[ale] Wired Magazine

Lex Spoon lex at cc.gatech.edu
Wed Aug 20 17:35:14 EDT 1997


I agree, except for one point:


> 
> On Aug 19,  5:55pm, Mark Groves wrote:
> > Subject: [ale] Wired Magazine
> <<snip>>
> 
> > I've got a dormant 486 machine running on a monochrome that I'd like to
> > dedicate to Linux.  I've got Slackware 3.2 on a cd in a Linux book I
> > just picked up.  Can anyone suggest a price friendly package that
> > provides a reliable Linux installation and a reliable windows emulator?
> > Will my Slackware do the job?
> 
> Assuming that the '486 has sufficient memory, and that you don't expect much
> from the video system, the answer should be yes. Don't assume, however, that
> you can run _any_ Windows emulator with this hardware.


Actually, WINE runs code straight off the CPU, so most programs run at
least as fast under WINE as under Windows 3.1.  Plus you get process
protection, better multitasking,....

For DOSEMU the story is pretty similar, except that some operations
are emulated that under DOS would be very fast.  Most things run the
same speed if you are running on console.

So if the program works under WINE or DOSEMU at all, and it's fast
enough under Windows/DOS, then it should be fast enough under Linux,
too.

I don't know how WABI works on i86's; if it emulates the CPU like it
does on other architectures, then performance will probably be
abismal.


Lex






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