[brlug-newbies] 2nd Newbies/CCCC Linux SIG June Workshop

[Ed]

Greetings all, 

The second June Linux Desktop Special Interest Group Workshop will cover 
running legacy Windows applications on your Linux desktop. One of the many 
myths surrounding using Linux on the desktop has been "But I can't run my 
Windows application XYZ (fill in your favorite application) on Linux". That 
may, or may not be true, and in most cases, it is not true. This month we 
will show you several ways that you can most likely run your favorite Windows 
application on Linux. 

Beyond a doubt, the best migration solution is to use native Linux 
applications that provide equivalent functionality to the Windows application 
that you have been using, but sometimes either that functionality doesn't 
(YET) exist, and/or you are becoming overwhelmed by so much change at once. 
The alternatives are to dual boot your machine or somehow run the Windows 
applications on your Linux desktop. 

The most common methods of running Windows applications on a Linux box is to 
use WINE (Wine Is Not and Emulator), CrossOver Office, which is a specialized 
and highly tweaked commercial version of Wine that focuses on supporting 
Microsoft Applications, or a virtual machine emulator like Win4Lin. 

In the upcoming workshop, we will look specifically at Crossover Office and 
Win4Lin. We may also take a look at Parallels, which is a software package 
that lets you create virtual computers on Windows, Linux, BSD, Unix, Mac and 
many other platforms. After the virtual computer is created, you can then 
install whatever operating system that you want to install. 

If you have a specific application that you need to run but haven't been able 
to do so successfully, bring it with you and we will see what we can do. If 
it is a commercial application, please bring the original media and any 
required serial numbers/CD keys as well. Any software that is installed 
during the workshop will be uninstalled before we leave the Clickers offices 
for the evening. As always, the first 15 minutes will be dedicated to 
answering any questions that anyone has. 

See everyone on Monday, June 19th at 6 pm.