There have been lots of posts here, and around the 'Net, about Poser on Linux, so I finally decided to give it a try. Wasn't hard, but the info out there is scattered, fragmented in that nothing covers the entire process, and some is out-dated enough to be misleading. So thought I'd do everyone a favour and put it here (despite this cra**y FCKeditor)...

I used Poser 6 as that's the latest version that I have.

I installed Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) - any recent Linux would probably do, but Ubuntu already has a new enough version of Wine pre-installed, plus the ability to read and write Windows' NTFS, auto-mount of Windows drives, etc.

Configure your graphics card(s) such that you can get hardware accelerated graphics supported, this will more than likely mean you will need to install your graphics card's manufacturer's proprietary driver. (You do NOT need to have a graphics card capable of Linux Desktop Display Enhancements to pull this off as some have noted - mine will not enable Enhancements as it doesn't have enough hardware assist but runs Poser 6 fine.)

Install IEs4Linux - the browser is not needed per se, but installs most of the dll's needed for Poser (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/ies4linux).

[ I needed IE - for website development testing only(!) - but you could probably just installed need dll's by hand if you wanted... ]

Install Poser 6 from your CD. Wine will pick it up, and install it in its own area.

Copy msvcp60.dll from your WindowsSystem32 folder to Wine's Windows/System32 folder.

Copy msvcirt.dll from your WindowsSystem32 folder to Wine's Windows/System32 folder.

[ I use Win2K, others report having used XP versions of these dll's with success. ]

[ Various references on the Web suggested entering Wine Config (under Ubuntu: Applications > Wine > Configure Wine) and on the Graphics tab check 'emulate a virtual desktop', with Desktop size of, for example, 1272 x 986 for a 1280 x 1024 screen to allow room for the extra Wine surrounding window. However I found that I had LOTS of trouble with Poser's extra windows - Document, Parameter & Library - disappearing behind the virtual desktop whenever one of them updated, so I eventually skipped this part, and ran without a virtual desktop - the default state. ]

Start Poser 6 from (for Ubuntu) Applications > Wine > Programs > Curious Labs > Poser 6 > Poser.

If it doesn't work, or you are not using Ubuntu, open a Terminal window, cd to ~/.wine/'Program Files'/'Poser 6'/ and then type: wine poser.exe , which will allow you to see the error messages.

To see .wine/ in Ubuntu's File Browser you need to select View > Show Hidden Files first.

When Poser starts up, enter your Serial Number, a name, deselect the 2 checkmarks, and go.

If you see display issues in the Document window, you may need to right-click the Document window and change from OpenGL for Sreed, as you would under Windoze. (This all depends on your graphics card and the completeness of its OpenGL support under Linux.)

STAY AWAY FROM THE CONTENT PANEL - Wine will interrupt and ask you to install the Window's version of Firefox, and you'll either have to agree, or close Wine (it will give you a chance to save your current work though).

After checking posing and rendering, close it down. Install Poser 6 SR3 the same way as you installed Poser. Also consider installing (or copying from your Windows version) the Content removal tweak (posershell.xml). You may also want to copy over your preferences file from your Windoze copy (prefs/Poser_Ui_Prefs_XXXXxYYYY.xml, where XXXX & YYYY match your screen size).

And you're done.

[ Bad news is that my tweak for smaller Parameters Palette (Runtime/ui/parmDialPrefs.xml,and faceRoomDialPrefs.xml) doesn't seem to work on Linux - different .psd file reader? ]

You can copy over all your Runtime, but initially why not just add your old Windoze' Runtime as an additional runtime? To access your Windows Runtime from within Poser's Library panel on Ubuntu, select / > /media > /hdX0, where X is the letter assigned to your Windows disc.

[ I was using an old 1gHz Athlon, with an old Matrox g400 card, and performance seemed somewhat better than under Windows, so any later system should fly. I had 1GB, and I suspect you'll need that much to pull this off. Loading from my Windoze NTFS Runtime seemed to incur a small performance hit, but that seemed to be the only part that was slower than under Windows - and I use Win2K as I said, so it should be much faster than it would be under XP unless you have disabled all those window 'enhancements” ;-) Most importantly the dial movement is much smoother - if you look at the Taskbar you'll see 4 programs running - Poser, Palette, Library & Document windows - confirming my suspicion at Poser 5 “Public Beta” time, that they had kludged on these new features as new tasks: adjusting the Doucment task from a separate Palette task under Windoze is wrong on so many levels (slow interprocess communication, non-real time “OS”, non-preemptive scheduler, etc.). ]

AS AWAYS YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), THIS POST IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY, AND NO WARRANTY OR SUPPORT IS IMPLIED OR PROVIDED!

For what its worth, I installed and used Poser 5 under Debian about two months ago.  I then upgraded to Poser 7 and have been using it pretty heavy for about a month.  Everything seems to work just fine except sometimes some windows get "stuck" to the mouse pointer.  This could be a flaw in KDE's kwin, though.

Thanks very much for that masterful summary, layingback. I'm keeping it for later reference, since I can foresee a time when trying to continue using Windows without upgrading past 2000 will be increasingly difficult.

@EnglishBob - You're welcome, glad it's of use.  Agreed Win2K is the pinnacle of Windoze development (that doesn't say much does it? ;-)  The last OS in which developers had a larger say in its design than marketing.  If only they'd released the multi-processor support in W2K, it was developed on it I'm sure, but said marketeers boycotted its release.   Would love to know if there was ever a pre-release ...