Cygwin is a great application. What it allows you to do is bring the command line environment and many commands from the Linux world onto a Windows machine. If you have no choice but to use a Windows-based computer, yet you wish to have the power and flexibility of a Unix system, then Cygwin is for you.

Today, Lina Software released the source code for LINA under the GPL v2. LINA enables Linux binaries to run with native look and feel on Windows, Mac, and Linux, without recompiling.

VirtualBox may be free, but you still have to own a copy of Windows. If you’re not willing to shell out a few hundred dollars to Microsoft but still want to run Windows on your Intel-based Mac, there is one more alternative: CrossOver from CodeWeavers costs $40 and runs Windows applications on Mac OS X — without Windows.

Lina is a GNU/Linux virtual machine that allows users to run applications with the native look of their host operating system. It also lets you install applications with a mouse-click, no need to compile software from source code.

There are several ways to run Windows programs on Linux (virtualisation, WINE) and vice versa really isn't a problem either with Cygwin, or better yet, native ports thanks to the Windows variants of Gtk+ and Qt. Still, what if Windows support was built straight into the Linux kernel? Is something like that even possible?

There are many options for running Windows programs on the Mac. Boot Camp, for instance is included with OS X for installing Windows on a separate partition. Parallels VMware and Sun offer virtualization software that let you run your Windows programs without logging out of OS X. And then there's Wine.

By default, Windows applications which run through Wine don't look very well, since that's the look and feel of Windows 98 at best, to mention nothing about XP. So what follows are a few easy steps which will allow to change the way applications ran through Wine look like.

CodeWeavers has released the latest version of its CrossOver software for Mac and Linux users. If you want to try working without Windows but can't live without a must-have Windows app, CrossOver just might be the answer.

By itself Wine is very usable but you need a fair amount of expertise or lots of time to get your favourite Windows application running correctly. This is why we have companies like Bordeaux Group and CodeWeavers who sell commercially supported Wine version or management tools that make our lives a little easier.