From: probstmj@cnsvax.uwec.edu Subject: close Date: 13 Sep 1993 16:40:10 -0600
I've heard lots of laughing about the desire to run Windoze programs under
Linux, but hear me out for a second.
I'd love to dump MS-DOS and move to LINUX. I'd get a brand new 340-meg hard
drive to go with my 250, get 8 additional megs of ram, and have a blast.
However, there are three programs I have which make this goal impossible.
There are some programs which just aren't available and are not practical to
develop personally.
1. Finale Music Composition 3.0. This program is the finest musical notation
program available for the IBM today. Unfortunately, it runs under Windoze. I
just can't get along without it. I'd be glad to set aside another partition
for DOS and Windoze, but it would be lots cooler to get along without it.
2. Cakewalk 3.0 for DOS. This program is a MIDI sequencer. It would be
possible to create a similar program for UNIX without too much trouble, but it
would take lots more time than I have.
3. MS Word. This is actually not necessary, because there are equivalents for
UNIX and there must be X-windows word processors of similar quality. However,
what I've seen so far doesn't have quite the flexibility. I guess I could get
along without this program, especially because nobody on this newsgroup is
going to cry if Microsoft's corporate headquarters blow up tomorrow
unexpectedly.
Okay, I admit that most of you would just give me the snide remark "If you need
the program get out the C compiler and create it yourself for X-windows", but
these programs are the result of thousands of man-hours of programming. Finale
in particular is both indespensible and impossible to recreate. So although it
is possible to create a DOS partition and do DOS work under it, there is a
certain coolness to being able to run another operating system's stuff under
UNIX. I know there are some commerical UNIXes that do this, though I don't
know how reliable they are. If I could just find some musical notation program
of similar quality for UNIX or run the one I have under UNIX, I would be very
happy.
Linux still kicks serious butt, though . ..