I need to be sure that Wine will be able to run some of my XP applications before I commit to linux, so I installed Lucid Puppy 525 ( a cut down version of Lucid) and Wine - the default install version is set to v1.1.43, so that wasted a lot of time. I then installed Wine v1.3.13 , since the stable v1.2 wasn't on offer. I'm going to need Java Runtime Environment, so I started by downloading and installing that - it installed OK but noted that libmawt.so , libodbcinst.so and libodbc.so were missing. Moving on ... I downloaded the installation package for BitMeter2, and ran the installer, which seemed to work OK, and I can see in WineFile: /root/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Codebox/BitMeter/BitMeter2.exe I double-click it and nothing happens. WinFile > File > Execute> ... did nothing. Delete and Rename have not been implemented, and there is no Paste function at all, which makes file manipulation really hard. Closing sub-windows in the WineFile window doesn't re-render the window properly. I tried using WineProgMan, but I couldn't get that to do anything beyond creating an empty Program Group. So I turned to the console, moved to the directory holding the .exe, and tried : wine BitMeter2 err:mscoree:CLRMetaHost_Get_Run_Time is missing L"v1.1.4322" runtime - install the Windows version of Mono I had a choice between Mono26 and Mono28, and installed Mono28 which is actually v2.8.1 . but it still errored - a bug report implies support for .NET Runtime 1 has been dropped, and v2.8.1 doesn't work, so moving on ... Installed AccessManager2, and again from WineFile double-clicking didn't work, so from the terminal: wine AccessManager2 err:assertion at marshall.c:2305 condition 'klass' not met err:ntdll.RtIpWaitForCriticalSection loader section was timed out. Moving on to something simpler ... CPU-ID is a simple little executable that gives info on the CPU and RAM. wine cpuz.exe This at least rendered a window, but then produced so many error messages that I couldn't even count them. Then I tried Putty.exe and tried a simple telnet to my website, and the errors just poured out. I see from the FAQs that there is no support for unusual Windows drivers in Wine, so my gadget that converts analog TV signals to digital in MS WBM video format is unlikely to work, meaning no watching TV on the monitor. My hopes of a quick and easy switch over to Linux-Wine are rapidly fading, but since I'm completely new to this, perhaps I have made a ghastly error somewhere ? Yes, I know its only beta release, but if WinFile and WineProgman don't work, how was it ever released at all ? Dave