Crashdamage Posted May 19, 2003 Report Share Posted May 19, 2003 Netraverse just announced Win4Lin 5. New features include support for Direct X, Novell clients, Winsock2, better sound support and more. No Win2000/XP yet, but they're working on that for a later release. Win4Lin 5 should be really nice. I'll be upgrading my Win4Lin install in the next day or two. I expect no problems at all, I've never had a problem with Win4Lin, but if there are I'll post them here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonMage Posted May 19, 2003 Report Share Posted May 19, 2003 Please tell how it works with directX, especially newer directX such as 8.1 or 9. If this actually works better than wineX then it would make gaming a lot simpler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crashdamage Posted May 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2003 Quoted from www.netraverse.com: "New Features in Win4Lin 5.0 Increased Network Support - NeTraverse has implemented the Winsock2 standard for the default network stack. This will improve performance for a number of users who don?t choose to use the virtual network card and second IP address. Improved Audio Integration - The ability to use audio daemons such as esd, artsd, and our own nnaudio network audio plugin. These features will help integrate into the KDE desktop or improve remote sound capabilities. Improved Video Performance - Win4Lin now has the ability to run Direct X applications that do not require direct hardware access. As our users give us feedback we will include a list of Direct X applications that run well on Win4Lin. New Supported Distributions - NeTraverse has been committed to supporting the latest Linux distributions. Our latest supported distributions include Lindows, Xandros, Gentoo and many others." After I upgrade, I'll see if I have any Windows stuff that use DirectX and try them out. Probably not - I'm not a gamer, (no time) and I always avoided DirectX crap like a bad odor. Just another attempt by MS to control everything. DirectX was always a reboot waiting to happen anyway. BTW, in a post in their mailing list, one of the developers mentioned that DirectX w/hardware support is in the works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crashdamage Posted May 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2003 Did the upgrade to Win4Lin 5.0 last night. I took advantage of a limited-time offer to upgrade for $30. Didn't really *need* to upgrade, but I wanted to support NeTravese for doing such a great job, especially with customer support. Went perfectly, as expected. Everything works exactly as before but a shade faster, meaning Win4Lin 5 is very quick indeed. NeTraverse claims and apparently rightfully so, that video performance is improved, particularly drawing bitmaps. That includes everything from photos to toolbars, so a nice if subtle improvement there. I've now upgraded my original installation at least 5-6 times without reinstalling from scratch, probably more, I haven't counted. It started as Win4Lin3 and has now been upgraded to v4 and now v5 with several minor upgrades in between with zero problems. Very good. Haven't tried the DirectX support. I don't have or need anything that uses it. Besides, I only have DirectX 4 installed and no intention of upgrading, so I'll leave testing DirectX support for someone else here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted May 20, 2003 Report Share Posted May 20, 2003 If I had the $90 (or somewhere in that range) to shell out to try this, I would consider it, but unfortunately I don't :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emh Posted May 20, 2003 Report Share Posted May 20, 2003 If this now has MIDI input/output support, I'll gladly shell out the $90 for it. Who can I ask to see if it has it or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crashdamage Posted May 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2003 emh, See my quote above from the NeTravese website announcement. Notice there's no specific mention of midi there in the part about "Improved Audio Integration", but I'm sure it's in the works. You can ask the developers questions directly on the Win4Lin-Users mailing list. They check in and answer questions there several times a day. There is no more helpful software company around than NeTraverse. Go there, leave a post, and you'll get the answers you need as to if, when or how. Here's the links: Win4Lin website: www.netraverse.com To subscribe to the Win4Lin-Users mailing list: win4lin-users-feed@netraverse.com The list address: win4lin-users@netraverse.com The list archives: https://www.netraverse.com:9100/lists/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted May 20, 2003 Report Share Posted May 20, 2003 Crashdamage wrote: Did the upgrade to Win4Lin 5.0 last night. I took advantage of a limited-time offer to upgrade for $30. Didn't really *need* to upgrade, but I wanted to support NeTravese for doing such a great job, especially with customer support. How did you manage that? I am a registered win4Lin 4.0 user. I logged in on Net Traverse's site and they want to soak me $89.00 for the download of 5.0. How do you go about getting a discount on an upgrade if you're a current registered win4Lin user? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emh Posted May 20, 2003 Report Share Posted May 20, 2003 emh,See my quote above from the NeTravese website announcement. Notice there's no specific mention of midi there in the part about "Improved Audio Integration", but I'm sure it's in the works. You can ask the developers questions directly on the Win4Lin-Users mailing list. They check in and answer questions there several times a day. There is no more helpful software company around than NeTraverse. Go there, leave a post, and you'll get the answers you need as to if, when or how. Here's the links: Win4Lin website: www.netraverse.com To subscribe to the Win4Lin-Users mailing list: win4lin-users-feed@netraverse.com The list address: win4lin-users@netraverse.com The list archives:https://www.netraverse.com:9100/lists/ The reason why I asked is because I looked at their documentation, and they also have a detailed list of what doesn't work. They didn't mention MIDI there, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crashdamage Posted May 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2003 pmpatrick, I'll post a link to the cheap upgrade later when I'm at home. NeTravese sends some special offers to mailing list members first sometimes, and that's one of 'em. emh, I think that list is kinda like Linux hardware lists - just 'cause something's not there, doesn't necessarily mean it does or doesn't work. But in this case, I'm sure I've seen somewhere - maybe in the manual? - that midi is not yet supported. And I think a while back there was a post from a developer that said, or at least hinted at, that they were working on it. Search the mailing list archives. If you really want the inside skinny on what's happening with Win4Lin and midi, or anything else for that matter, post to the mailing list. You'll find out a lot more than just going through the documentation - they're not gonna give away any secrets there about what's under development. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crashdamage Posted May 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2003 Here's the link for the upgrade deal: http://www.netraverse.com/upgrade/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted May 21, 2003 Report Share Posted May 21, 2003 Thanks Crashdamage. I emailed them previously inquiring about the upgrade and they sent me an email back within 15 min apologizing for the oversight and giving the link for the upgrade discount. Pretty nice folks. Plan to install the upgrade tonight. Will post back with my results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonMage Posted May 21, 2003 Report Share Posted May 21, 2003 The reason I asked for directx compatibility is not about games per se, but this apps in windows that I really hate to lose, called Yamaha syxg-50 and Roland VSC-88 (both are software midi synth). If win4lin 5 can use those two apps without any problem, I can enjoy my midi collection nicely. I think syxg50 requires directx to work while vsc88 have an option for directsound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JaseP Posted May 27, 2003 Report Share Posted May 27, 2003 Most games require hardware directX support, which this version of Win4Lin does not support. If something only requires software directX support than Win4Lin should do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emh Posted May 27, 2003 Report Share Posted May 27, 2003 I broke down and bought a copy anyway (well, I got an e-mail announcing a deal for only $60. Had to take advantage of it ;-) ). I installed the Yamaha XG synthesizer on it, and it seems to work okay for smaller MIDI files. For larger ones, it tends to chop them up a bit. However, this might be due to my system, as it is relatively slow (500 MHz AMD processor with 192 MB of RAM). If you have a faster system, it should work okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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