[AccessD] Cheap windows

Hans-Christian Andersen hans.andersen at phulse.com
Sun Jul 1 22:47:17 CDT 2012


> I need virtual machines which run a Foxpro for Windows application purchased from a vendor.  I purchased these $30 licenses for Windows to run in those virtual machines.  I already have one of the VMs up and running one of these cheap licenses.

Well, you have options.  FoxPro for Windows can run fine under Wine + Linux/FreeBSD. Also, FoxPro 2.6 for Unix can be installed on Linux and FreeBSD using the Intel Binary Compatibility Standard (ibcs2) support library.

> If you are talking about Linux, then free isn't exactly free since I have to spend dozens if not hundreds of hours getting myself up to speed on something I don't use, then getting them to run (running Linux in Hyper-V was non-trivial, I have tried), then getting something like Wine to emulate windows then dealing with any headaches of incompatibility...

We could be talking about FreeBSD as well and, yes, they are both truly free in every sense of the word. If you haven't got the spare time to learn something new or your specifications are too restricting, then this is obviously going to have to be a problem you throw money at. Also, I certainly can't speak about HyperV - it is a Microsoft technology, so we know who is at issue if other operating systems are unable to run under it. :) There are plenty of other options you could choose to go with instead (VirtualBox, VMWare, etc).

Regarding Wine, the great thing about free is that it only takes 10-15 minutes of your time to actually try it to find out if there are any incompatibility issues (but, imo, I'm 99.9% certain you won't have any issues).

In any event, $120 may have worth it to you and it may be cheap compared to what you are used to paying, but it's still not cheap overall. To put things into perspective, $30 is the same price Apple charges for their entire operating system without limitations and Apple users are the ones we normally associate with spending too much money on things.

I'm not recommending you do anything differently, I just think it's a shame you have to spend that much money on something that is a product with deliberate limitations just to run a single application on each, when there are free alternatives out there which are just as good (or better, depending on who you ask).

Hans


On 2012-07-01, at 4:44 AM, jwcolby wrote:

> > I assumed we could  :)  what's the problem?
> 
> I'm confused.
> 
> I need virtual machines which run a Foxpro for Windows application purchased from a vendor.  I purchased these $30 licenses for Windows to run in those virtual machines.  I already have one of the VMs up and running one of these cheap licenses.
> 
> >>> when you can have a full, server and desktop grade operating system for completely free.
> 
> If you are talking about Linux, then free isn't exactly free since I have to spend dozens if not hundreds of hours getting myself up to speed on something I don't use, then getting them to run (running Linux in Hyper-V was non-trivial, I have tried), then getting something like Wine to emulate windows then dealing with any headaches of incompatibility...
> 
> A $30 license for the real thing (Windows) looks mighty fine to me!
> 
> John W. Colby
> Colby Consulting
> 
> Reality is what refuses to go away
> when you do not believe in it
> 
> 
> On 7/1/2012 6:09 AM, Hans-Christian Andersen wrote:
>> I assumed we could  :)  what's the problem?
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> Hans-Christian Andersen
>> 
>> 
>> On 30 Jun 2012, at 13:26, jwcolby <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com> wrote:
>> 
>>>> when you can have a full, server and desktop grade operating system for completely free.
>>> 
>>> Which runs 3rd party windows apps?  I assume we are not talking Linux here?
>>> 
>>> John W. Colby
>>> Colby Consulting
>>> 
>>> Reality is what refuses to go away
>>> when you do not believe in it
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 6/30/2012 3:59 PM, Hans-Christian Andersen wrote:
>>>> when you can have a full, server and desktop grade operating system for completely free.
>>> 
>>> 
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> 
> 
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