Wine: Pros and Cons?

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Absent Minded · #31 Post by **Absent Minded** » 2008-09-18 19:40

Obviously you feel something or this wouldnt be an issue for you. I simply stated things as I have read them. Or it could be what I have read into them by your cander. I am not going to sit here and go through all your posts. That is accitnine.

However, I admit that occationally I get people confused as things happen with memory trouble. That being said. If I do happen to have you confised with some one else I appologise. I don't believe I do though.

Vorian Grey · #32 Post by **Vorian Grey** » 2008-09-18 19:49

AdrianTM wrote:
Vorian Grey wrote:Still, all it could do is damage the files in your user folder. It couldn't do system wide damage like it does in Windows.
Yeah, but nobody wants that either, right?

Not really, but if you do backup regularly then it's not really a big deal either.

AdrianTM · #33 Post by **AdrianTM** » 2008-09-18 19:49

LOL, this is like saying "I think you are an ass, but sometimes I confuse people, but I don't think I made a confusion in this case"

Personally I would expect people to stand by their words, if you call me "Windows lover" or whatever you want to call me, be prepared to defend your words, not bullshit around saying that you can't fish the proof.

BTW, if you called me "Proprietery software lover" I would have addmitted, I love Opera, it's the best browser out there and I couldn't care less that's proprietary or closed source. But again this is a bit different issue, and I hope people here are smart enough to make the difference between the license of a software and.... Windows.

As for my word, I don't have to change anything, I still think that there are some "FSF robots" on this site, if you feel offended it means that:
1. you are stupid (only stupid people get offended by what's said on the Internet)
2. you are a FSF robot, but for some reason you are offended you get called what you are OR you are not a FSF robot and for some resons you get offended when this was not addressed to you -- for this case see point no. 1.

AdrianTM · #34 Post by **AdrianTM** » 2008-09-18 20:10

Vorian Grey wrote:
AdrianTM wrote:
Vorian Grey wrote:Still, all it could do is damage the files in your user folder. It couldn't do system wide damage like it does in Windows.
Yeah, but nobody wants that either, right?
Not really, but if you do backup regularly then it's not really a big deal either.

Yep, that's not such a big deal, it's a bigger deal if instead of messing up with your files it sends your personal information to a server in Russia (or China)

Kats · #35 Post by **Kats** » 2008-09-18 20:27

Why even use the word "cons" in the topic? As far and much as wine is trying to be, there's no cons at ALL. I mean, the only thing wine does is letting some software run on a system they were never ever intended to run on. Now that is just great success.

Anyway, I'll give you a con. Just because I can.

The main con imo is that some software developers that develop mainly for windows just implements the wine-api instead of actually making fully fledged native linux/os-x-binaries. (Damn you, google.) Though, this has it's pros too. Less work to port.

#36 Post by **canci** » 2008-09-19 12:07

Vorian Grey wrote:Still, all it could do is damage the files in your user folder. It couldn't do system wide damage like it does in Windows.

Yeah, but I'm kinda concerned - since Wine is a layer that uses devices like the soundcard, gfx card, couldn't
it be abused to mess up your hardware?

(PLS don't laugh, I don't know much about malware

)

GNU.Wasabi · #37 Post by **GNU.Wasabi** » 2008-09-19 15:06

Wine, the Pros and Cons:

Pros:
- Let's you use most Windows applications seamlessly in Linux without actually installing Windows or owning a license for it.
- It keeps mzilikazi (and any other person for the matter) happy as he won't need to install Windows separately or quit his job, because of the requirement of working with Windows applications.
- Because of Wine there are lots of people who can play their favorite games on Windows. FOSS games primarily suck and there are *very* few games playable (that actually can be called games). Games are not like applications and it simply is NOT the same if you play something "similar" as an "alternative" to what your friends play.

Cons:
- Some companies, who would like to port their Windows applications to Linux, do not want to use too many resources for a porting project and see Wine as a short cut and make slight modifications to the Windows application to make it usable under Wine. In most cases they put out a binary package including Wine and the application itself to make installation "seamless". As an example you could look up Google Picasa.

And now back to the topic discussion:

Some users keep complaining about how Wine is destructive to your Linux box and how it can even destroy your private folders if there is a Windows virus/worm installed inside the Wine environment. RTFM you n00bs! Oh wait, the forum rules forbid the use of RTFM so I'll tell you something: instead of playing the king about Linux applications and man pages, why don't you just launch winecfg, make sure that Windows apps see only the ~/.wine/drive_c/ directory and then just STFU? This way if ever a virus/worm got into your Wine installation, the maximal destruction it can do is remove all applications installed inside Wine, but your private Linux folders remain untouched. Anyway, you must be a total fool to install a virus/worm into your Windows installation and don't tell me Windows is plagued by viruses, the users just don't know how to use their PC correctly and it is their fault that their PC got infected, not Microsofts or mine or yours!

There is no f**king idea in this kind of discussion. Learn to use your PC and use it the way you like it and respect the decisions of others and don't point with the finger and laugh at those who do something differently than you. Gosh some people just don't get it. And if you don't need it then no need to start a discussion either and I know that I am wasting my time telling you this and that I don't even have to read this thread, but it's people like you who make these forums less fun.

Fair Play!

EDIT: @canci: no, Wine's hardware layer doesn't have enough low-level access. Therefore if there was ever a virus written that "damaged" your hardware, it is *very* unlikely that the virus inside your Wine installation would do anything to your hardware. Let's say that 99,9% of malware segfaults anyway inside Wine, so there's really no need to be afraid. Just learn to use trusted applications and don't necessarily buy everything that people/ads say on the net. Oh and the above statement about Wine doesn't target you canci, but people in general that make the mistake. Please don't feel offended.

Vorian Grey · #38 Post by **Vorian Grey** » 2008-09-19 18:34

GNU.Wasabi wrote: Anyway, you must be a total fool to install a virus/worm into your Windows installation and don't tell me Windows is plagued by viruses, the users just don't know how to use their PC correctly and it is their fault that their PC got infected, not Microsofts or mine or yours!

I haven't had a virus in Windows since 1997 and I run it every day. People who do practice safe computing have nothing to worry about.

However, I believe were speaking hypothetically. I was anyway. And just because no virus can harm user files now doesn't mean that it will always be that way.

#39 Post by **canci** » 2008-09-20 12:13

GNU.Wasabi wrote:RTFM you n00bs! [...] and then just STFU?

Lighten up, will ya? Just a discussion! Big Bang!

GNU.Wasabi wrote:EDIT: @canci: no, Wine's hardware layer doesn't have enough low-level access. Therefore if there was ever a virus written that "damaged" your hardware, it is *very* unlikely that the virus inside your Wine installation would do anything to your hardware. Let's say that 99,9% of malware segfaults anyway inside Wine, so there's really no need to be afraid. Just learn to use trusted applications and don't necessarily buy everything that people/ads say on the net. Oh and the above statement about Wine doesn't target you canci, but people in general that make the mistake. Please don't feel offended.

TNX! That's all I wanted to know. I assume that exploits or certain backdoors, bugs in programmes
could not affect unices due to the different system structure?

GNU.Wasabi · #40 Post by **GNU.Wasabi** » 2008-09-22 00:39

When you install Wine, do you modify your kernel or have a kernel module installed? No. Wine is all userland and because of that deisgn it has no access on the kernel level. Having that would make these viruses possibly damage your Linux hardware even if they are run inside of Wine. So it's not the *nix OS structure, it's how Wine handles the stuff.

Oh and @Vorian Grey: Oy! Nice to see yet another wise person who actually knows to use Windows. No firewall or anti-virus here either, Windows XP all the way since 2 years ago.