Linux is slowly becoming an acceptable choice as a mainstream desktop operating system but some users do not like the applications which are part of the system. The hunt has thus been on to find the best way of running Windows applications from within Linux. Win4Lin is one of three solutions which has emerged (VMWare and WINE are the others).

Win4Lin runs as an application on a Linux system. The trial version can be downloaded from the manufacturers site, lasting for a month or two with a time limit for each session. The boxed set has a manual which provides installation instructions and explains some fundamentals. Win4Lin will run only on certain distributions - Mandrake Linux 6.0 to 7.1, Red Hat 6.0 upwards, Caldera Open Linux 2.2 and 2.3, Caldera eDesktop 2.4 and SuSE Linux 6.1 to 6.4.

The software needs a customised kernel and the installation of this is the first step in setting it up. Then comes the installation of Win4Lin, the copying of Windows installation files to the hard disk of the host computer, and finally the setting up of a personal Windows session for each user. The process is smooth and there are no undue hiccups if you are using a system on which earlier versions of Win4Lin have not been installed. If the Windows CD being used is not bootable, then a Windows boot disk is needed. Windows 95 and 98 are supported.
Any Windows applications needed are installed after Windows is installed for a user, with the only limitation being the amount of space available. Win4Lin uses the TCP/IP networking of Linux so if your Linux system is set up properly, you can browse, use email or chat using Windows applications. Windows networking is not supported.

The performance is pretty good. Windows runs much faster than it does on a native partition on the machine in question. Theres a good reason for that: its the file system.

The default ext2 (second extended) file system for Linux is said to be faster than the FAT16 or FAT32 file systems. Win4Lin also does a very fast simulation of a system reboot so the pain of restarting Windows whenever you install or remove software is greatly reduced. Win4Lin provides for printing from the Windows environment to any default printer which has been set up for Linux on the host computer.

Win4Lin does not support DirectX so a good many games are out of the question. Although the manual says that sound can be configured for Windows, I could not do so on two test machines - a Celeron 466 and a Pentium III - due to a mismatch between the kernel modules. This, despite running Win4Lin on Red Hat 6.1 and Caldera eDesktop 2.4, both distributions which are said to be supported. Both had sound configured and working under Linux.

The price for Win4Lin appears to have risen sharply. It was much cheaper the last time I looked at it, when it was in version 1.0. I found it slightly irritating that I had to use the Linux Loader boot manager and boot Linux off the hard drive in order to use Win4Lin. There is no provision for making a boot disk with the required boot image. And if you have installed an earlier version of Win4Lin, then the steps outlined in the manual for removing it do not appear to work. I installed it on a system running Mandrake 7.1, but when I tried to set up a personal Windows session I came up against a message that told me the Win4Lin licence had expired - even though I was using the CD from the boxed set supplied. The message was obviously being generated by the previous version which I had downloaded and installed some months ago.

As someone who has tested Windows applications in a Linux environment with VMWare and WINE as well, it is possible to really appreciate the speed with which Windows operates under Win4Lin. Any hard-core Linux user would have little use for Win4Lin but it does have a market out there; for those Linux users who still cannot live without Word or Excel, it is the best Windows environment going.