how to run a windows exe from unix?

[kunal kulkarni]

Hi,
I have a windows exe which can be accessed from the unix machine (The drive is mounted on unix box)
I wish to run this exe from unix. can you suggest me some of the ways to do this?
Thanks in advance,

Kunal

[Peter Johnson]

Unix or Linux? Exactly what distro and version? Most Linux distros include Wine in their package manager and you can use that to run various EXE files. See http://www.winehq.org/
Also, I hope your machine runs on Intel or you are probably out of luck...

[Tim Holloway]

There are at least 3 options in a Linux environment. How many of them work in a Unix environment depend on which Unix and what hardware you use:

1. Run the app on a windows machine but "dial in" from the Linux box using its Windows Remote Desktop client. You might consider this as VERY loosely-coupled multip-processing if you like. And don't laugh, because the on-board video on my Windows machine is so crappy that I do exactly this just because I get better video quality viewing via Remote Desktop from Linux than I do using direct video output from the Windows box.

2. Run the app under Wine. The problem with Wine is that since it's not a product blessed by Microsoft it will always lag the Windows "state of the art". Then again, I use the equivalent of Office 97 anyway. State of the art is only important for apps that demand state of the art. However, you may encounter problems with drivers.

3. Find a native Linux (Unix) version of the app or an equivalent native app such as OpenOffice in place of MS-Office. In some rare cases, you can actually find the same app for both Windows and Linux, although this is more common with open-source software that with commercial products. On the other hand, as far as I am concerned, Gnucash blows the doors off of Quicken and you'll have to spend a lot of money and effort to equal the PDF tools for Linux on a Windows machine. What mostly doesn't translate are games (although this is changing) and Photoshop - which would worry me a lot more if I had the talent to use it. Oh. And TurboTax.

The only things I ever run on Windows these days unless business demands it are TurboTax and MS Flight Simulator. And reportedly the Linux flight simulator is pretty good itself. Just never got around to trying it.

[kunal kulkarni]

@Peter: sorry for the delayed response. I was outo of office. here are the details:
Unix box: IBM AIX version 6.1 (Please note it is NOT Linux!)
Windows: Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition; OS version: 5.2.3790 Service Pack 2 Build 3790

the exe resides on unix at /home/kunal/win/sample.exe
the corresponding mapped drive of windows is V:\sample.exe (V drive corresponds to /home/kunal/win/)
My interest is only to run the program from base platform of UNIX and not from windows (I know the fact the calling unix from windows is much simpler!)

Thanks,
Kunal

[kunal kulkarni]

Hi Tim,
Thank you for the detailed response.
option 1: I have a constraint to run the exe from source as UNIX (the details I gave in last response). unfortunately, its not a linux box.
option 2: I will learn more about wine. I was wondering if I can directly call a windows exe from unix with wine. do you know the command for this?
option 3: my target exe is a PLM (Product Lifecycle Managment) specfic and the software is not avaiable for unix platform, but is only for windows. so I cannot find its unix equivalent.

Thanks buddy,
Kunal

[Tim Holloway]

About 97% of the reasons why anyone should have anything to do with IBM are now obsolete, so I'd concentrate on the one remaining: Support. I'd check with IBM and make them earn their keep.

As far as I know, AIX runs exclusively on IBM POWER hardware. That means that you have a major hardware compatibility issue at the CPU level. I don't think WINE will emulate Intel CPUs on non-Intel hardware. At best you MIGHT be able to run a virtual Windows machine using QEMU, which can emulate many popular CPUs, although I don't know if it's available on AIX. Assuming you can do so, you will of course need a Windows License.

If you're at liberty to name product names, I might be able to come up with a reasonably close native alternative to the Windows product.

From the sound of it, you have been arbitrarily shackled. My standard advice when the Powers impose unreasonable restrictions is to update one's CV, since aside from making the current assignment a misery, that sort of attitude is likely to result in a long series of bad business decisions of similar stripe. Which doesn't bode well for their long-term profitability or for an enjoyable workplace.

[kunal kulkarni]

Tim,
I think i will have to give-up with the idea of running a windows exe from unix based on your response.

Kunal