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Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 12:58:18 +0100 (MET)
From: "Christoph P. Kukulies" <kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de>
Subject: Re: Win32
In-reply-to: <199603161831.KAA03892@rah.star-gate.com>
To: hasty@rah.star-gate.com (Amancio Hasty Jr.)
Cc: narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Reply-to: Christoph Kukulies <kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de>
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[Subject shortened]

> 
> 
> Two things that  can can attract more individuals to  FreeBSD:
> 
> o ability to run Win32 applications -- hows the Willows Project coming along?

I think the main problem with Willows is performance. Apps are run under
an interpreter (xwin) either interpreted or 'native'.
I have run winmine.exe and sol.exe and though they run quite correct
performance isn't something that knocks you off of your socks.

Also I think one would have to dump X11 in favor of a native Win32 graphics 
kernel or build a Win32 graphics kernel into X.

I don't know whether a different approach like running PE format and
other MS .exe formats native under FreeBSD would be feasable.

When MS developed NT they must have been faced with a similar problem
but they solved it with convincing performance. And didn't they promise
us POSIX layers and X11 and what not when I recall the first overhead
foils that had been presented by DEC and NT apostels a couple of years ago?


> 
>    A few people that I have spoken  to have said that if they could run
>    win32 apps they would use freebsd. The funny thing is that I didn't
>    notice a hesitation on their part 8)
> 
>    Another reason, is to attract Win32 application developers to FreeBSD.
> 
>    Perhaps, I am naive however I think that many would love to dump 
>    Win3.1 and Win95.

[fast internet connection / ISDN issues deleted]

> 
> 
>    Amancio	
> 

--Chris Christoph P. U. Kukulies kuku@gil.physik.rwth-aachen.de