Running BibleWorks 4 under Linux

After I asked about a Linux version of BibleWorks, Mark Rice of Hermeneutika wrote back and said that the software can be run on the Mac under a PC emulator, and suggested that the same thing might work in Unix. I described Wine and VMware to him, and he offered to send me a copy of BibleWorks 4 to test. How could I refuse?

The software arrived around mid-August. I installed BibleWorks under Windows 95 and tested it briefly, then couldn't resist trying it under Linux. Here are my results.

First attempts

My home PC doesn't quite meet the official system requirements for running VMware, so I decided to try Wine first. I didn't expect much, because I've heard some disparaging things about Wine over the past few years. I also didn't expect much because I hadn't used Wine much myself. I had only used it to try to run Juno (a failure) and Minesweeper (a success).

BibleWorks 4 was more of a success than a failure when I tried running it under Wine. I changed to the BibleWorks 4 directory on my Windows drive and typed wine bworks95.exe. Wine worked away for a while, then drew the BibleWorks window. The software runs, but not perfectly. Here are the problems I've encountered:

• The foreign language fonts do not display. Greek and Hebrew in BibleWorks don't look like Greek and Hebrew! However, this is because I don't have a TrueType font server set up. The Wine homepage has instructions on setting one up, though, and I hope to have success with it. Another possibility is using PostScript fonts instead of TrueType, but I haven't explored this yet.

• The Command Line Assistant doesn't work. The Advanced Search Engine does, but the mouse pointer disappears when it's moved into the ASE window and you must guess where it's pointing. I believe that this also is an X configuration problem which can be overcome.

These are not impossible obstacles to overcome. Overall BibleWorks 4 runs well under Wine, and I'll update this page as I learn more and overcome the problems.

Update: September 21, 1999
Over the past week or two, some new web sites have appeared which discuss setting up TrueType font servers under Linux. This one has a lot of detail, while this one applies more specifically to Red Hat 6, which comes with some of the work already done. You can also check out this site.

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