Point 11: Wine
Using wine, you can run different Windows programs from their place in the windows partition (programs completely correctly programed and internally using a short path to access to her different user files, favorites, temp files etc.). Different programs can't work this way because they use the long file paths and the paths are different in Windows (for example c:\Program Files\Boom\paf.exe), in Linux (for example /mnt/home/Program Files/Boom/paf.exe) and more different in Wine (for example /root/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Boom/paf.exe)!
(Remark for Linux newbies: directories with a name preceded by a point like ".wine" are hidden!)
Wine give you the possibility to reinstall your favorite programs under Wine in a pseudo "C drive". So your programs encounter their usual environment but are now really at a very different place: they are within the Linux file system in an artificial C-drive environment! But more important: it works! But don't be confused: using Wine, you have now 2 (TWO) C drives! From Unix you can access to the real C drive. From Windows you can't access the files from pseudo drive C!
A last group of programs uses special or secret features of Windows or of the used compiler or extremly complex structures, true type sets etc.: they start but not work or don't start at all!
you find your *.tgz-packet in the main directory "/" again
"open"
all files of the new package appear
holding the caps lock key pressed, mark all the files in blue
press the key "extract"
confirm the directory "/"
You can erase the *.tgz-packet!
Search with ROX filer in /usr/bin the file "winefile". You can activate it now or only slide the gearwheel icon on your desktop. After that, you can start it with the linked gearwheel icon from desktop! In this FileManager, in Windows 3.11 manner you find a direct thumb key to the Pseudo C (for the programs that you will try to reinstall!)! It is not your real C drive: you will find the real C drive using the thumb key "/" under /mnt/home ! You can find there your usual Windows programs under /mnt/home/Program File/etc.. and can try now to start them by clicking directly on the appropriate *.exe file! Remark: it is only possible with the WineFileManager "winefile" or appropriate icons!
Tip to start clickly your Windows programs:
You place the gear wheel icon of "winefile" on your desktop in the top icons line
With ROX filer, you search the *.exe file of your oldies in /mnt/home/Program File/etc.. and slide the icon of each oldie on the desktop next to the gear wheel icon of winefile so that at the end you will have a little collection on the desktop next to "winefile"!
After that, the start of Wine is really very easy: You slide the gear wheel icon of your Windows program on the icon of "winefile" (it covers the icon of winefile!) and the "winefile" opens exactly at the point in the file hierarchy where your *.exe program is: without searching! You only have to confirm and your old Windows program starts...
Wine contains a special text editor using the text format of Microsoft (the pure text format from Unix / Linux and from Microsoft are really different). See in your pseudo drive C:\Windows\etc. It is really usefull to read documentations for Windows programs without conversion directly under Linux!
Point 12: Usefull programs starting and working well from her place in the Microsoft partition without changes
Diamond Cut Magic Audio (http://www.diamondcut.de/pages/news.html#n0∞). This program is often included in promotional CD's of good computer magazines. It is a really great facility to convert old vinyls into what you want (the version, that I use, version 4.71, delivers itself wave files; you have to convert them yourself into MP3 etc... I suggest you use audacity ; but see also Sound Recording and general informations about music programs in Linux). What makes Magic Audio more than Audacity∞? It cleans your file of all typical problems with only one click pro problem category and find itself the begining point of each track! It is better to install it in the real C:\ - drive (usually /mnt/hda1 in linux, /mnt/home in puppy) because Magic Audio saves his very big files in his directory directly in C:/ : you can't save such mammothic files in the little file system of puppy!
