[wplug] Yet Another Windows on Linux Question

[Patrick Wagstrom]

> I would like to find a way to run I.E. 5.5 *and* 6 on my Linux box so I 
> can test the websites I build. Here are some of the things I'm wondering:
> 
>  - Is it possible to do it with just Wine? I've tried some things posted 
> on the web with I.E. 6, but it always crashes before I can get it to 
> load a page.
>  - Would something like Crossover help? Obviously, free software is 
> better, but if I have to spend money, I'd rather spend it on a company 
> that supports OSS.
>  - Is it possible to do it in such a way that security flaws in I.E. 
> don't endanger my whole box?

While Wine might be an option, it's running of IE is far from what you'd
need if you really want to test the systems (I'm assuming you're a web
guy and need to test pages in IE 5.5 and 6).  A better option that is
much more reliable (and more powerful) is VmWare
( http://www.vmware.com/ ).  VmWare lets you create multiple virtual x86
machines and boot different operating systems.  So you could have one VM
with WinXP and one with Win98.  It's some of the best money I've ever
spent on software.  A Free alternative (although slower) is QEmu
( http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/ ).  There is an "accelerator" but
it isn't open either.  

A lot of security companies use VmWare to test viruses and stuff because
each machine is held in its own little case and you can do nifty stuff
like checkpoint run states, etc.  For students its about $100, for
non-students it's $300 (I think).

> And last and least, a pipe dream: Would it be possible to run Safari on 
> an x86 linux box? Has any decent emulator been written?

You can try using PearPC ( http://pearpc.sf.net/ ), but that's about the
state of the art as far as stuff goes.  It boots MacOSX, but slowly.
Mainly because of the difficulties in translating between machine
architectures, something VmWare on x86 doesn't have to do.  You're
probably better off using a real mac and VNC to test safari.


--Patrick