[4] The Win4Lin 9x/Pro (henceforth the only technology discussed in this section) operates by running Windows applications in a virtual machine.
[2][5] In addition to the convenience this offers, Computerworld found in their 2002 review that Win4Lin gained significant performance over VMware by using the native Linux filesystem, but also noted that this approach (unlike VMware's) limited the installation of only one version of Windows on a Win4Lin machine.
[7] Win4Lin was initially based on Merge software originally developed at Locus Computing Corporation, and which changed hands several times until it ended in the assets of NeTraverse, which were purchased in 2005 by Win4Lin, Inc.[8][9] Later that year, they introduced Win4Lin Pro, which was based on a “tuned” version of QEMU and KQEMU, and it hosted Windows NT-versions of Windows.
[citation needed] Many users reported that the 9x version ran windows software at near-native speed, even on quite low-powered machines, such as Pentium-IIs.
[citation needed] Nicholas Petereley praised Win4Lin in two of his columns in the year 2000, for its significantly faster performance than its competitor VMware.