# with virtualbox is is wine still relevant?



## rden (Feb 6, 2010)

Before I start some readers may suggest I should post this in the wine forums, but I'm hoping for some unbiased opinions.

MS windows, seems there are (or will be) 2 ways: wine or virtualbox (- BTW both not yet BSD native).

Given the advent of [cheap] multicore cpu's, one would think the future points at virtualbox as the better term answer.

( :\ Of course AMD/intel only went into multicore CPU's because of MS even today with Vista and Server 2008 still can not offer properly implemented (let alone reliable) multi-tasking (let alone any real multi-user) functionality. :OO [even with multicore they only get a fraction closer but still so far away])

Back to the point: long term view - to stay relevant into the future what are the feelings here?  vb or wine?

(And to be truly independent of Redmond lets throw ReactOS into the pot? - I know there are good people working on wine but my feeling is surely time wine's abandoned and it's resources spread between virtualbox and ReactOS?)


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## vermaden (Feb 6, 2010)

ReactOS uses lots of libraries from WINE, lately they almost entirely switched to WINE code, so ReactOS do not exists without WINE anymore.

About VirtualBox vs WINE, use the one that is more suitable for you, there is no general answer like THAT one is better and THAT one is not.


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## graudeejs (Feb 6, 2010)

you can't play games in VirtualBox, can't you?
I think that answers question


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## wonslung (Feb 6, 2010)

Also, technically you aren't supposed to use virtualbox with windows unless you own the license.  I know this is meaningless to some people but it is a very real situation.  Wine also gets much better performance for many things.  Why virtualize an entire OS when you just need one or two aps.  

I'm not saying virtualbox doesn't have it's place and isn't cool but they aren't the same thing.  It isn't even close to an apples to apples comparison.


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## adamk (Feb 6, 2010)

rden said:
			
		

> MS windows, seems there are (or will be) 2 ways: wine or virtualbox (- BTW both not yet BSD native).



What does that mean?  Both are native BSD binaries here and neither rely on the linux compat layer.

And, yes, wine is still quite relevent.  3D acceleration does not work (well) with VirtualBox yet.


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## gilinko (Feb 6, 2010)

Well, WINE can't run a completely simulated environment like OpenSolaris, OpenBSD, RHEL etc. In fact, it can only run windows binaries. So they are not even in the same category of software. Both will keep on existing(i do hope), and you will just have to use the one that suit you the best.

If you have a valid license, a vbox Windows session can be used for gaming. However 3D support is still experimental, but it is there. Performance is whole other issue, but you can play windows games


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## vermaden (Feb 7, 2010)

killasmurf86 said:
			
		

> you can't play games in VirtualBox, can't you?
> I think that answers question



I was playing Fallout 2 and Heroes III under both VirtualBox and WINE, strangely Fallout 2 does not work now neither under newer versions of VirtualBox nor WINE ...


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## aragon (Feb 7, 2010)

Well from my perspective Wine is still restricted to i386 arch, but VirtualBox works on i386 and amd64.


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## adamk (Feb 7, 2010)

wine works on amd64:  http://wiki.freebsd.org/Wine

Somewhat time consuming to setup, but straight forward enough.

EDIT: Also, VirtualBox from up-to-date ports does not work on -CURRENT at the moment (not sure about earlier FreeBSD versions).

Adam


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## hedwards (Feb 13, 2010)

aragon said:
			
		

> Well from my perspective Wine is still restricted to i386 arch, but VirtualBox works on i386 and amd64.


Wine only works when compiled with 32bit libraries and such. I have done it myself and it does work, it's just a bit of a pain and requires some aliases to make it convenient to use. I'd expect it to change over time as people have a chance to go in and fix the hold ups though.


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## wnsi-m2 (Feb 13, 2010)

I am with wonslung on this one. If you take out Windows and put in Linux your argument would eliminate the need for the Linux Compatibility Layer. Would you want to invoke an entire virtual machine just to watch a hulu video or would you want it to work in your browser in a quasi-native way? Virtualbox creates a virtual machine. Wine implements a windows system only. There will be room for both. And you never know what will happen now that Oracle has some say in Virtualbox development.


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## rden (Feb 14, 2010)

*thanks for the info*

Thanks for the different opinions.

Looks like both wine and vb have enough following using it in the differing manners to perhaps make them both worthwhile for a while longer.

For me though, not much real need, don't play games, if openoffice wasn't such a pig to install and operate because of it's poor deployment model I'd have almost zero need for Windows.


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