wine vs virtualbox

peter4444 · Post by **peter4444** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:08 am

hi!

what is the difference between wine and a virtualisation like virtualbox?

what are advantages and disadvantages compared to each other?

peter

Post by **dimesio** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:40 am

peter4444 wrote: what is the difference between wine and a virtualisation like virtualbox?

what are advantages and disadvantages compared to each other?

http://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?t=7097

Gert van den Berg · Post by **Gert van den Berg** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:56 am

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 15:08, peter4444 <[email protected]> wrote:

what is the difference between wine and a virtualisation like virtualbox?

Wine runs (some) Windows applications under Linux / other Unix-like
OSes... Virtualbox runs operating systems...

If the application runs, Wine is usually much quicker. Wine might also
support 3D acceleration in cases where virtualization won't. (This is
getting less of a problem...)

(Wine emulates a Windows environment, Virtualbox emulates a computer)

what are advantages and disadvantages compared to each other?

Virtualbox requires a Windows license, but more applications work
(since they are running on actual Windows). It also uses more memory
(unless you hit a memory leak in Wine....) eand tend to run somewhat
slower (since you are running an entire operating system...)

VMs also tend to have timing issues...
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_timekeeping.pdf

Gert

James Mckenzie · Post by **James Mckenzie** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:59 am

peter4444 <[email protected]> wrote:

hi!

Hello back.

what is the difference between wine and a virtualisation like virtualbox?

Wine is an attempt to build the Windows32/64 APIs to allow running of Windows programs in a sort of Native way on UNIX/Linux.

Virtualbox is a virtual machine process. You will need to purchase/own a copy of Windows in order to run it on your system.

what are advantages and disadvantages compared to each other?

Well, Wine is FREE (basically) and does not require purchase of Windows. However, not all of the API is complete and some programs, which use software security, will never run on it. Also, Wine is a work in progress and is subject to sudden changes as it is updated. Some programs that run in a specific version may not in others.

Virtualbox, itself is also FREE, but requires you to purchase a license and have a copy of each operating system you want to use. The advantage is that it appears as real Windows, so any Windows program that is properly written to work in a virtual environment will run, even those with software security. Once Windows is installed in a virtual environment, you only have to get updates from Microsoft to be current.

BOTH present the 'danger' in that malware designed for Windows will run. The amount of damage is mitigated in a virtual environment as no actual contact with physical media should be allowed.

What you use is up to you. If you are willing to contribute to Microsoft's bottom line, virtual machines are the way to go. If you are not, or are willing to work with a in-progress system, then use Wine.

Great strides have been made in the last year to get major games and office productivity software to work in Wine.

James McKenzie

Planky · Post by **Planky** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 2:49 am

what windows apps do you need to keep?

WINE emulates a windows directory structure that allows you to install some windows apps to that location. I only use this for pokerstars

VMWare emulates the windows operating system environment. I have not used this in linux but you should be able to install an windows app in the vmware instance of window

virtualbox - i have not used this

M1kkko · Post by **M1kkko** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:53 am

James Mckenzie wrote:However, not all of the API is complete and some programs, which use software security, will never run on it.

If you would please point me to a source on this one? Even better, could you point me to an application that's reported to not work and "will never work" due to software security?

jjmckenzie · Post by **jjmckenzie** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 12:40 pm

On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 8:53 AM, M1kkko <[email protected]> wrote:

James Mckenzie wrote:
However, not all of the API is complete and some programs, which use software security, will never run on it.
If you would please point me to a source on this one? Even better, could you point me to an application that's reported to
not work and "will never work" due to software security?

Please read the Copy Protection page at http://wiki.winehq.org/CopyProtection.

James

M1kkko · Post by **M1kkko** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:52 am

Wine's goal is to be compatible with Windows software including copy protection.

For what I understand, although it may not be an easy job to do, Wine developers are planning to fully support copy protection at some point. They're not saying "it's never going to happen", it's just a matter of work.

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 12:50 pm

M1kkko wrote:For what I understand, although it may not be an easy job to do, Wine developers are planning to fully support copy protection at some point. They're not saying "it's never going to happen", it's just a matter of work.

It doesn't matter how hard you try, some things will never work on Wine. Few examples of such things are:
- Software that explicitly checks for virtual machine/Wine and refuses to start
- Root kits & co that intercept lots of kernel calls. And do other nasty stuff
- Copy protection schemas that depend on exact timing of some operations (both software and hardware)

Francol · Post by **Francol** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:18 am

Virtualization emulates the whole stack, including the operating system while Wine only provides an abstraction layer with the ability to provide applications with things such as access to dll files.