Anybody tried wine user mode emulation?

[EnriqueG]

Hi everybody,


I'm considering giving a new life to a 1.67GHz 17" PowerBook i recently got for €50. Its new life would be to "replace" my MacBook Air duties at the office of the R&D lab where I'm currently doing my PhD Thesis. I'm tired of carrying my Air everyday, so the 17" could be a great substitute.

For all normal tasks, such as reading papers, writing, Excel, mail, it works. The problem comes with two software I need to use: MestreNova and Origin. Origin is a Windows-only software that runs great under Qemu. MestreNova has old versions for Mac, but my license does not work with them.

I've tried running them with VirtualPC in my G5 and it's not bad.

I read long time ago about a way of running windows apps using wine on PPC systems with the aid of qemu. I have not found much information about that, has anybody tried it?

If I can get these two apps to work it would be great, and my Air will have a better life.

Regards,



Enrique

 

[Dronecatcher]

What version of Windows do they require? The trick with VPC is to use the oldest version of Windows you can get away with - if XP is required then using MicroXP is a must but with that you have to add any Windows components needed by your software.
Whatever Windows you go with, you will have to optimise it and turn off every service you don't need - it does make a difference.
My experience with Qemu is limited - when I tried it on a G5 Quad the performance was terrible - I believe it works better under PPC Linux.

 

[EnriqueG]

What version of Windows do they require? The trick with VPC is to use the oldest version of Windows you can get away with - if XP is required then using MicroXP is a must but with that you have to add any Windows components needed by your software.
Whatever Windows you go with, you will have to optimise it and turn off every service you don't need - it does make a difference.
My experience with Qemu is limited - when I tried it on a G5 Quad the performance was terrible - I believe it works better under PPC Linux.

The software runs in XP, maybe even Windows 2000.

If I'm going to have Windows in a window inside my Mac, I'll keep carrying my Air or my future PC (Apple has disappointed in so many ways that my next purchase will be a ThinkPad). I've used emulation and virtualization and it's a no-go for productivity. You have to keep shared folders and all that... I want my apps to be launched like a regular Mac app.

I'll give it a shot to Wine with as soon as I have Leopard installed in the G4, but I wanted to hear opinions as there's not a lot of information in the net.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I'll give it a shot to Wine with as soon as I have Leopard installed in the G4, but I wanted to hear opinions as there's not a lot of information in the net.

I thought you said you found VPC on your G5 not bad? Performance will be the same on your Powerbook - even better if you use Win 2000.
I'm pretty sure Wine is a no go even under PPC Linux - but maybe some Qemu users might chip in and confirm that, maybe @LightBulbFun ?

 

[EnriqueG]

I thought you said you found VPC on your G5 not bad? Performance will be the same on your Powerbook - even better if you use Win 2000.
I'm pretty sure Wine is a no go even under PPC Linux - but maybe some Qemu users might chip in and confirm that, maybe @LightBulbFun ?

Performance is not bad, user experience is. These two apps are meant to be used together with others (ChemDraw, Office, Latex...). Having them in a separated window would affect my workflow.

In my first years I still used Origin under Virtualbox or VMware in my Air, but when I got it to work under Wine I never came back to virtualization.

 

[z970]

Apple has disappointed in so many ways that my next purchase will be a ThinkPad

You are not alone, by far...

 

[Lastic]

I thought you said you found VPC on your G5 not bad? Performance will be the same on your Powerbook - even better if you use Win 2000.
I'm pretty sure Wine is a no go even under PPC Linux - but maybe some Qemu users might chip in and confirm that, maybe @LightBulbFun ?

To my understanding and I've looked a lot, there is no WINE on PPC , non on Linux/OSX or QEMU PPC, better said simply not for PPC. It died with Darwine.

Wine (software) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And running Windows GUI programs on PPC won't work with qemu_user neither

If somebody can prove me wrong, please do since I really would like to run Altirra on my PowerPC instead of choking an Windows XP VPC7 to death .