What makes this not possible without special emulation software? Will any OS ever be able to run any program??? Why or why not. Thank you.

I'm afraid this is the way things are... linux and windows, no you can't run the same software. It is like when you go into your favorite store and by a game or some software other software. You look on the box and ensure that software is compatible with your OS. It is like trying to mix toyota parts and ford car parts...they work similar...but that does not mean they'll fit.

The reason is in the coding of the operating system - different "languages". As you know, some Windows applications will run in Linux through a windows emulator. There are also DOS emulators. Simple files such as plain text, some sound and video files will runs in both systems. There are also programs for Windows and Linux and files created in or for those are interchangeable. Examples are Star Office, Real Player. Some applications programs will also allow files to be saved in other formats, eg Star office word and spreadsheet files can be saved in MS Office 97 compatible format. Other than that, there are both Windows and Linux versions of many popular web browsers (Netscape, Opera, Mozilla), applications, games (eg TuxRacer, Mahjong) and utilities.

First let me say that some windows apps can run on Linux. These apps are written in OS-independent programming languages(such as JAVA) but these programs run slower due to their use of a "viritual machine" which interperates the binary code to the specific OS' binary. So large programs are not commonly written in cross-OS languages. Also if you can get the source files to a program you can in most cases compile it in which OS you like(not in all cases). Now the reason why an app compiled under windows on a x86 cant run in Linux on a x86 is the APIs used by each os. The API is a set of methods used by programmers to make programming possible(I dare say) - f.ex. to open a window in windows you use a function implemented in windows. And there are thousands of these methods - and most important of all M$ won't release their source, so noone but them has the complete overwiev. Recreating the win32API in Linux is one hell of a job, Wine(a windows emulator) is good(but not too good) - but there is a new project which I've read about somevhere(...) called MainWin which is said to use the win-source code (so it will not be an OpenSource project) - this can turn out to be good!(?) Hope I didn't bore U too much.. :-)

Wine Dosemu VM Ware Win4Lin So far, I can't run Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer (shdocvw.dll is the culprit), Word 97 (runs but uses explorer to open and save files, thus it crashes) and wouldn't consider running everquest. I've played Net Settlers, Masters of Orion and Lemmings (though these were slow). Civ 1 crashed on the opening sequence. Winamp runs great. I've been told that Wine has no problems with Office 95 (but I don't have a copy to test this theory). I was planning to try out the Borland free compiler for windows in a dosemu window (it's command line only), but I haven't gotten around to it. Oh, Adobe Acrobat Reader crashed and burned, but there's a version for linux anyway. I've also heard Quicken runs well but money is a made up value so I don't use that. 8) The sad truth is, I don't use windows for much anyway, so I can't say I've tested everything.