</title>
	<tgroup cols=3 align="left">
	<thead>
	<row>
	<entry>Product</entry>
	<entry>Description</entry>
	<entry>Distribution Form</entry>
	</row>
	</thead>
	<tbody>
	<row>
	<entry>
	<ulink
	url="http://www.codeweavers.com/products/office">CodeWeavers CrossOver Office</ulink>
	</entry>
	<entry>
	CrossOver Office allows you to install your favorite
	Windows productivity applications in Linux, without
	needing a Microsoft Operating System license. CrossOver
	includes an easy to use, single click interface, which
	makes installing a Windows application simple and fast.
	</entry>
	<entry>
	Commercial; 30-day fully-functional demo available.
	</entry>
	</row>
	<row>
	<entry>
	<ulink
	url="http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxofficeserver">CodeWeavers CrossOver Office Server Edition</ulink>
	</entry>
	<entry>
	CrossOver Office Server Edition allows you to run your
	favorite Windows productivity applications in a
	distributed thin-client environment under Linux, without
	needing Microsoft Operating System licenses for each
	client machine. CrossOver Office Server Edition allows you
	to satisfy the needs of literally hundreds of concurrent
	users, all from a single server.
	</entry>
	</row>
	</tbody>
	</tgroup>
	</table>
	</sect2>
	</sect1>

	<sect1 id="alternatives">
	<title>Alternatives to Wine you might want to consider</title>
	<para>
	There are many ways to run software other than through Wine. If
	you are considering using Wine to run an application you might
	want to think about the viability of these approaches if you
	encounter difficulty.
	</para>

	<sect2>
	<title>Native Applications</title>
	<para>
	Instead of running a particular Windows application with Wine,
	one frequently viable alternative is to simply run a different
	application. Many Windows applications, particularly more
	commonly used ones such as media players, instant messengers,
	and filesharing programs have very good open source equivalents.
	Furthermore, a sizable number of Windows programs have been
	ported to Linux directly, eliminating the need for Wine (or
	Windows) entirely.
	</para>
	</sect2>
	<sect2>
	<title>Another Operating System</title>
	<para>
	Probably the most obvious method of getting a Windows
	application to run is to simply run it on Windows. However,
	security, license cost, backward-compatibility, and machine
	efficiency issues can make this a difficult proposition, which
	is why Wine is so useful in the first place.
	</para>
	<para>
	Another alternative is to use <ulink
	url="http://www.reactos.com">ReactOS</ulink>, which is a fully
	open source alternative to Windows. ReactOS shares code
	heavily with the Wine project, but rather than running Windows
	applications on top of Linux they are instead run on top of the
	ReactOS kernel. ReactOS also offers compatibility with Windows
	driver files, allowing the use of hardware without functional
	Linux drivers.
	</para>
	</sect2>
	<sect2>
	<title>Virtual Machines</title>
	<para>
	Rather than installing an entirely new operating system on your
	machine, you can instead run a virtual machine at the software
	level and install a different operating system on it. Thus, you
	could run a Linux system and at the same time run Windows along
	with your application in a virtual machine simultaneously on the
	same hardware. Virtual machines allow you to install and run
	not only different versions of Windows on the same hardware, but
	also other operating systems, including ReactOS.
	</para>
	<para>
	There are several different virtual machine offerings out there,
	and some are also able to emulate x86 hardware on different
	platforms. The open source <ulink
	url="http://bochs.sourceforge.net/">Bochs</ulink> and <ulink
	url="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</ulink> can run
	both Windows and ReactOS virtually. Other, commercial virtual
	machine offerings include <ulink
	url="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</ulink> and Microsoft's
	<ulink url="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/">VirtualPC</ulink>.
	</para>
	<para>
	There are significant drawbacks to using virtual machines,
	however. Unlike Wine, such programs <emphasis>are</emphasis>
	emulators, so there is an inevitable speed decrease which can
	be quite substantial. Furthermore, running an application
	inside a virtual machine prevents fully integrating the
	application within the current environment. You won't, for
	example, be able to have windows system tray icons or program
	shortcuts sitting alongside your desktop Linux ones, since
	instead the Windows applications must reside completely within
	the virtual machine.
	</para>
	</sect2>
	</sect1>
	</chapter>

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