Is Linux capable of running all windows apps?

[Anarchist420]

I know that it can't right now, but if someone with a lot of coding knowledge and skill wanted to, could they somehow make all windows apps run perfectly in Linux? Like, for example, if they had microsoft's knowledge (blue papers, etc., etc.) of what makes windows programs run in windows, and then had the programming skill to code so that they could get linux to work with all windows apps?

 

[Oil]

No.

 

[lxskllr]

Sure, anything can be done with time, and money. The big problem's the money. If you had enough, you could buy a lot of developer time. As it is, people work on what interests them, and on core functionality. I don't know that aping Windows is the way to go anyway. There's already a Windows. Why would we need another? Windows does it's thing, OSX does it's thing, and Linux has it's place. It's up to the user to choose what works for them.

 

[Oil]

Sure, anything can be done with time, and money. The big problem's the money. If you had enough, you could buy a lot of developer time. As it is, people work on what interests them, and on core functionality. I don't know that aping Windows is the way to go anyway. There's already a Windows. Why would we need another? Windows does it's thing, OSX does it's thing, and Linux has it's place. It's up to the user to choose what works for them.

Unless I misunderstood the OP, I thought he was talking about taking programs written for Windows and making Linux work with them. Didn't think he was talking about totally rewriting the programs for Linux. If you were rewriting the programs, you could absolutely have them run under the desired OS: Linux, OS X or Windows

 

[superccs]

Most simply, windows apps need access to specific sets of windows resources. So you would have to simulate a lot of windows resources to get it to work.

 

[Nothinman]

I know that it can't right now, but if someone with a lot of coding knowledge and skill wanted to, could they somehow make all windows apps run perfectly in Linux? Like, for example, if they had microsoft's knowledge (blue papers, etc., etc.) of what makes windows programs run in windows, and then had the programming skill to code so that they could get linux to work with all windows apps?

Not likely. WINE has been working on Win32 compatibility for almost 20 years now and is still considered a last resort because of weird issues. Windows is a fast moving target, while they're working on tracking down bugs MS is out creating new ones.

Maybe if .Net takes over the majority of apps on Windows in the next 5-10 years Mono will be able to run most of them since large parts of .Net are open standards. But even that wouldn't get you 100% coverage.

 

[HeXen]

^agree. Best way is to either VM or dual boot.
What i would like is a VM to run only when i click on its associated program icon. Kinda like run as a background task but have the OS sleep and not have any notice that its even there, so the app works almost as if its native linux........i think OSX parrallels works similar but not sure.

 

[Nothinman]

^agree. Best way is to either VM or dual boot.
What i would like is a VM to run only when i click on its associated program icon. Kinda like run as a background task but have the OS sleep and not have any notice that its even there, so the app works almost as if its native linux........i think OSX parrallels works similar but not sure.

XP Mode on Win7 does this although I don't know of anything similar for Linux since I don't care. FOSS apps are almost always technically better than the closed, Windows versions anyway so I end up using those same FOSS apps on Windows.