ofont@helios.acomp.usf.edu wrote:
<snip>
"$800 dollar license for 50 students paid by the university's department
and provides all the development tools need to do all the class
assignments. "
<snip>
"I want to fix it and install Linux on it so that i can start my new
adventure of discover in a Microsft-free environment."
<snip>
Funny you should mention the above: I've been working on this today and
I just now was able to compile a native win32 windows executable (a GUI
desktop app that runs on my wife's NT box) using only *free* Open Source
development tools running entirely as native programs on my Linux
machine. No microsoft products whatsoever were required. No WINE
needed, no virtual machine, no emulators, no license fees, no other OS
but Linux.
I used gcc as a cross-compiler. I configured it to run as a Linux app
yet produce windows (win32) object code. MinGW (compiled by the
*special* gcc) was used to provide windows headers, import libraries and
binutils, and wxWindows( also compiled by the *special* gcc) was used to
provide a cross-platform GUI app development framework. This gave me a
set of Linux based development tools that can produce windows
applications in addition to the regular Linux tools for Linux apps. If
anyone is interested in the details, email me off list.
I used the setup to compile and link a native windows .exe. I copied it
to my wife's NT box and it launched and ran looking just like a windows
app. It all worked.
Now, with a suitable makefile, one could just type "make" and produce
two programs -- a native Linux binary AND a native windows binary --
from the same c++ source code. All done in the comfort and freedom of
your Linux OS.
I know that one can do cross platform stuff with Java and some of the
scripting languages but doing it with c++ and producing a stand-alone
running-on-the-bare-metal binary is so satisfying.
Ed.
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