From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Mar 5 15:06:10 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A5C2116A4CE for ; Sat, 5 Mar 2005 15:06:10 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp105.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com (smtp105.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com [206.190.36.83]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 1356243D31 for ; Sat, 5 Mar 2005 15:06:10 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from Mike.Jeays@rogers.com) Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.2.150?) (mjeays2551@24.114.152.139 with plain) by smtp105.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com with SMTP; 5 Mar 2005 15:06:08 -0000 From: Mike Jeays To: Chuck Swiger In-Reply-To: <4229C4FC.1020503@mac.com> References: <001501c52197$14127760$6501a8c0@chris> <4229C4FC.1020503@mac.com> Content-Type: text/plain Message-Id: <1110035167.650.12.camel@chaucer.jeays.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.6 Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 10:06:08 -0500 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: Chris cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Please help if you can X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 15:06:10 -0000 On Sat, 2005-03-05 at 09:41, Chuck Swiger wrote: > Chris wrote: > > I would like to know if this OS platform supports your everday and ever so > > standard .EXE applications. > > Yes, FreeBSD will run standalone executable code in the various .exe and .dll > formats, although people often use Wine or a similiar emulator if they want to > have a more complete Windows environment available while using FreeBSD. Surely not. I have never heard it suggested before that FreeBSD will run Windows .exe binaries directly. I would have thought that you would have to use Wine or Crossover Office. > > > Basically, I am wondering if FreeBSD is compatible to all of the endless > > softwares out there that "require" you to be using a certain version of > > Microsoft Windows? > > All of the software? No. > > Not that most Windows software is portable enough the run on all flavors of > Windows itself: there's plenty of old 16-bit stuff which won't work on a > modern Win32 platform (WinXP, 2003, etc), just as there is a huge amount of > stuff written today which won't run on Windows 3.1. > > That being said, FreeBSD doesn't come with the Windows DLL's that many > programs use. But they and other resources like TrueType fonts can be used if > you migrate them, and if you check the ports collection you you find ways of > using Flash and RealPlayer and video codec stuff like that if you really want > to. Stability may suffer somewhat compared with purely native FreeBSD apps, > but if people want to view websites in Flash (or be advertised to, more > accurately), they can. > > See http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ > > > I'm not a computer genius (though for some reason many label me as that) > > but I know my way around the Windows platform quite well. I am not an > > advanced programmer in any sort, but I do try and have several different > > types of programming software. > > Don't worry about it-- I promise that we won't call you a computer genius if > you don't want us to. I make no comment on what might happen in the converse > situation, but I suggest verifying your sense of humor beforehand.