On Oct 4,  9:09pm, Hawke wrote:

> I've got a rather stupid question,
> why not create an API that can allow winblows programs
> to run natively (not a VM or sim/emulator).

That's what WINE is all about.  See http://www.winehq.com/.

> would this not be a good marketing tool for Linux as a whole?
> A lot of those winblows programs might actually run better 
> under a *nix system in that case.

I have heard of at least one instance where this is the case.  There's
a proprietary program used by (but not written by) the former Cygnus
organization which reportedly runs faster on Linux using WINE than
on Windows.  I have not verified this claim for myself, however.

Also, see:

    http://kt.linuxcare.com/kernel-traffic/kt20001002_87.epl#2

Kevin