Problems With Moving Beyond Windows

[Donald Darden]

I've read a lot of posts were people moan and groan about Microsoft and its policies, and their anger or frustration with having to consider moving on to Vista.  As we all know, there has been a tremendous backlash from people who have found Vista to be lest than alluring, and who see no substantial gain in being forced to upgrade.  But still, many people have made the transition, and some have been happy with the results, although factoring in a new PC capable of funning Vista full bore has probably helped in that regard.

There is a lot of interest in the eye candy that Vista adds, and correspondingly, people on these forums have been interested in adding the same benefit to XP, which mostly means taking advantage of new video freatures that have become available in recent generations of video cards and drivers.  Of course being eye candy, it does not necessarily mean any improvement in productivity, but it all looks good.

And there has been much interest in getting away from Windows altogether.  Let's face it, we all have had our reasons for disliking Microsoft, but Windows still rules the world.  There are decent alternatives out there, but we have no sense of direction when it comes to where to go next. Linux?  Which flavor?  MacOS?  Or are we going to only consider approaches that allow us to drag our Windows applications along with us?

I've made my own elections, and followed them to their natural conclusions, and really, I find my solutions are really that:  Solutions.  I'm not plagued with the same uncertainties that I had before, and would elect to do the same thing again.  And if you read my posts elsewhere on this forum, I reveal all.

But my solution does not seem to be drawing much interest.  In fact, I see many posts that indicate that people are generally hung up on two factors.  One is a dependency of having a version of the PowerBasic compilers that will run natively on LInux, which has already been dubbed PB/Linux, and the other is finding some way to run the present PowerBasic compilers natively under Linux, along with all their other Windows applications.

Does it have to be Linux?  Well, Linux is primarily Open Source, meaning it is less than cheap.  But some people would be willing to consider any OS that gives them the same advantages, even MacOS, although that entails buying a new system to go with the OS.

Now here is the thing that gets me:  There are already ways to run PowerBasic compilers under Linux.  The PB/DOS compiler has long been known to work well under DOSEMU and similar schemes, but more recently, it has been shown that PB/CC and PB/Win can be made to run under WINE as well.  And this means that the produced executables can be made to work there in the WINE environment.

The other option is to actually install a vritual environment manager and install Windows in that, along with your desired applications, which can include PB/CC and PB/Win, and just continue to use and enjoy Windows as a guest system.  This actually works very well, surprisingly so.

So two solutions do present themselves, but still the lament is heard that there needs to be a PB/Linux solution before some people will get on board.  Pardon me, but what is your real problem? 

I think I figured it out.  WINE is suppose to be better than a Virtual Machine approach because WINE discards Windows outright, while VM lets you bring the whole thing along with you.  But PB/Linux would be even better because it eliminates even WINE, with it suggested association with Windows.

I think this is all backlash against Microsoft.  People feel like they have been led by the nose long enough, and as a sign of their frustration and anger, they want to be shed of all aspects of Microsoft's OS, but they still need their favorite apps and games.

Hey, that's just being ruled by your emotions.  There are things I like about Ubuntu, the Linux distro I finally elected to use, and there are things to like about Windows.  The VM approach lets me use the best of both worlds.  I found the WINE approach too demanding on my time because you have to customize it to get the best results on a per application basis, and I did not think that should be necessary.  But if it works for you, then why should I quarrel with your choice?

But I think it is unreasonable to expect that there will be a PB/Linux in the near future.  The market just does not appear to support it, despite the fact that some people keep reintroducing the idea and pledging that they would buy a copy themselves..  I could be wrong, but if I were PowerBasic, and forced to consider the markets before me, which include OOP support, more powerful graphics and sound capabilities, .NET, Vista, and Windows7, and whether to attempt Linux or MacOS as well, I would leave Linux and MacOS on the back burner for a later time.  Despite how we might think of Microsoft, people are not deserting Windows in volume, they are only expressing their displeasure by trying to stay with XP, but that is still in the Windows game, and money in M$ pocket.