Taking into consideration that the End of Support Lifecycle for Microsoft Windows XP is closing in one might be confronted with the question whether it would be possible to keep existing hardware and installed software applications without having the necessity to upgrade the operating system (which eventually might be incompatible or requires higher investment). The session provides a brief overview of potential solutions and demonstrates quickly how to install and run Windows software on Linux.

2. Get Blogged by JoKi
http://jochen.kirstaetter.name
Family guy, geek, entrepreneur, software craftsman:
Visual FoxPro, C#, SQL Server, MySQL,
Linux consultant, Conference speaker

3. Linux is very mature, but
sometimes you need to run
Windows applications
REBOOT
At the beginning most users keep an existing
Windows installation and switch systems –
“best of both worlds”
JUST RUN IT
Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/ZTp0uA
After some time, staying in Linux gets more
important and it is only necessary to run one
or two specific Windows applications

4. Windows Software on Linux
REASONS
DECISIONS
SOLUTIONS
o
Budget in IT
o
Linux: Yes or No
o
Alternative Software
o
Cost of new licenses
o
Which solution
o
Remote Desktop
o
o
Cost of hardware
Using existing hardware
Performance impact
o
o
VMware Workstation
Cost of maintenance
o
o
o
Hardware / Network
o
Only Linux or Mac OS, too
o
VirtualBox
infrastructure
o
o
Software compatibility
o
o
o
CrossOver for Linux
o
Incompatibility with newer
versions of Windows
Technical support
VMware Player (Plus)
Wine
PlayOnLinux

5. There are plenty of equivalent or alternatively software
applications available on Linux
Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/14ExMPj

6. Keeping a native Windows OS at hand might be a first step
towards Linux on your desktop
Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/rnbvIM

7. Using an abstraction layer of native Windows API libraries
between software and operating system provides the
most familiar option in this scenario
Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/1iwPjhC

8. ALTERNATIVES
Commonly used software can be
replaced by alternative solutions:
Office: LibreOffice or OpenOffice
Browser: FireFox or Chrome
Mail: Thunberbird
Groupware: Zarafa
Images: Gimp
Messenger: Pidgin
VIRTUAL MACHINE
CROSSOVER
Requires Windows OS and license
No Windows OS necessary
Can run Windows applications
without rebooting
Can run Windows applications
without rebooting
Price varies between $0 and $229
for virtualisation and between $69
and $199 for Windows OS
Price varies between $0 and $49
Trial version for free
Software runs natively but
performance may vary
Some performance penalties
More: http://bit.ly/2aADpF
Legacy Application Support
No “Compatibility Mode”
More: http://bit.ly/S0gben

9. Now is the time...

10. Further information is available on my personal blog and I would like to draw your attention towards the
Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community (MSCC)
ADDRESS:
Flic en Flac
WEBSITE:
http://jochen.kirstaetter.name/
EMAIL:
PHONE:
lugm@ios.mu
+230 5490 7606
@jkirstaetter
jochen.kirstaetter
IOS INDIAN OCEAN SOFTWARE LTD. – http://www.ios.mu/