I successfully loaded Windows Streets and Trips into my N810, but could not get it to run. Clicking on the .exe file brought forth a "do not recognize" message.

Questions:

1. Can this program (or any other Windows program) run on the N810?

2. If so, how?

Thanks,

Davott

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=...1b2e210b0c8338

Maemo is a Linux OS. Linux has windows emulators like Wine, and Virtual Machines.

Can you link to a working MS Windows emulator for Maemo (on the tablets)? I must have missed it.

To give a short and simple answer for beginners who do not understand this yet and have not encountered a linux operating system before, linux does not use the same types of programs as windows.

Long answer:
Just as your windows program will not work on a mac, a windows program will not work on linux or vice versa unless you have an emulator or virtual machine. The maemo linux-based operating system has even more restrictions, where a linux program has to be "edited" so that it works fully and looks nice on the tablet devices. Thus far, an emulator/virtual machine has not been created or "ported" (a term used to describe the editing of a linux program to make it work on the tablets) because of hardware restrictions, time restrictions, and (I'm sure) limitations in the open source nature of the maemo operating system.

elimoon8 = gentleman and/or scholar

elmoon8 = a gentleman and a scholar.

way to say what I said.

To the OP:
As a further point, the N810 (and many handheld devices) use an ARM-based processor, as opposed to x86-based, like most desktop/laptop computers, so unless a program has been designed for mobile devices that use ARM, it definitely won't work. (The program's binary representation would be in the wrong "language" for the processor.) The exception to this is Open Source programs, many of which can simply be recompiled to run on a different processor architecture. With proprietary programs, this is not an option unless the vendor decides to do it themselves... which they generally don't. If you find an Open Source program that is available for the Linux desktop, but not for Maemo, you can always put a polite note on the forums asking if someone will port it (if it's particularly complicated, offering a small cash incentive can make it quicker :P).

Not quite. Wine stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. It runs the code natively on the CPU but provides an environment for the code that resembles the Windows environment to a certain degree.
Virtual Machines virtualization usually only emulates the hardware. The code runs natively on the CPU.
So for both solutions you'd still need a compatible CPU. Windows only runs on x86-compatible CPUs, while the tablets run on ARM CPU.
There are solutions which include emulating the CPU, but this is no longer virtualization and gets really slow. If you're lucky you could get Windows 95 running on the tablet, albeit unusably sluggish.
Bochs and qemu are such emulators.