4 ms·

Anyway care to discuss Wine vs VirtualBox? I've been playing with Photshop in VirtualBox lately, and it's really slow.

computerex 9y ago
They are not even remotely the same thing. WINE is a compatibility layer that translates the Win32 API calls into POSIX equivalent. VirtualBox is virtualization where the whole OS is being virtualized.
- guelo 9y ago
  I would say that they are remotely the same thing: a way to run windows software on unixes.
  - 0x0 9y ago
    Ah, yes, just like how linux and windows are remotely the same thing: a way to run software on cpus. ;)
    - earenndil 9y ago
      Linux/windows are more the same thing than wine and virtualbox are.
- BugsJustFindMe 9y ago
  The OS isn't being virtualized in VirtualBox, the hardware is. VirtualBox pretends to be a second computer inside your computer, but that second computer still needs its own real copy of an operating system.
  - computerex 9y ago
    My bad, you are right.
klodolph 9y ago
Both options should be very fast, but Wine will generally have lower overhead (no hypervisor) and in some cases the app will run faster in Wine than it does on Windows. In VirtualBox the app will always run slower than it does on just Windows. Wine also gives programs much better access to the GPU.
- mderazon 9y ago
  > in some cases the app will run faster in Wine than it does on Windows. How is that possible ?
  - jhasse 9y ago
    For example Linux filesystems being a lot faster in some cases.
  - cookiecaper 9y ago
    It's in the name -- Wine Is Not [an] Emulator. ;) Everything is 100% native and executed directly on the processor, there is no intermediate layer or translation occurring like it would for a VM. When you run Wine, you are not running Windows, you're running unrelated code that just happens to do the things that Windows programs expect. For example, when a Windows program asks for a window, it asks in the Win32 API. Wine knows this API and responds to the request with an X11 window, like any other program on your system would get. Wine does this for almost all Windows API calls; it takes them and handles them in a way that makes sense for a POSIX system. The application being executed never realizes it's not on Windows because the API is fully satisfied, and Wine makes sure that function calls that mean "give me a window", "make a sound", and "write to a file", etc., all do things that make sense, just like MS Windows does when the same applications make the same requests on a system that runs MS Windows. Because Wine has its own implementations of these functions and isn't just executing Windows code on a virtual processor, Wine's version of the function may be faster or slower than the MS version because it may satisfy the request with more or less work. All that matters is that the implementations meet the caller's expectations.
hollander 9y ago
It depends on what you do, which version. Photoshop CS2 or CS4 should be a breeze on most systems, but you need RAM to make it work. 4GB is a minimum, 8 or 12 is much better. About 5 years ago I tried Wine with Photoshop, but couldn't get it to work. After a while the windows fell apart, so to speak. Buttons failed and so on. After that I moved to VB and that is for me the most reliable, especially with the right snapshots available. That is: right after installing Windows, then after configuring it, then after installing Photoshop. The option to go back to a previous state is great.

They are not even remotely the same thing. WINE is a compatibility layer that translates the Win32 API calls into POSIX equivalent. VirtualBox is virtualization where the whole OS is being virtualized.

guelo 9y ago
I would say that they are remotely the same thing: a way to run windows software on unixes.
- 0x0 9y ago
  Ah, yes, just like how linux and windows are remotely the same thing: a way to run software on cpus. ;)
  - earenndil 9y ago
    Linux/windows are more the same thing than wine and virtualbox are.
BugsJustFindMe 9y ago
The OS isn't being virtualized in VirtualBox, the hardware is. VirtualBox pretends to be a second computer inside your computer, but that second computer still needs its own real copy of an operating system.
- computerex 9y ago
  My bad, you are right.

klodolph 9y ago

Both options should be very fast, but Wine will generally have lower overhead (no hypervisor) and in some cases the app will run faster in Wine than it does on Windows. In VirtualBox the app will always run slower than it does on just Windows. Wine also gives programs much better access to the GPU.

mderazon 9y ago
> in some cases the app will run faster in Wine than it does on Windows. How is that possible ?
- jhasse 9y ago
  For example Linux filesystems being a lot faster in some cases.
- cookiecaper 9y ago
  It's in the name -- Wine Is Not [an] Emulator. ;) Everything is 100% native and executed directly on the processor, there is no intermediate layer or translation occurring like it would for a VM. When you run Wine, you are not running Windows, you're running unrelated code that just happens to do the things that Windows programs expect. For example, when a Windows program asks for a window, it asks in the Win32 API. Wine knows this API and responds to the request with an X11 window, like any other program on your system would get. Wine does this for almost all Windows API calls; it takes them and handles them in a way that makes sense for a POSIX system. The application being executed never realizes it's not on Windows because the API is fully satisfied, and Wine makes sure that function calls that mean "give me a window", "make a sound", and "write to a file", etc., all do things that make sense, just like MS Windows does when the same applications make the same requests on a system that runs MS Windows. Because Wine has its own implementations of these functions and isn't just executing Windows code on a virtual processor, Wine's version of the function may be faster or slower than the MS version because it may satisfy the request with more or less work. All that matters is that the implementations meet the caller's expectations.

hollander 9y ago

It depends on what you do, which version. Photoshop CS2 or CS4 should be a breeze on most systems, but you need RAM to make it work. 4GB is a minimum, 8 or 12 is much better. About 5 years ago I tried Wine with Photoshop, but couldn't get it to work. After a while the windows fell apart, so to speak. Buttons failed and so on. After that I moved to VB and that is for me the most reliable, especially with the right snapshots available. That is: right after installing Windows, then after configuring it, then after installing Photoshop. The option to go back to a previous state is great.