documentation/introduction.sgml

   1   <chapter id="introduction">
   2     <title>Introduction</title>
   3
   4     <sect1 id="overview">
   5       <title>Overview / About</title>
   6
   7       <sect2>
   8       <title>Purpose of this document and intended audience</title>
   9       <para>
  10         This document, called the Wine User Guide, is supposed to
  11         be both an easy installation guide and an extensive reference guide.
  12         Thus while it completely explains how to install and configure Wine,
  13         it also tries to document all configuration features and support areas
  14         of the Wine environment as a whole.
  15       </para>
  16       <para>
  17         It tries to target both the new Wine user, by offering a step by
  18         step approach, and the experienced Wine user, by offering the reference
  19         material mentioned above.
  20       </para>
  21       </sect2>
  22
  23       <sect2>
  24         <title>Burning questions and comments</title>
  25         <para>
  26           If during reading this document there is something you
  27           can't figure out, or think could be explained better, or
  28           that should have been included, please immediately mail to the
  29           <ulink url="mailto:wine-devel@winehq.org">wine-devel</ulink>, or
  30           post a bug report to
  31           <ulink url="http://bugs.winehq.com/">Wine's Bugzilla</ulink> to
  32           let us know how this document can be improved.  Remember, Open
  33           Source is "free as in free speech, not as in free beer": it can
  34           only work in the case of very active involvement of its users!
  35         </para>
  36         <para>
  37           <emphasis>
  38           Note that I can't say that I'm too impressed with the amount
  39           of feedback about this Guide that we have received so far
  40           since I added this paragraph many months ago...
  41           </emphasis>
  42         </para>
  43       </sect2>
  44
  45       <sect2>
  46         <title>Content overview / Steps to take</title>
  47         <para>
  48           This section will try to give you a complete overview of
  49           how to go all the way to a fully working Wine installation
  50           by following this Guide.
  51           We <emphasis>strongly recommend</emphasis> following every
  52           single relevant step of this Guide, since you might miss important
  53           information otherwise.
  54         </para>
  55         <para>
  56           First, we start by explaining what Wine is and mentioning
  57           everything else that's useful to know about it (that's
  58           covered in this very chapter that you're reading a part of right now).
  59         </para>
  60         <para>
  61           In order to be able to use Wine, you need to obtain a copy of
  62           its files first. That's the purpose of the next chapter, <link
  63           linkend="getting-wine">Getting Wine</link>: it tries to show
  64           you how Wine can be installed on your particular system
  65           (i.e. which installation methods are available in your case),
  66           and then it explains the various methods: either getting Wine
  67           via a binary package file suited for your particular system,
  68           or getting it via a Wine <glossterm>source code</glossterm>
  69           archive file, or getting the most current Wine development
  70           source code via <glossterm>CVS</glossterm>.
  71         </para>
  72         <para>
  73           Once you got your copy of Wine, you might need to follow the
  74           next chapter <link linkend="compiling">Compiling</link> if you
  75           decided to get Wine source code.
  76           Otherwise, the next chapter <link
  77           linkend="installing">Installing Wine</link> will explain the
  78           methods to use to install the Wine binary files to some location
  79           on your system.
  80         </para>
  81         <para>
  82           Once Wine is installed on your system, the next chapter <link
  83           linkend="config-wine-main">Configuring Wine</link> will
  84           focus on the available configuration methods for Wine to set up
  85           a proper Wine/Windows environment with all its requirements:
  86           there are either graphical (e.g. WineSetupTk) or text mode
  87           (wineinstall) configuration helper applications available that will
  88           fully configure the Wine environment for you.
  89           And for those people who dislike a fully automated
  90           installation (maybe because they really want to know what they're
  91           doing), we'll describe how to manually set up a complete Wine
  92           environment configuration.
  93         </para>
  94         <para>
  95           Once the configuration of the Wine environment is done, the
  96           next chapter <link linkend="running">Running Wine</link>
  97           will show you how to run Windows programs with Wine and
  98           how to satisfy the more specific requirements of certain
  99           Windows programs.
 100         </para>
 101         <para>
 102           In case you run into trouble, the chapter <link
 103           linkend="bugs">Troubleshooting / Reporting bugs</link>
 104           will list and explain some common troubleshooting and debugging
 105           methods.
 106         </para>
 107       </sect2>
 108
 109     </sect1>
 110
 111     <sect1 id="what-is-wine">
 112       <title>What is Wine?</title>
 113
 114       <sect2>
 115         <title>Windows and Linux</title>
 116         <!-- general description of wine, what does it do? -->
 117         <para>
 118           Many people have faced the frustration of owning software that
 119           won't run on their computer.  With the recent popularity of
 120           <ulink url="http://www.tldp.org/FAQ/Linux-FAQ/index.html">
 121           Linux</ulink>, this is happening more and more often because
 122           of differing operating systems.  Your Windows software won't
 123           run on Linux, and your Linux software won't run in Windows.
 124         </para>
 125         <para>
 126           A common solution to this problem is to install both operating
 127           systems on the same computer, as a <quote>dual boot</quote>
 128           system.  If you want to write a document in MS Word, you can
 129           boot up in Windows; if you want to run GnuCash, the GNOME
 130           financial application, you can shut down your Windows session
 131           and reboot into Linux.  The problem with this is that you
 132           can't do both at the same time.  Each time you switch back and
 133           forth between MS Word and GnuCash, you have to reboot again.
 134           This can get tiresome quickly.
 135         </para>
 136         <para>
 137           Life would be so much easier if you could run all your
 138           applications on the same system, regardless of whether they
 139           are written for Windows or for Linux.  On Windows, this isn't
 140           really possible, yet.
 141           <footnote>
 142             <para>
 143               Technically, if you have two networked computers, one
 144               running Windows and the other running Linux, and if you
 145               have some sort of X server software running on the Windows
 146               system, you can export Linux applications onto the Windows
 147               system. A free X server is available at
 148               <ulink url="http://xfree86.cygwin.com/">http://xfree86.cygwin.com/</ulink>.
 149               However, this doesn't solve the problem if you only own
 150               one computer system.
 151             </para>
 152           </footnote>
 153           However, Wine makes it possible to run native Windows
 154           applications alongside native Linux applications on any Unix-like
 155           system.  You can share desktop space between MS Word and GnuCash,
 156           overlapping their windows, iconizing them, and even running them
 157           from the same launcher.
 158         </para>
 159       </sect2>
 160
 161       <sect2>
 162         <title>What is Wine, and how can it help me?</title>
 163         <!-- emulator vs. Winelib -->
 164         <para>
 165           Wine is a UNIX implementation of the win32 Windows libraries,
 166           written from scratch by hundreds of volunteer developers and
 167           released under an Open Source license (think of it as a
 168           Windows compatibility layer for Linux and other similar
 169           operating systems).  Anyone can download
 170           and read through the source code, and fix bugs that arise.
 171           The Wine community is full of richly talented programmers
 172           who have spent thousands of hours of personal time on
 173           improving Wine so that it works well with the win32
 174           <glossterm>Application Programming Interface</glossterm>
 175           (API), and keeps pace with new developments from Microsoft.
 176         </para>
 177         <para>
 178           Wine can run Windows applications in two discrete ways: as
 179           pre-compiled Windows binaries (your average off-the-shelf
 180           program package e.g. available on CD), or as natively compiled
 181           <ulink url="http://www.xfree86.org/#whatis">X11 (X-Window
 182           System)</ulink> applications (via the part of Wine that's called
 183           Winelib). If you're interested in compiling the source code of a
 184           Windows program you wrote, then please refer to the
 185           Winelib User's Guide instead, which explains this particular topic.
 186           This Wine Users Guide however will focus on running standard
 187           Windows applications using Wine.
 188         </para>
 189
 190         <!-- the development model -->
 191         <para>
 192         </para>
 193       </sect2>
 194
 195       <sect2 id="wine-capabilities">
 196         <title>Wine capabilities</title>
 197
 198         <para>
 199           Now that we're done with the boring introductory babble,
 200           let us tell you what Wine is able to do/support:
 201         </para>
 202         <para>
 203           <itemizedlist>
 204             <listitem>
 205               <para>
 206                 Support for running Win32 (Win 95/98, NT/2000/XP), Win16 (Win 3.1) and DOS programs
 207               </para>
 208             </listitem>
 209             <listitem>
 210               <para>
 211                 Optional use of external vendor
 212                 <glossterm>DLLs</glossterm> (e.g. original
 213                 Windows DLLs)
 214               </para>
 215             </listitem>
 216             <listitem>
 217               <para>
 218                 X11-based graphics display (remote display to any X
 219                 terminal possible), text mode console
 220               </para>
 221             </listitem>
 222             <listitem>
 223               <para>
 224                 Desktop-in-a-box or mixable windows
 225               </para>
 226             </listitem>
 227             <listitem>
 228               <para>
 229                 Pretty advanced DirectX support for games
 230               </para>
 231             </listitem>
 232             <listitem>
 233               <para>
 234                 Good support for sound, alternative input devices
 235               </para>
 236             </listitem>
 237             <listitem>
 238               <para>
 239                 Printing: PostScript interface driver (psdrv) to
 240                 standard Unix PostScript print services
 241               </para>
 242             </listitem>
 243             <listitem>
 244               <para>
 245                 Modems, serial devices are supported
 246               </para>
 247             </listitem>
 248             <listitem>
 249               <para>
 250                 Winsock TCP/IP networking
 251               </para>
 252             </listitem>
 253             <listitem>
 254               <para>
 255                 ASPI interface (SCSI) support for scanners, CD writers,
 256                 ...
 257               </para>
 258             </listitem>
 259             <listitem>
 260               <para>
 261                 Unicode support, relatively advanced language support
 262               </para>
 263             </listitem>
 264             <listitem>
 265               <para>
 266                 Wine debugger and configurable trace logging messages
 267               </para>
 268             </listitem>
 269           </itemizedlist>
 270         </para>
 271       </sect2>
 272     </sect1>
 273
 274     <sect1 id="other-wines">
 275       <title>Other, often "Enhanced" Wine offerings</title>
 276
 277       <para>
 278         There are a number of offerings that are derived from the standard Wine
 279         codebase in some way or another.
 280       </para>
 281       <para>
 282         Some of these are commercial products from companies that actively contribute to Wine.
 283       </para>
 284       <para>
 285         These products often try to stand out or distinguish themselves
 286         from Wine, e.g. by offering greater compatibility or much easier
 287         and flexible configuration than your average standard Wine
 288         release. As such it is often a good idea to shell out some bucks
 289         for the commercial versions, especially since these companies
 290         contribute a lot of code to Wine, and plus, I'm sure they'll be happy about your support...
 291       </para>
 292       <table><title>Various Wine offerings</title>
 293         <tgroup cols=3 align="left">
 294           <thead>
 295             <row>
 296               <entry>Product</entry>
 297               <entry>Description</entry>
 298               <entry>Distribution form</entry>
 299             </row>
 300           </thead>
 301           <tbody>
 302             <row>
 303               <entry>
 304                 <ulink
 305                 url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/rewind">ReWind</ulink>
 306               </entry>
 307               <entry>
 308                 ReWind is a Wine version derived from the old BSD
 309                 licensed Wine tree (it's the "completely free" BSD license fork of the currently LGPL'ed Wine).
 310                 Due to its BSD license it can't incorporate some Wine
 311                 patches that get licensed under the more restrictive
 312                 (or: protective) LGPL license by their authors.
 313               </entry>
 314               <entry>
 315                 Free, Open Source: BSD license
 316               </entry>
 317             </row>
 318             <row>
 319               <entry>
 320                 <ulink
 321                 url="http://www.codeweavers.com/products/office">CodeWeavers CrossOver Office</ulink>
 322               </entry>
 323               <entry>
 324                 CrossOver Office allows you to install your favorite
 325                 Windows productivity applications in Linux, without
 326                 needing a Microsoft Operating System license. CrossOver
 327                 includes an easy to use, single click interface, which
 328                 makes installing a Windows application simple and fast.
 329               </entry>
 330               <entry>
 331                 Commercial
 332               </entry>
 333             </row>
 334             <row>
 335               <entry>
 336                 <ulink
 337                 url="http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxofficeserver">CodeWeavers CrossOver Office Server Edition</ulink>
 338               </entry>
 339               <entry>
 340                 CrossOver Office Server Edition allows you to run your
 341                 favorite Windows productivity applications in a
 342                 distributed thin-client environment under Linux, without
 343                 needing Microsoft Operating System licenses for each
 344                 client machine. CrossOver OfficeServer Edition allows you
 345                 to satisfy the needs of literally hundreds of concurrent
 346                 users, all from a single server.
 347               </entry>
 348               <entry>
 349                 Commercial
 350               </entry>
 351             </row>
 352             <row>
 353               <entry>
 354                 <ulink
 355                 url="http://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover">CodeWeavers
 356                 CrossOver Plugin</ulink>
 357               </entry>
 358               <entry>
 359                 CrossOver Plugin lets you use many Windows plugins
 360                 directly from your Linux browser. In particular CrossOver
 361                 fully supports QuickTime, Shockwave Director,
 362                 Windows Media Player 6.4, Word Viewer, Excel Viewer,
 363                 PowerPoint Viewer, and more...
 364               </entry>
 365               <entry>
 366                 Commercial; Demo version available
 367               </entry>
 368             </row>
 369             <row>
 370               <entry>
 371                 <ulink
 372                 url="http://www.codeweavers.com/technology/wine/">CodeWeavers
 373                 Wine preview</ulink>
 374               </entry>
 375               <entry>
 376                 The Wine preview is a usually slightly older Wine release
 377                 that's been tested as extra stable.
 378                 It includes the graphical installer winesetuptk,
 379                 allowing for easy configuration.
 380               </entry>
 381               <entry>
 382                 Free, Open Source: LGPL license
 383               </entry>
 384             </row>
 385             <row>
 386               <entry>
 387                 <ulink url="http://www.transgaming.com">TransGaming Technologies WineX</ulink>
 388               </entry>
 389               <entry>
 390                 WineX is a Wine version derived from the old BSD licensed Wine tree, with currently better support for Direct3D and DirectX software than standard Wine, and with added copy protection support for multiple types of copy protection e.g. used in games.
 391               </entry>
 392               <entry>
 393                 Commercial; <ulink
 394                 url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/winex">free CVS
 395                 download</ulink> of reduced version (no copy protection
 396                 support etc.)
 397               </entry>
 398             </row>
 399           </tbody>
 400         </tgroup>
 401       </table>
 402     </sect1>
 403
 404     <sect1 id="competition">
 405       <title>Alternatives to Wine you might want to consider</title>
 406
 407       <para>
 408         We'll mention some alternatives (or we could also say:
 409         competitors) to Wine here that might come in handy if Wine is
 410         not usable for the program or job you want it to do, since
 411         these alternatives usually provide better Windows compatibility.
 412       </para>
 413
 414       <sect2>
 415         <title>VMWare</title>
 416         <para>
 417           <ulink url="http://www.vmware.com">VMWare</ulink> is a
 418           software package to emulate an additional machine on your PC.
 419           In other words, it establishes a virtual machine that can be
 420           used to run any kind of Intel x86 compatible operating system
 421           in parallel to your currently running operating system.
 422           Thus you could use Linux and at the same time run Windows 98
 423           in a virtual machine on the same screen.
 424         </para>
 425         <para>
 426           Sounds nice, doesn't it? Well, there are some drawbacks, of
 427           course... First, VMWare is pretty expensive, and second, you
 428           need a licensed copy of the operating system you want to run.
 429           Third, since VMWare is a virtual machine, it's quite slow.
 430           Wine doesn't have any of these limitations, but unfortunately
 431           this also means that you will not have the relatively good
 432           compatibility of a real original Windows system if you use
 433           Wine.
 434         </para>
 435       </sect2>
 436       <sect2>
 437         <title>Win4Lin</title>
 438         <para>
 439           <ulink url="http://www.win4lin.com">Win4Lin</ulink> by
 440           NeTraverse allows you to run a special version of Win98 in
 441           Linux. Compared to VMWare, this has the advantage that it's
 442           faster, but you still have the license fees.
 443         </para>
 444       </sect2>
 445     </sect1>
 446     <sect1 id="wine-stats">
 447       <title>Basic Wine Requirements</title>
 448
 449       <para>
 450         This section only mentions the most basic system requirements of
 451         Wine, in order to ease your Wine "purchasing decision" ;-)
 452         For an up-to-date much more detailed list of requirements for
 453         compiling and/or installing Wine,
 454         please read the REQUIREMENTS section of the <ulink
 455         url="http://www.winehq.org/source/README">README</ulink> file,
 456         which is also available in the main directory of a Wine source code tree.
 457       </para>
 458       <para>
 459         In case of a binary Wine package, these Wine requirements will
 460         probably be fulfilled automatically by the package installation
 461         process; if you want to have a look at the detailed requirements
 462         nevertheless (which definitely can't hurt!), then I'd like to
 463         mention that the README file can also frequently be found in the
 464         documentation files directory of a Wine package.
 465       </para>
 466
 467       <sect2 id="system-requirements">
 468         <title>System requirements</title>
 469         <para>
 470           In order to run Wine, you generally need the following:
 471         </para>
 472         <para>
 473           <itemizedlist>
 474             <listitem>
 475               <para>
 476                 A computer ;-)
 477                 <literallayout>  Wine: only PCs >= i386 are supported at the moment.</literallayout>
 478                 <literallayout>  Winelib: selected other platforms are supported, but can be tricky.</literallayout>
 479               </para>
 480             </listitem>
 481             <listitem>
 482               <para>
 483                 A UNIX-like operating system such as Linux, *BSD,
 484                 Solaris x86, ReactOS, Cygwin
 485               </para>
 486             </listitem>
 487             <listitem>
 488               <para>
 489                 >= 32MB of RAM.  Everything below is pretty much
 490                 unusable.  >= 96 MB is needed for "good" execution.
 491               </para>
 492             </listitem>
 493             <listitem>
 494               <para>
 495                 An X11 window system (XFree86 etc.).  Wine is prepared
 496                 for other graphics display drivers, but writing
 497                 support is not too easy.  The text console display
 498                 driver (ttydrv) is nearly usable, so you don't
 499                 necessarily have to install X11 if you don't need it for
 500                 the programs you intend to run (in other words: mainly
 501                 for text mode programs).
 502               </para>
 503             </listitem>
 504           </itemizedlist>
 505         </para>
 506       </sect2>
 507     </sect1>
 508   </chapter>
 509
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