[Desktop_architects] Portland, a w(h)iney comment

Jeremy White jwhite at winehq.org
Fri Dec 9 06:21:57 PST 2005


Otto Wyss wrote:
> This discussion about "The Linux Desktop Integration Interface" is
> really amazing to read, it looks so obvious to me that the top inhibitor
> for a Linux desktop adoption is the application shortage
> (http://www.osdl.org/dtl/DTL_Survey_Report_Nov2005.pdf). 

I have to confess that I was struck by this gap at our meeting
as well.  Missing applications was the #1 bullet point
on the summary page of that report, and not running
Windows application was the #3 bullet point on the second
half of that summary page; I think it was clearly a
key issue, and yet it was not squarely addressed
(although helping ISVs is obviously a critical step).

I find it further fascinating that no one displayed any interest
in the Wine Project during the Portland meetings.
Again, referring to the #1 bullet of the *user* survey,
missing applications included Photoshop, Quicken, AutoCAD,
and PageMaker.

No one seems to care that Wine runs 3 of those 4.

<Rodney Dangerfield>    We get no respect!   </Rodney Dangerfield>

<grin>

Like Mr. Dangerfield, then, I'm going to bull ahead
and share what I would have liked to have said anyway.

The honest truth about Wine is that, while it's
an amazing technology, it is not yet at the stage where everything
"just works".

However, we are starting to get much closer to a point
where it is much more broadly useful.
In October, for the first time in our 12 year history, Wine
officially shifted out of Alpha and into Beta.  That
change did not come lightly, and should be taken
as a critical signal.

That is:  Wine is a genuinely useful tool.  It may not
run every application; it may not run the application
you need.  However, it is missing very few 'big pieces',
so it is reasonable to believe that any given application
will need only a modest amount of elbow grease in
order to be made useful.

I know that many folks have 'moral' issues with
Wine (I struggle with that all the time; how do you
think I feel about taking peoples money to make IE work?).
And I also know that Wine is not always the best tool for the job.
However, I think it is critical that it be included
in the calculus of any migration, as it can often
be a vital part of a successful transition.

My greatest fear is that people will try Wine,
have it fail, and then discard it.  A better approach
is to try Wine, if it fails, *ask* how hard it would
be to make it work, and then use that in any
migration decision.  I hate that people spend
tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on Windows Terminal
Services when a fraction of that money could have
gotten them a much nicer solution with Wine.  We
need the cash; Microsoft doesn't.

That's it; didn't have that much to say; but now
I feel better <grin>.

And the honest truth is that I didn't really need to
present in Portland; we didn't have any major gaps that
group could have addressed.  While Wine certainly depends
on a range of other projects, we've actually found folks
are pretty good to us (when we bother to ask).  And our
greatest need is simply more developers, more money to pay
those developers, and the completion of the good work
the Software Freedom Law Center has started on our behalf
(or, to paraphrase, send lawyers, guns, and money <grin>).

Cheers,

Jeremy



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