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New Competition For CodeWeavers: Aclerex

Shisha writes "Linux Planet is running a story about a new Wine offspring. Basically the Canadian company Transgaming decided, that their version of Wine, WineX, is good not only for running games, but for other Windows programs too. So why not try to sell it? For marketing reasons they're selling it to corporations under the AclereX name. Their website has a datasheet with more details about what they are actually offering. Unlike CodeWeavers, they don't seem to be targeting individuals at all, they'd rather sell to corporations. So no downloads available, sorry. Still it could speed up Wine developement, which is always good. Wine Weekly News discusses some of the reactions of the original Wine authors."

218 comments

  1. Aclerex by gowen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Aclerex? Why have they named it as if it werea cream for clearing up acne?

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    1. Re:Aclerex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You are forgetting the audience here...

    2. Re:Aclerex by ospirata · · Score: 1

      Well, I guess it's easier to be sued by a cleaning up acne factory than a giant monopolistic software corporation Btw, I do reply anonymous cowards

    3. Re:Aclerex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ha Ha. Ha ha. You can't reply to me. nah, naa.

      Sometimes it's fun to be childish.

    4. Re:Aclerex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But how do you know that I'm not gowen, posting anonymously? eh? eh?

      BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    5. Re:Aclerex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Soviet Russia Anonymous Cowards reply to YOU!

  2. huh, isn't transgaming still not giving back? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Last I heard, they still hadn't kept their promise to give back to wine stuff they did...

    1. Re:huh, isn't transgaming still not giving back? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Transgaming has given tons of code back to the community. Most if it is rejected though.

    2. Re:huh, isn't transgaming still not giving back? by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      Interesting, last I heard the Wine folk decided to change the liscense basically forcing WineX to go its seterape way. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with going from Open Source to Free software, just that it seems the wrong way to handle that situation.

      WineX has a fairly complete version available from CVS. I'm sure there are plenty of stuff they did in that. Intaller and some of their more impressive feats are still proprietary I think, but I would imagine as DX9 becomes the focus, DX8 stuff to be released (at least I would of before the liscense change stunt.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    3. Re:huh, isn't transgaming still not giving back? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WineX has a fairly complete version available from CVS.

      Since when can you get software from CVS? Isn't CVS a pharmacy?

      Oh, wait, your talking about Concurrent Version System Damned you nerds, trying to get the rest of us confused. ;)

    4. Re:huh, isn't transgaming still not giving back? by bhtooefr · · Score: 1

      Actually, I have a copy of Monopoly CD-ROM 1.0 that I bought for $5 from CVS (LONG before their ExtraCrap card came out).

    5. Re:huh, isn't transgaming still not giving back? by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Well, it was a kind of tricky promise. What they promissed what that when they had xxx subscribers they would release the source. Do they? I seem to remember that they picked a rather high number, and I fully expect that by the time they actually reach that number (if they do) that the promise with be both irrelevant, and kept. But don't hold your breath.

      (OTOH, some of the stuff in what they sell is proprietary to other people, and they'll never have the right to release that. And this info was also included in their original promise.)

      So, yes, they have so far kept their promise. But it didn't say what you wanted it to.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  3. OEM emulation layer? by heironymouscoward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Allowing Windows software firms to package it with their stuff and say "Runs on Linux"? Is this the point?

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature
    1. Re:OEM emulation layer? by robson · · Score: 5, Informative
      Allowing Windows software firms to package it with their stuff and say "Runs on Linux"? Is this the point?

      Here's the main blurb from their site:
      AclereX is the industry leader in cross-platform portability enabling Windows applications to run on the Linux desktop. If your organization is considering a move to the Linux desktop, AclereX can provide seamless and transparent support for your enterprise applications.
      Sounds decent enough. "If your business is sick of Windows but dependent upon Windows-only applications, we can make those applications run in Linux."
  4. Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I thought Transgaming took Wine code before the LPGL change, and haven't gone back.

    Do they still contribute to the mainline WINE effort? Has ANY of their code made it back?

    or are we just plugging a closed-source commercial product here?

    1. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by msh104 · · Score: 3, Informative

      they have returned some stuff, but codeweavers is still a better choise if you want something back in wine. things that wineX donated include SDL frontend, installer support, dcom stuff, some directX stuff every here and there and their experimental shared memory wineserver.

    2. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by The+Analog+Kid · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually what happened was, was Wine went to the GPL, Transgaming got pissed because it would screw up their buissness model, they got a bunch of OSS developers, who forked Wine and called it Rewind.

    3. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Transgaming got pissed because it would screw up their buissness model, they got a bunch of OSS developer

      No, they got a bunch of closed source developers.

    4. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 0, Troll
      Wine went to the GPL, Transgaming got pissed because it would screw up their buissness

      Yeah, GPL tends to do that.

      Way to go Wine. Bow to the pressure from open source zealots, ghange to GPL and drive away businesses.

    5. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Transgaming single-handedly motivated the wine development community to switch to the GPL. Good job, business, way to pressure people releasing their software under a free license to switch to the GPL.

    6. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 4, Insightful
      pressure people releasing their software under a free license

      Then it sounds like the Wine project was not 100% comfortable with the BSD license in the first place.

      If you license BSD, you should accept that people may take your code and close it. That's what the truly free software is about.

    7. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Troll

      Actually what happened was, was Transgaming showed up and started taking from Wine without giving back, as the LGPL clearly allowed. It was a wake-up call to the Wine developers whom had never really had to face the prospect of their code being "BSD'ed" like that. The Wine guys decided they didn't like it so much, so they changed the license to regular GPL going forward.

    8. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They changed it to LGPL, not GPL. LGPL is very business friendly.

    9. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It should be noted that Wine was originally LGPL, and they changed it to BSD because they were happy to be "BSD'ed" by companies like Corel.

      If the WordPerfect Suite wasn't a problem, I'm not sure why Transgaming is. Probably a personality issue.

    10. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 1

      you should accept that people may take your code and close it. That's what the truly free software is about

      In order to free the code we have to close it? I call flamebait.

      This is saying we can't be truly free until we abolish laws against kidnapping. This doesn't make sense becasue each instance of kidnapping takes away more freedom (basically all of the victim's freedom) than it grants the user of that freedom (the kidnapping itself).

      --
      microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
    11. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Sunnan · · Score: 1
      If you license BSD, you should accept that people may take your code and close it. That's what the truly free software is about.

      So... Truly Free Software(TM) is all about closing software? Thanks for the information.

      (Don't get me wrong, I like BSD-ish licenses a lot, because they're less hassle than the popular copyleft variants, but I still think it's (ever so slightly) sad when people release non-free versions.)
    12. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 1
      In order to free the code we have to close it? I call flamebait.

      No. We don't have to close it, but if you want to call software truly free, people should also have the right to close the modifications to the source down.

      Your kidnapping example does not make sense here. The software will really not be lost since the free code of the publicized version will still be available. Only the alterations made to the closed down source will not be released. In my mind, such a source has served its purpose by allowing a spin-off product to be made out of it.

    13. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by MushMouth · · Score: 1

      Which makes more sense if you know that Transgaming founder Gav State got his start at Corel.

    14. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 1

      you're confusing "make" and "close".

      The source served it's purpose in allowing the spinoff to be made; the license betrayed everyone else's freedom by allowing the spinoff to be closed.

      --
      microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
    15. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Karn · · Score: 1

      Your argument doesn't apply to the BSD licence, because it imposes its own restrictions.

      According to your definition of what free is, the only license that fits the bill is public domain.

      --


      Why do I keep typing pythong?
    16. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by dmiller · · Score: 1

      the license betrayed everyone else's freedom by allowing the spinoff to be closed

      Rubbish. You are ignoring the bit where the original poster reminded you that the unclosed source would still be there. But then, the people who whine loudest in support of the GPL have almost never released a line of free code.

    17. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 1

      Ok, you're right- it's more like kidnapping someone's children; some code is still free, but related code is not. Either way it complicates the process of reproducing that (often obvious) functionality, especially (but not only) when patents get involved.

      Don't get me wrong, I think it's ok for people to release their stuff under a BSD license, I just believe it's dead wrong to say that such a license is "more free."

      Nice adhom as well. I haven't released very much free code it's true (although I've given all the music I've ever done away under a free license), but I will tell you this- I've released no closed code, and I certainly haven't made any closed extensions to otherwise free products.

      People who whine the loudest about the BSD license on the other hand are typically people looking to take advantage of the generosity of others to produce their own closed software product. After all, that's the only difference between the GPL and the BSD.

      --
      microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
    18. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 1
      some code is still free, but related code is not.

      No. The original code is still absolutely free.

      The new code could be closed - as is the prerogative of the people who write it. The viral nature of GPL is truly insidious because it deprives people of their natural freedom to decide on the license.

    19. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 1

      deprives people of their natural freedom to decide on the license

      You can't have a natural right to something that doesn't exist in nature. Licenses are human constructs.

      Furthermore, the freedom to "decide on the license" amounts to the freedom to "decide how much freedom others can have", and is therefore a net loss in freedom for everyone even if it's a small gain for the person releasing the code. Hence less free.

      --
      microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
    20. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 1
      So, you say that asking for control over one's own code means less freedom? Hell, GPL is a way to have control over one's code.

      I say it again: taking an existing code, improving it and closing the resulting code does not result in a net loss of the freedom of original code. What's lost are the changes and the rest of the world had no right to that anyway.

      So, tell me. Whose freedom has been restricted? If I write code, you do not have the right to see/use it.

    21. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Brendan+Byrd · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but everything I release is GPL. I'm proud that it's GPL, and I'll "whine loudest in support" of it. If you're going to develop for it, I'd expect the source code for it.

    22. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 1

      GPL is a way to have control over one's code

      It is a way to ensure no single person controls it. The only way to keep other people from using code is to claim proprietary rights to it; that's all the GPL restricts. Plain and simple, it's the only way to guarantee freedom of code in a world where idea monopolies are granted by the government.

      does not result in a net loss of the freedom of original code.

      This need not be true for my point to stand. It makes the original code more troublesome to extend in obvious ways. Of course the original code is still available, but it's only useful if you can extend and improve it. When the obvious improvments/fixes have been patented, the inevitability of bitrot means that we have in fact lost the original codebase for all intents and purposes.

      If I write code, you do not have the right to see/use it.

      In other words, I am not "free" to see/use it. When you start patenting your code, it becomes a big problem- I can't even make my own implementation of your feature. If you merely copyright your code and release under a closed license, I have to take extra care to be sure I don't duplicate your code, and as SCO has proven, even if I don't duplicate your code that doesn't mean you can't sue me. The GPL gives me an affirmative defense against that. What you're missing is that *all* proprietary software restricts freedom by its very nature.

      --
      microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
    23. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 1
      It makes the original code more troublesome to extend in obvious ways.

      No it doesn't. You're free to extend the free codebase just like the company did.

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels like you think that everybody should have access to any code the company produced (at a cost, I might add). To my mind it's perfectly reasonably that any person or company should be free to opt out of that. Their code is their property and they should benefit from it financially (which is impossible if you give away your product for free).

      The rest of your arguments are based on patenting software which I never brought up and which is irrelevant in this discussion since even GPL does not protect you from software patents.

    24. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 1

      No it doesn't. You're free to extend the free codebase just like the company did.

      Software patents make this complicated. You can't create your own version of a patented process. I know you never brought it up - I did because it proves you wrong.

      Furthermore, creating your own version of a copyrighted process is tricky. If a proprietary extension establishes a de facto standard, you have to do expensive and difficult clean-room reverse engineering to achieve compatibility, and you hope that the security provisions of the DMCA don't bite you in the ass. Embrace and extend baby.

      Their code is their property

      What makes it so? The government grants monopolies over ideas, but the system is out of control. It's stifling innovation more than it's causing it. I'd be ok with a one-year software copyright term (with exemptions for major projects- perhaps 3 years for operating systems, compilers and such if a system can be worked out to identify software that truly requires massive capital investment) and no software patents, but one-click shopping carts for 17 years, assuming Amazon doesn't find a way to evergreen the patent? Microsoft security protocols protected by the DMCA for over 100 years? Crazy.

      Even so, my point is only that the GPL is *more* free. I'm not saying there should be no proprietary software, only that proprietary software hurts freedom.

      impossible if you give away your product for free

      Yes, bottled water vendors have to compete against tap water. They manage. So do a number of companies that sell free software by the way. You read slashdot, you've heard of them.

      GPL does not protect you from software patents.

      Yes it does. Exclusive patents are forbidden by the GPL.

      --
      microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
    25. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 1
      What makes it so?

      Well, when you create something you will automatically get a copyright for it.

      It seems like you assume that I'm all for software patents. I'm not. If you can reproduce the functionality of the code that was closed down by legal means, I'm all for it. What I am trying to say that there is absolutely no reason why the company that extended the publicly available code should give their extensions back to public.

      Yes, bottled water vendors have to compete against tap water. They manage.

      A very apt characterization. "They manage". How do you think an investor would feel about that?

      In other words, sure you can run a nickel-and-dime business with open software but you can never hope to achieve world wide acceptance and most of all profits. Sadly, it's still unclear if even the most successful open source company, RedHat, is actually in the black or if it is just an accounting trick.

      Exclusive patents are forbidden by the GPL.

      Uhhuh? And if software patents are allowed, do you think GPL would win in court if faced with a patent infringement suit? The idea of (open) licensing becomes irrelevant if software patents are allowed.

    26. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 1

      It seems like you assume that I'm all for sofware patents. I'm not.

      No, I'm saying that the BSD license suffers from the problem that we live in a world where software patents exist, so a free codebase can be truly extended and extinguished. We agree software patents should go away - I just think it's a bigger and more relevant problem than you'll admit to.

      A very apt characterization. "They manage". How do you think an investor would feel about that?

      I was facetiously understating my case. They do more than manage, they make almost pure profit because water is so inexpensive to create. Code is similar in the sense that once you've paid the fixed cost of creating it, bang- you can copy it at essentially no cost forever.

      In other words, sure you can run a nickel-and-dime business with open software but you can never hope to achieve world wide acceptance and most of all profits.

      Linux is making a run for it even against unfair competition (i.e., proprietary software and closed protocols). Idea monopolies mess with the free market, causing mediocre products pushed by the companies with the most locked-in clients to dominate. Opening markets to new competition usually *increases* the size of the pie, rather than decreasing it- it's just that the most established operators don't wield such a large barrier to entry any longer.

      Sadly, it's still unclear if even the most successful open source company, RedHat, is actually in the black or if it is just an accounting trick.

      IBM seems to be doing ok for itself. Micorosoft is depending on their lockin lasting forever. It won't.

      do you think GPL would win in court if faced with a patent infringement suit?

      Yes, in two ways. 1. The patent owner loses her right to the code she based her patented extension on, and is sued for massive copyright infringement. This alone is a deterrent. 2. The patent is shown to be an unauthorized derivative work of someone else's code, the patent is awarded to the original copyright owner. I admit IANAL, but I think if someone already owns the copyright to a method that is patented, they get the patent. Please do point me to a reference if you know this to be wrong, a cursory google didn't help me.

      --
      microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
    27. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      we live in a world where software patents exist

      Ok, then it's just a matter of perspective because where I live (as an ex-pat) software patents are still being discussed.

      they make almost pure profit because water is so inexpensive to create

      I wouldn't be so sure about that. A bottling plant, the distribution network and the marketing effort to create the brand...

      Of course, once you've established all that it's very profitable but still it's a risky business to start.

      IBM seems to be doing ok for itself.

      Open source is such an infinitesimally small business for IBM that I doubt the top level executives even now they're fiddling around with it.

      if someone already owns the copyright to a method that is patented, they get the patent.

      Which again is a completely separate matter from licensing.

    28. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 1

      " "Water is the engine driving growth at beverage companies," says Steven Dixon, manager of the Global Beverage Fund, a $27 million (assets) fund run by Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder Advisers. "

      source: Forbes Magazine 8/8/03

      Open source is such an infinitesimally small business for IBM that I doubt the top level executives even now they're fiddling around with it.

      They've made a VERY public commitment to it. True they do other stuff (including more software patents than anyone) but the fact is they've got a very fat finger in this pie.

      if someone already owns the copyright to a method that is patented, they get the patent.

      Which again is a completely separate matter from licensing.


      No, the GPL prohibits patents and protects against patents made from derivative works. What part of that is not a licensing issue?

      --
      microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
    29. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 1
      No, the GPL prohibits patents and protects against patents made from derivative works.

      Group A patents something.

      Group B makes an open source GPL version of it.

      Group A sues Group B.

      Group B loses.

      Group A: profit!!

    30. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 1

      What are you talking about? That has nothing to do with this discussion. Of course you can't GPL something that's already been patented if you're not the patent holder- we're talking about rights to derivative works. Here's the real analogy:

      Group A makes some software.

      Group B writes an obvious extension to that software and it becomes a defacto standard. Group B patents that extension.

      If Group A originally licensed under the BSD license, tough luck. The obvious extension is now closed and can not be reimplemented.

      If Group A originally licensed as GPL, they can sue for copyright infringement since the patent invalidates Group B's right to use the software in the first place, and Group A can probably take control of that patent as a derivative work of their copyrighted material.

      --
      microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
    31. Re:Speed up Wine development? Are you sure? by dmiller · · Score: 1

      What are you talking about? That has nothing to do with this discussion.

      Exactly, patents have nothing to do with this discussion. They are a separate issue.

      [...]Group A can probably take control of that patent as a derivative work of their copyrighted material.

      Not a chance. Copyright law and patent law are separate legal domains, coming from completely separate sources of authority.

  5. I don't understand. by Alethes · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Doesn't encouraging WINE use prevent or at least slow the development of native versions of applications for Unix/Linux? Doesn't it keep people from quickly adopting a different and open application that runs natively? As long as people can comfortably run MS Office in Linux, doesn't that mean they won't bother learning OpenOffice.org? As long as users can run Windows games in WINE, what will encourage game vendors to create native versions of their applications? I could understand if this were a system being used to facilitate migration to open-source solutions, but it seems that quite the opposite is true.

    Give me a clue if I need one.

    1. Re:I don't understand. by HermanAB · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are many reasons to use wine. In a business case for instance, a company may have all applications for Linux, except for one or two tax or payrol related thing. In cases like that, wine is a good tool to facilitate migration to Linux.

      --
      Oh well, what the hell...
    2. Re:I don't understand. by teklob · · Score: 1

      but what about until then?
      You have to be practical, some people need non-native application support today

    3. Re:I don't understand. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought the exact same thing about WineX. It's the main reason why it took me so long to decide to buy it. In principle, I agree with you. In practice, Linux is small enough of a market among end users/gamers still that we aren't getting noticed. Until there is a large enough of an install base among the hardcore gamers, Linux releases just aren't going to happen unless some of the developer's happen to be Linux users themselves. So I stopped waiting and bought WineX and I'm at least happy that for a dozen games or so I don't need to reboot into Windows. The other thing is, with any luck, if more people start using WineX/Linux for games, then the demand might start going up. We'll see.

    4. Re:I don't understand. by AvantLegion · · Score: 4, Insightful
      >> Doesn't encouraging WINE use prevent or at least slow the development of native versions of applications for Unix/Linux?

      No. Tiny market share prevents/slows development of native versions of applications for Unix/Linux.

    5. Re:I don't understand. by nmos · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Doesn't it keep people from quickly adopting a different and open application that runs natively?

      Lets say we have 2 users, A & B and both would like to move to an Open Source operating system such as Linux however:

      A: Has 1 Win app that they MUST be able to run for one reason or another and is able to run it perfectly under Wine so they they switch to Linux and open source for everything but that 1 app. When it comes time to acquire new hardware or apps. they are asking hardware and software venders for Linux support and are investigating open source applications.

      B: Has 1 Win app that they MUST be able to run for one reason or another and is NOT able to run under Wine so they they keep using Windows. When it comes time to acquire new hardware or apps. they are asking hardware and software venders for Windows support and are ignoring open source applications because they have no experience with them.

      Which one of these users do you think is adding to the demand for OSS software in general and Linux in particular?

    6. Re:I don't understand. by dcuny · · Score: 4, Interesting
      There's also Mono, the Open Source implementation of Microsoft's .NET framework.

      The original idea was to implement the Windows.Forms library with some native toolkit. But since it's so dependant on the Microsoft windows model, it turned out they would pretty much have to write it from scratch - or use Wine.

      There's also React OS, an Open Source implementation of Windows NT. They've spent most of their effort over the last couple years working on the core functionality. Now that most of the core is working, they can use Wine libraries as the basis of much of the higher level functionality, instead of writing it from scratch.

      Hrm... the ReactOS site seems to be offline at the moment. From the Google cache of the announcement of stuff due at the end of Augusy:

      • Amongst other features and fixes, this release will include a greatly improved win32k.sys (better, windowing, keyboard support, more routines completed overall), the beginning of an explorer.exe, more controls ported from WINE for user32 (menus, messageboxes and dialogs), greatly improved performance for the standard VGA driver and further work on the NDIS driver.
      More options are better. An Open Source version of NT is certainly a Good Thing(tm).
    7. Re:I don't understand. by kdsolutions · · Score: 0

      yes, and WinE, once it works as well as it should, will speed up the change to linux, as people can still use their windoze only apps until something comes around that can handle the documents created by said apps... they can still use linux even before those apps come along...

      --
      Error 666 - Satanic SCO code found in your Linux kernel.
    8. Re:I don't understand. by Beatbyte · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >> Doesn't encouraging WINE use prevent or at least slow the development of native versions of applications for Unix/Linux? No. Tiny market share prevents/slows development of native versions of applications for Unix/Linux.

      ...and to improve on the market share, you need something to get people over to linux.

      its extremely hard for companies (the money holders) to go cold turkey to a completely different OS (than MS-Win).

      Personally I'm only writing stuff for unix/linux and working on transitioning over the few apps I use in Win32 environment by using WINE. It will keep me from dual-Pc'ing with 2 different OS's and will keep my boss' respect of linux up where it should be.

    9. Re:I don't understand. by polyp2000 · · Score: 0

      I found a site about this ReactOS thing its a review
      Reactos Review...

      While it is nice to see all the work and effort that is obviously going to be put into the system, one really has to wonder why on earth bother?

      One look at the monstrous blue screenshots , and the DOS prompt with a BSOD theme going on are enough to make me hurl.

      It makes me remember that the original reason I moved to Linux was not because it was free or open source. The reason I moved was because I couldnt stand the windows operating system. Using various flavors of *nix at university and fun at home with my old Amiga taught me that Windows was a backward step, even all those years ago. Linux just has a much nicer architecture than Windows.

      On the other hand AROS seems to be coming along very nicely. AmigaOS was loosely based on Unix, but unlike Linux had proper PreEmptive multitasking!

      --
      Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
    10. Re:I don't understand. by Fr33z0r · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Doesn't encouraging WINE use prevent or at least slow the development of native versions of applications for Unix/Linux?
      No, the more people who install Linux, and who have no reason to dual-boot into Windows, the more financially viable it is to release software specifically for Linux.

      Look at it this way - best case scenario is everybody in the world switches to Linux and WINE, largely because it runs all their Windows programs they can't live without, what then? Do you think companies will still write Windows code even though Windows installations no longer exists/are in the minority?

      Look at it from the PoV of a poster further down who voices a concern that being able to run Photoshop on Linux will render The Gimp obsolete... If the vast majority of Photoshop users are running it under Wine on Linux, which platform do you think would get the next (native) version?

      It's also worth mentioning that the more people who move away from using Windows as an OS the better, all I hear are people complaining about how hard they're getting hit by SoBig and Blaster, shit, my webserver still gets hit by CodeRed on a far-too-frequent basis. Blaster and SoBig are going to be problems for a long time to come, quite possibly forever, we can't do a lot about people who won't patch their machines (well, ISPs could very easily fix this and all other worm problems if they got their acts together) but if there are less people running Windows (the OS, not the apps that run on it) next time an exploit like these come out then that can only be a good thing for networks worldwide.
    11. Re:I don't understand. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you own that trademark? If not, then please say who it's owned by. If it's not owned by anyone, then please stop using it, or register it.

    12. Re:I don't understand. by HiThere · · Score: 1

      And user C (me) has 1 Win app that they MUST be able to run for one reason or another, and is NOT able to run under Wine, or under WineX, or Under Win98 et. seq., but only under Win95. And the computers don't support Win95 properly anymore. (It's probably dirver issues.)

      ARRGH! (Well, so I buy a used computer for Win95, and pray that Wine or WineX will get good enough before I can't buy any used computers that will still work. Two projects gives me two chances. I'd prefer Wine, but the odds aren't good. Currently WineX will *almost* install it. If I tweak things just right, the install finishes. And then the program refuses to start. Not run, start. It complains that the Anastasia font isn't installed and aborts.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    13. Re:I don't understand. by Scholasticus · · Score: 1

      This is my guess about what the thinking might be. Let's say you have a large organization with lots of desktop machines. You're going to have employees of different levels of ability, and who adjust to change with different levels of ease. It's a good bet that the people in the IT department will adapt more quickly to a Linux migration than most of the other departments. You'll probably have people at about every level of the company who will adjust to the Linux migration more easily if they can keep using Word, if only for a while. That's where things like Crossover Office and AclereX come in. It's sort of a question of weaning, as opposed to going cold turkey.

    14. Re:I don't understand. by deKernel · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you are a candidate for VMWare dude. Your main OS can be Linux with a virtual machine for Win95.

    15. Re:I don't understand. by Jonner · · Score: 1

      Free Software is about freedom. You are free to use Wine or not. You are free to support it or not. If you don't agree with the project, it probably won't do anybody any good for you to tell them about it; just use or develop Free alternatives to the proprietary Win32 programs. Even RMS doesn't knock the Wine project (there have been debates about the license, which were resolved), though its goals clear conflict with the FSF's.

      I, like you, prefer to use all Free Software. Since there is Free Software to fulfill almost every desire I have, I only use Wine for a couple of games. I have a friend that uses it to run Pegasus mail because that's what he likes. I think it's a little silly, but ultimately, he's exercising the freedom provided by a Free Software project, though it's allowing him to use a proprietary program.

    16. Re:I don't understand. by HiThere · · Score: 1

      I bought it. The older versions worked, though not with current Linux distributions. The most recent version didn't work with Win95. I suspect that they "upgraded" their CDROM, so the older drivers don't work. (I wonder if I could make it work with the Oak drivers? But now I've bought the used machine, so there's no need.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  6. How about plain old Wine? by MoxFulder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seems like there are already plenty of adequate ways to run Windowz apps under Linux. Just none of them are free software! Will the vanilla Wine ever catch up?

    1. Re:How about plain old Wine? by Luke-Jr · · Score: 3, Informative

      From experience, vanilla WINE is the best at running Windoze applications. WineX lacks many common application features such as shaped windows (non-rectangle) etc.

      --
      Luke-Jr
    2. Re:How about plain old Wine? by bsharitt · · Score: 1

      Actually at the end of the day vanilla Wine seems to run more apps than crossover office, it's just harder to get it setup to that point.

  7. No Download? by stevebob2019 · · Score: 0

    How could they NOT give it away for free?

    1. Re:No Download? by diatonic · · Score: 1

      It can be hard to run a business when you are giving away your product for free. They would have to sell support services to say viable, and they must not feel they could remain in business long that way.

      .:diatonic:.

    2. Re:No Download? by ospirata · · Score: 0

      Wine license is not GPL, but BSD.

    3. Re:No Download? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It was BSD, they change it, forked into ReWind (still BSD) and normal WINE (LGPL).
      A part of the patches is dual-licensed, but not all developers are cooperating with ReWind (especially the CodeWeavers people).

    4. Re:No Download? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't sell stuff if you give it away for free.
      no sales = no business.

      When will you people learn?

    5. Re:No Download? by Luke-Jr · · Score: 1

      Or it was when TransGaming forked. I believe after they forked, WINE changed to LGPL. Besides, even [L]GPL products do not have to be freely downloadable. TransGaming could simply include the source code when you purchase their products and it would be legal.

      --
      Luke-Jr
    6. Re:No Download? by Smarmy_1 · · Score: 1

      Just to play devil's advocate, nowhere in the LinuxPlanet article or on the AclereX site (that I could find) does it say that there will be no downloads. As far as I could tell, this is complete conjecture on the part of the submitter.

      The most likley explanation is that the software isn't even ready for release yet. The site is only barebones at this point, anyway.

      Give Transgaming's past history, the submitter is probably correct, but there's not enough information at this point to make such an accusation. The submission itself is flamebait! :)

  8. Ant better than Crossover Office by bsharitt · · Score: 1

    I wonder if it will be any better than Crossover's Office and Plugin products.

  9. GPL? by teklob · · Score: 3, Informative

    Are they allowed to do that when the majority of their code they didn't even write? They have been making it harder and harder to get WineX code too. First they removed it from debian and then Gentoo, and I haven't been able to get the source from CVS since then. I'm not sure what license wine was using when they forked but I dont think that this is allowed, is it?

    1. Re:GPL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Wine source did allow it. The fork was caused by the WINE core group choosing to switch to a GPL license--something TransGaming couldn't allow. The BSD-licensed WINE is still maintained, called ReWind. Some new WINE patches are dual licensed so they get put in here, but the gap is growing. TransGaming occasionally syncs against ReWind and allows WINE to pull anything they want out of it (it is BSD licensed, so you can relicense it under GPL if you like).

      The packages pulled from Debian and Gentoo is an interesting issue. Basically, Debian and Gentoo are allowedto create packages by the license, but if they do so, TrangGaming will stop contributing to the ReWind project, so everyone loses. It's a tight balance and they've been accused of licensing their code (to ReWind) on a license they don't really mean.

      But technically, so far, they're in the clear. The ReWind tree is missing some of the more interesting TransGaming bits--SafeDisc support, for example--which they're afraid of releasing because the US might do to them what they did to Sklyarov next time they have a booth anywhere in the US.

    2. Re:GPL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      WINE is using the LGPL now.
      Former they used a MIT-style licence.

      Since then ReWind exists.

    3. Re:GPL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Stop with the crackpot conspiracy theories, honestly. The reason why you can't get the source from CVS is because SourceForge is throttling anonymous CVS access. The license they worked WINE under was X11, which is perfectly legal according to the license terms. Since then WINE switched to LGPL, so TransGaming can no longer sync with the wine releases unless the code is contributed to ReWind which is an X11-licensed fork of WINE.

    4. Re:GPL? by i.r.id10t · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hard? Just for grins, I decided to try Wine(X) last night for the first time in a looong time to see if a Windows game my 3 year old likes would work. Took 2 commands and some wait time for download.

      cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.winex.sourceforge.net:/cv sroot/winex login
      cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.winex.sourceforge.net:/cv sroot/winex co wine

      Straight from the webpage you get afer the license agreement.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
    5. Re:GPL? by teklob · · Score: 1

      I have tried that a few times over the last few days and each time it just stopped midway through the download

    6. Re:GPL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm been getting either this: "cvs [checkout aborted]: end of file from server (consult above message if any)" or dl stopping around half-way of the cvs (some x11drv or something, it's been so long since i got that far that i've forgot) for the last 8 months now.

    7. Re:GPL? by newbiefan · · Score: 1

      Wine is licenced under the LGPL (www.winehq.org), not the GPL. Apps can link to it (libwine) and remain closed source.
      The really interesting thing about this development is: Is this what the subscribers' money is funding? How does this improve windows games compatibility? (that is where transgaming gets most of their funding from; they promised subscribers to make windows->Gnu/Linux gaming transition transparent). I think Transgaming's model may be breaking up.

    8. Re:GPL? by HiThere · · Score: 1

      I just looked over the rewind CVS on Sourceforge, and the most recent entry I saw was over a year old. Most were over 2 years old, and some as old as 4 years old.

      Either it's working nearly perfectly, or "occasionally" means when a piece of code is becomming irrelevant. Or they just aren't doing much development. Take your pick. (Or come up with a different reason.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    9. Re:GPL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look at rewind-cvs, the mailing list. August 4, 2003. Huge one on July 30. Before that, July 24, June 22, etc.. all 2003. It isn't WINEHQ but to say that it's two years old is entirely unfair to the efforts of long-time wine hacker Ove Kaaven.

    10. Re:GPL? by HiThere · · Score: 1

      I have to admit that I don't know where the rewind cvs mailing list is. I just looked at the cvs tree on sourceforge (and not all of that...I've never downloaded it). But what I said was true. Not sufficient, I'll grant, but true.

      I didn't examine all the branches, so there could quite well be pieces that have been updated more recently. But I looked at more than a few of them.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  10. Modern company names by random_rabbit · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why does every new company or product have to invent a new word? "Aclerex"? What was so wrong with "Wine Ecks and Sons, Est. 1832, Purveyors of Fine Software and Noted Not-Emulators"?

    1. Re:Modern company names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Actually they wanted to go with that, but it turned out that wineecksandsonsest1832purveyorsoffinesoftwareandno tednot-emulators.com was already taken.

    2. Re:Modern company names by Eccles · · Score: 1

      Why does every new company or product have to invent a new word?

      It does make googling them easier.

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  11. The All In One comment by Telex4 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just to save everyone lots of comments... ;-)

    WINE is bad because it will discourage people from writing native applications. Native applications are important because they provide a reason for people to use GNU/Linux or *BSD wholesale, rather than flit between a Free OS and Windows. They also mean more innovation and more investment in Free Software, and more Free Software available. Will The GIMP just drop off the map once Photoshop is reliably supported? Will we no longer see native ports of games, with companies instead hoping that WINE(X) will, at some point, work well with other platforms? Maybe WINE will stop many companies from looking seriously as developing applications as cross-platform from the start, which will hurt users of other platforms like MacOSX, old MacOS, maybe GNU/Hurd, BSDs, etc.

    or...

    WINE is good because it will fill the application gap until Free Software can catch up. Rather than wait a few years for all the weird and wonderful applications we don't have to appear, WINE will let corporate and home users make the switch straight away and slowly migrate from Windows. WINE will encourage gamers. WINE with winelib will make cross-platform development a sinch in years to come.

    Now.... discuss :-)

    1. Re:The All In One comment by ospirata · · Score: 1

      ... Wine is good because its libs help the process to port Win applications to Linux. Example: Corel apps.

    2. Re:The All In One comment by HanzoSan · · Score: 0, Troll

      "WINE is bad because it will discourage people from writing native applications. "

      Considering no one writes native applications and never will, why does it matter if we discourage people who will never write native applications unless forced to?

      We must force them to, by profiting off Linux and building an economy around it.

      --
      If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
    3. Re:The All In One comment by term8or · · Score: 1

      Wine is good because it gives users a false sence of security. They get the Linux thingie, and press button, and they can use the same programs they used in windows.

      What they failed to realise is that after a few years, the new software in windows will start to require Microsoft Servers (tm) using Microsoft Fuzzy Logic(tm)(RIP) and they'll be forced into either using the native linux applications, or paying bill the banker $500 a license for a piece of software that crashes every two seconds. They will use native linux, since they'll have got over the fright by then.

      --



      "As a writer / novelist you might want to spellcheck your sig. :) " - AC
    4. Re:The All In One comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Increase use of WINE will cause software makers pay more attention to linux. Without WINE, software makers need only be concern with microsoft libaries and such. With WINE becoming more widespread, makers now have to consider compatability with WINE when creating software. Hopefully one day MS will consider compatability with Linux when designing software. The ultimate goal is after all allow people to use whatever tools they wanted without being tied down to a particular vendor,platform.

    5. Re:The All In One comment by Glass+of+Water · · Score: 1

      You forgot to say, "WINE Is Not an Emulator"!

      --
      There are no trolls. There are no trees out here.
    6. Re:The All In One comment by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Don't forget to save that text. It won't be the last time you need it!

  12. AclereX/ActiveX lawsuit? by rollingcalf · · Score: 2, Funny

    It won't be long before Microsoft sues them over the name similarity...

    --
    ---------
    There is inferior bacteria on the interior of your posterior.
    1. Re:AclereX/ActiveX lawsuit? by dattaway · · Score: 1

      It might be interesting to see the Xbox group sue folks who have an X11 box.

    2. Re:AclereX/ActiveX lawsuit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No lawsuits needed, yet.

      Microsoft will just include in their shrink-click-wrap licence, for all of their own applications, that you are only allowed to run their applications under their operating systems.

      Then they will force all of the other Windows developers to put the same thing in their shrink-click-wrap licence.

      No emulation or translation or crossing-over allowed.

      I'm surprised it hasn't already occurred to Gates and Ballmer to do this.

    3. Re:AclereX/ActiveX lawsuit? by mattrix2k · · Score: 1

      Shhhhhhhhh!
      Microsoft reads this...don't they?

  13. obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well yeah, but does it run windows?

  14. Aclerex? by SlashChick · · Score: 4, Funny

    For some reason, my brain keeps wanting to make this name into some variant of "Accel-".... as in Accelerex. At least then the name is a sort of verb... but "AclereX" sounds like some sort of weird drug. I mean, ACK-luhr-ex? With a capital X? I don't get it. Why must open-source products be plagued by such terrible marketing?

    Oh, and on their front page, they've titled it "Enterprise Migrationware." Please, for the love of God, hire a marketing staff. This sounds like a bunch of geeks getting together and saying "What would PHBs like? Oh, I know, let's make a new buzzword! How about 'enterprise migrationware'? Because, see, it has 'enterprise' in it... and we've added 'ware' to the end..."

    No. Please do not name your product with the dot-com bullsh*t generator; it's not supposed to be used in the place of a marketing team. Take this one back to the drawing board.

    1. Re:Aclerex? by heironymouscoward · · Score: 2, Funny

      my brain keeps wanting to make this name into some variant of "Accel-".... as in Accelerex

      Yeah, same thing here. Bizarre Latin-sounding names went out of style around May 2002, this is just terrible marketing. How much did this name cost them? Sheesh. There is a perfectly good industry-standard IEEE-approved naming technology, the TLA.

      Besides, I still can't figure out who this product is meant for: companies trying to move other people's software to Linux, or companies that make Windows software?

      Perhaps I'm just too stupid for this product, yeah that's probably the answer.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas une signature
    2. Re:Aclerex? by smallpaul · · Score: 1

      I would say it is for companies who have spent a bundle making Windows software for in-house use and now wish to run it on Linux.

    3. Re:Aclerex? by heironymouscoward · · Score: 1

      Cool, this might work for our company. All we would need is emulation for COM+, ASP, VBScript, MTS, IIS, SQLServer and oh, there is also a little Win32 thrown in there too. Well, at least we didn't write the whole thing using MSWord macros, as I saw one of our (ex)clients doing. Using the French version of MSOffice, with all the macro names translated. Would AcleretX ^h^h^hAccelerX ^H^H^H AccxexxxX (aaagh, my brain is dissolving!) help... perhaps I'll give them a call.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas une signature
    4. Re:Aclerex? by cranos · · Score: 1

      Funnilly enough I keep expecting annoying references to a couple of Gauls, still resisting the Romans in their little village.

      "Oh look its Asterix, Obelix and Aclerix, younger brother of Cacophonix".

  15. It's got to be said - by (void*) · · Score: 4, Funny

    Old WINE and new bottles. Nothing to see here, move along folks.

    1. Re:It's got to be said - by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oops, that was Luke not John. Good thing most ./ers won't know anyway.

  16. Um... no? by bersl2 · · Score: 1
  17. woopty-doo by Stinking+Pig · · Score: 3, Interesting

    CodeWeavers: nice folks with a strong customer service orientation. They produce a product that is generally quite reliable, they'll give your money back if it won't do what it's supposed to, and they have a decent support system.

    Transgaming: MIA, zero customer service orientation. The product worked for one of the fifteen games I tried with it, the support forum is very difficult to use, and the emails I sent trying to find a human went unanswered.

    I'm sure that some people have had opposite experiences, but after my attempts to deal with these two companies I have no interest in giving money to Transgaming. I'd buy a Crossover Games though.

    --
    "Nothing was broken, and it's been fixed." -- Jon Carroll
    1. Re:woopty-doo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I did buy their Kohan Ariman's Gift from them. Worked fine, until I updated to Mandrake 9.1 and now it's broken. I keep e-mailing about an updated binary and it's always "coming soon." Now 9.2 is on RC1.

      BTW, Loki's version of Kohan works just fine.

      I'm not fond of Transgaming.

    2. Re:woopty-doo by jfunk · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have the same experience. Everyone at Codeweavers are amazing and they actually listen to their customers.

      Transgaming is a different story. I bought a year's subscription and went out and bought Civ 3 and Black and White, both of which are "officially supported." Neither worked acceptably and their support guys closed my support requests without actually helping me.

      Basically, I bought a year's subscription without having used their product for anything. I was seriously ripped off.

      I've heard from other SuSE users that WineX won't run at all on SuSE 8.2 and that TG doesn't seem to care. I'm sure that kind of attitude will go over really well with their "business" customers.

    3. Re:woopty-doo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You're taking the words right out of my mouth.

      My experience with transgaming is slightly better than yours (I actually got both alice and black and white working, which was my intention when I bought winex), however, transgaming isn't helping the wine project advance at all, in stark contrast to codeweavers. And the support thing is very true.

  18. Re:It needs to be pointed out by Luke-Jr · · Score: 1

    Uhm.... WineX isn't a distro at all, it's the Win32 and DirectX libraries ported to run on Linux.

    --
    Luke-Jr
  19. Extra commas? by abischof · · Score: 2, Funny
    Basically the Canadian company Transgaming decided, that their version of Wine, WineX, is good not only for running games, but for other Windows programs too.
    Why is it that some authors, decide to insert commas all over, the place? ;) (admittedly, some of those commas are necessary, but not all of them)
    --

    Alex Bischoff
    HTML/CSS coder for hire

    1. Re:Extra commas? by MegaFur · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's, just, the way, some of us, write. Gotta. Problem:
      with;
      that?

      --
      Furry cows moo and decompress.
    2. Re:Extra commas? by insomaniac · · Score: 1

      While I agree with you, it might be because of grammar differences between two languages.
      I speak both dutch and english and I notice that I use more comma's in a dutch sentence than I use in english. (Which I understand permits only one comma per sentence but I might be wrong.)

      --
      The way to corrupt a youth is to teach him to hold in higher value them who think alike than those who think differently
    3. Re:Extra commas? by TomV · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's, Shat. ner's Syndrome.
      This, post. Suffers terribly
      Shows, all, the symptoms.

      TomV

    4. Re:Extra commas? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You can use as many commas as you like in English. This can be mathematically prove by the following sentence:

      One, two, three, four, five, then six, and seven, followed by eight, with nine immediately on its heels, then ten ... and finally n.

      n -> 0 - infinity

    5. Re:Extra commas? by Redundant+offtopic+t · · Score: 1

      yes, those commas are valid. This one is not:

      decided, that their

    6. Re:Extra commas? by BetterThanCaesar · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe it was posted by this guy.

      --
      "Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
    7. Re:Extra commas? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because not everybody on /. is a native English speaker and other languages have punctuation in those places.

    8. Re:Extra commas? by Idarubicin · · Score: 1
      I speak both dutch and english and I notice that I use more comma's in a dutch sentence than I use in english.

      Some of the superfluous commas even leap exuberantly into the air.

      --
      ~Idarubicin
    9. Re:Extra commas? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Some of the superfluous commas even leap exuberantly into the air.

      Which is a typical mistake that a Dutchy would make. In Dutch the apostrophe does belong there ("komma's").

    10. Re:Extra commas? by insomaniac · · Score: 1

      Oops, that's a dutch mistake like the AC said allready. One learns something new every day... ;)

      --
      The way to corrupt a youth is to teach him to hold in higher value them who think alike than those who think differently
  20. Re:Good Job, although it reminds me a bit of Activ by Gay+Nigger · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    So that just makes you... more inconsistent?

  21. Crazy editors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The above is marked as "Interesting", the answers explaining it are ignored.

  22. Re:It needs to be pointed out by Sir+Haxalot · · Score: 0

    Heh sorry, but you knew what I meant.

    --
    I have over 70 freaks, do you?
  23. Speeding up development how? by SuperBanana · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Still it could speed up Wine developement, which is always good.

    Or it could hopelessly fragment Wine even further. I've run the commercial version of Wine, and it behaved completely differently from the open-source version, which I found to be massively broken(impossible to get set up correctly). It --appears-- that from a useability standpoint for the end user, none of the commercial stuff has made it back to the open-source project. Why would Aclerex have any interest in fixing the open-source version of Wine to work better? Talk about conflict of interest...

    1. Re:Speeding up development how? by Air-conditioned+cowh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yes, that hit the nail on the head.

      It seems that Wine will forever be in a state of "not quite there" and all the missing pieces of the jigsaw to make it actually work will be proprietry extentions.

      Aclerex is not the real competition for Wine. Real competition is when some bright spark codes all the missing pieces as open source. However, I'm in two minds about this since Codeweaver's product is not really that expensive and it solved a problem for me. I absolutely had to get Windows Media Player to run for someone.

    2. Re:Speeding up development how? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Codeweavers returns all their code to Wine. Not all changes make it back in since some stuff is way too hacky. That doesn't mean that you can't get their changes, they offer a source version of crossover (without their tools ofcourse).

    3. Re:Speeding up development how? by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1
      Oh, Wine will get there one day. It basically boils down to a matter of manpower. More to the point, with a bit of elbow grease you can improve Wine to the point at which it can run nearly any app - this isn't so great for end users who aren't developers and who want to use Linux at home, but it's often an acceptable scenario for businesses who want their custom software to run on it, and can afford a hacker for a bit.

      Most of the problems people have with Wine these days boil down to one or two "hotspot" areas, often related to installers, and setting it up. Both are solvable, and the aim is to solve them for the 0.9 release

    4. Re:Speeding up development how? by BoaZaur · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The way I do it is: buy one license of CrossOver Install one machine the way I like it, and than take the "fake_windows" directory as a template for other machines. In windows all the big fuss installation boils down to: "what is your registry like" well that one is prepared by CrossOver.
      Also a regspy On native windows can do the trick for many applications. That and the files from Program\ files (and system32) so you see CrossOver is good for learning and then Original wine is good for the rest of the house

    5. Re:Speeding up development how? by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's basically how I started.

    6. Re:Speeding up development how? by evilviper · · Score: 1
      none of the commercial stuff has made it back to the open-source project. Why would Aclerex have any interest in fixing the open-source version of Wine

      Do you realize that you are complaining that Wine, a program to run closed-source Windows binaries, isn't completely open source?

      RMS would be proud.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  24. Sounds like... by Saberwind · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...the latest designer drug name

    Warning: Women who might be pregnant should not take Aclerex, or handle broken tablets...

  25. BFD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you maybe just impressed some 13 year old kid who just tried linux for the first time

  26. You're plugging a closed source product... by Svartalf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Much of what Transgaming is selling is proprietary. Perhaps legitimately so (like the copy protection support...)- but it is still closed source all the same. In some areas, they're ahead of WINE, in others, they're behind.

    Keep these things in mind when you think about all of this, though...

    They were going to only go after the stuff that wasn't getting active ports and actually encourage native porting work. They turned around and came up with that bastardized "port" of The Sims and Kohan- which had issues out of the box in both cases. The Sims WAS going to be a native app and Kohan WAS a native app that had lost the porting company (Timegate got the rights to the Loki port, but they didn't want to wait and find out it's fate- they went with Transgaming.).

    They were going to only work at making Linux gaming possible. Now, they're making game "ports" for Windows and MacOS of console games, but NO Linux versions of the same.

    Would YOU trust this bunch?

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
    1. Re:You're plugging a closed source product... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep this in mind....

      THINGS CHANGE!

      Perhaps the initial goal was to encourage native porting work...then holy crap - we can't survive doing this...we need to do something to make money to keep our business afloat so we can continue our linux pursuits. What would you do? Fold up shop and go code for windows for someone else?

    2. Re:You're plugging a closed source product... by MikeFM · · Score: 1

      I've used both CodeWeavers's CrossOver and CrossOver Office products and Transgaming's WineX and I have to say that WineX just sucks in usability compared to CrossOver. CrossOver works very well and is easy enough to use that most average users could figure it out. WineX is troublesome to use and seldom lives up to the promises of Transgaming. It does play some games but not enough to be worth hassling with unless your desperate not to use Windows and desperate to play your games. Last time I tried WineX had very bad support for applications - many things that run with normal Wine or CrossOver just didn't work.

      So overall I have to say I'd suggest going with CrossOver instead of WineX for anything but games. For games I suggest getting a Playstation.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
  27. Am i the only one noticing, or am i completly off? by termos · · Score: 1

    Aclerex is a fork of wine if i'm not mistaken, and wine is licenced under the GPL, how can they then sell it?

    Ok, I know you can sell free software, but as the article said: they'd rather sell to corporations. So no downloads available, sorry. No source available? WineX has source available which is free, and they also have a version you can buy which has some non-free win32 dll thingies.

    Please correct me if i'm wrong, it feels like I am, but can they do this?

    --
    Note to self: get smarter troll to guard door.
  28. jesus christ dude by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you live in a pipe dream. nobody takes transgaming seriously anymore.

  29. Why do you bother? by HanzoSan · · Score: 0, Troll


    Are you some kinda super troll who has a degree in trollogy or something? You come here making the most ridiculous posts I've ever seen, you seem more intelligent than this, why dont you use your intelligence at least when you make these posts?

    If you are going to troll, at least troll in an intelligent manner so that I have something to respond to and debate with, this post you just made was a waste of your time. Let me guess, I've somehow emotionally insulted you and now you are going to follow me around and make personal insults because you were hurt by some slashdot post?

    Get a Job please, a real one, I dont mean your job as slashdot troll.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
  30. Re:Am i the only one noticing, or am i completly o by Ice_Balrog · · Score: 2, Informative

    WineX was forked from WINE before WINE was GPLed. If I remember right, WINE was origionally under the BSD lisence.

    --
    #include "sig.h"
  31. I guess you dont trust the Linux Kernel by HanzoSan · · Score: 0, Troll



    Or the Xfree86 project.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
  32. Re:Am i the only one noticing, or am i completly o by Jo+Owen · · Score: 1

    How did you translate 'no downloads available' into 'No source available'?

    They are only required to give you the source when you buy(get) a copy from them.

  33. Re:Am i the only one noticing, or am i completly o by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, they can do this. The GPL only requires source be made available to those who receive binaries. There is no requirement that the source be made freely available to everyone.

  34. Re:Good Job, although it reminds me a bit of Activ by nmos · · Score: 1

    ts a good plan, and I'm glad they are competition for CodeWeavers, I dont like CodeWeavers, they are a very greedy destructive company and they remind me alot of SCO in how they act sometimes.

    What makes you say that?

  35. Their lawyers suggested this name... by twoslice · · Score: 1


    Winem Bindem Linkem and Dumpem.

    But their PR department nixed the idea.

    --

    From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
  36. Re:Am i the only one noticing, or am i completly o by JediTrainer · · Score: 3, Informative

    can they do this?

    Yes. They can. The GPL requires that the source be made available either with the binaries, or as a separate download if requested by a possessor of the binaries.

    So you can go buy it, and then you're entitled to the source code after you do.

    On the other hand, the fork that Transgaming has was based on the BSD license, not the GPL (Wine changed licenses some time ago), so they can do whatever they want at that point, because their source code isn't bound by the GPL anyway.

    --

    You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
  37. Using opensource for financial self-gain by ShadowRage · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Hmm, sounds like another microsoft. and the amount of code they give back is like... part of a c file. Now with this, they're prolly not going to give back anything, not to mention they're not that great yet where they can just take this and shove it in the businessman's face, but, I forget that microsoft did the same thing. Funny how when microsoft related code is in question, people pull the same moves as microsoft did and have sticky hands as well. It's sick, honestly. These companies are the type that take advantage of opensource, promise something that will keep the true opensource developers happy, then not really fall through on it. I say, dont use transgaming's crap, I've tried winex 3 and vanilla wine worked better than it. Well, on the application front anyways. I bet this new software is winex + vanilla wine. Maybe this will be an eye opener for opensource, stop trying to make linux something its not, a windows compatible operating system. So what all other operating systems do, just open up vmware, becuase eventually, you're probably better off using that, becuase transgaming and codeweavers will probably jack up their pricing in the future. All you're doing when you're trying to make linux windows compatible is giving into microsoft. Make wine support limited for applications, to coax these developers into linux. They fail to realise that they have a good sized market over in linux. Potential new users to their hardware and software. This project is not going to do well in my opinion, transgaming is bound to slip up on a legality and get sued by microsoft. Oh well.

  38. Re:Good Job, although it reminds me a bit of Activ by HanzoSan · · Score: 1



    CodeWeavers was responsible for the whole Wine split which damanged Transgaming and Lindows.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
  39. Until you have a work Office, I'd say no by MickLinux · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Quite honestly, I've tried OpenOffice on my 800Mhz 64-MB PC, and it is so slooow, that I uninstalled it.

    Koffice is faster, but crashes regularly. I understand, I'm using the older KDE (2.x), because I'm on Debian/Woody; but I had installed KDE 3.0 before, along with it's KOffice, and I was still getting crashes.

    So there is no version of Office for Windows that I am aware of that works well. As long as that is the case, WINE is good for OSS, not bad. That is, if they can get Office working successfully. I tried WINE with Word98, and it sucked. But maybe WineX doesn't. If it doesn't, then I'm all in favor of WineX, closed source or not. After all, the Windows apps are also closed source; we're talking about migrating slowly, not jumping in with both feet.

    --
    Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
    1. Re:Until you have a work Office, I'd say no by ErikZ · · Score: 4, Funny

      Here's 50$ kid, go get yourself 512MB of RAM.

      --
      Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
    2. Re:Until you have a work Office, I'd say no by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 1

      So what do you think will run faster: MSOffice ($300) or StarOffice on a new processor and a gig of RAM (less than $300). I don't need to remind you that there are other advantages of taking the second option...

    3. Re:Until you have a work Office, I'd say no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Secret option 3: A pirated version of MSOffice ($1 for a blank CD)

    4. Re:Until you have a work Office, I'd say no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really, honestly, I'd like that. Could you make that Packard-Bell proprietary format RAM?

  40. Suuuure, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CodeWeavers is at fault because two other projects cannot compete or get their acts together. Out in left field.

  41. partly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    WineX gives back code, but not everything.

    They gave back all DirectX things but the Direct3d stuff. Their CD-copy-protection-simulator-patch or whatever they apply to the binary version is completly transgaming and not made public in the cvs.

  42. if they're dumb/lazy enough to use pdf for details by loneoak · · Score: 0

    they're too dumb to investe time or money on.

  43. Open Source and Linux by retrogramer · · Score: 0, Troll

    Trying to sell any software for Linux is against
    the idea of Linux, in my opinion. I thought that
    Open Source was Linux. This eventuality really sucks. I guess I'll just have to start supporting
    Billy and his group of butts. Great job, Wine.
    You fail it.

    1. Re:Open Source and Linux by cdvd · · Score: 0

      Hahaha dood you can ruin yer karma without my help well guess what YOU FAIL IT MBYAHAHAHAHA
      !!!!!!!!!!!11111

  44. Add a little more RAM and you will be golden. by MsGeek · · Score: 2, Informative
    Quite honestly, I've tried OpenOffice on my 800Mhz 64-MB PC, and it is so slooow, that I uninstalled it.

    I was pleasantly surprised with OpenOffice.Org on my Mac G3 "Wallstreet" PowerBook running Yellow Dog Linux 3.0. I don't have tons of RAM (192MB) and the proc is only 233MHz (Basically equiv. to a 466MHz PII) but it ran acceptably.

    I haven't played with KOffice but since OpenOffice works I might not even put any Redmond crap on the PowerBook. OO.O will indeed open/save any but the most complex MS Office documents. It also blithely ignores Word/Excel Macro viruses and might even cleanse them from documents that are infected.

    OpenOffice works beautifully in both x86 and PPC Linux, and is known to work in *BSD. (which is NOT dead, btw) It also runs on the X11 compatibility layer in MacOS X.

    OpenOffice likes a wee bit more RAM than 64MB. However, not much more is necessary. The Windows version seems to be very happy in 256MB RAM on a 466MHz Celeron. The Linux version flies on both my 733MHz PIII with 512MB and an AthlonXP 1800+PR with 512MB RAM. Starting OO.O on my Mac PB with Yellow Dog Linux requires a bit of patience, but once it's up and running it works. Again, that's just with 192MB RAM. When I finally get 384MB in there it will be very content indeed.

    A little RAM will do ya. Just get another stick. It's not very expensive. And it will make a world of difference.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
    1. Re:Add a little more RAM and you will be golden. by HiThere · · Score: 1

      FWIW, OO.o doesn't handle anything that's dependant on VB. This has both it's good and it's bad points (I'd much rather they used Python or Ruby as their scripting language...or at least allowed one to choose them), but it definitely means that some of the projects I wrote at work have no chance of porting successfully. (OTOH, VB is an atrocity looking for a chance to comit itself. So it's easy to make a decent argument against it. But don't say that OO.o can handle all but the most complex MSOffice documents, because that's overselling things. By a lot.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    2. Re:Add a little more RAM and you will be golden. by MickLinux · · Score: 1

      Well, I'm glad to hear that it will work with more RAM. Really. It still won't help me a ton, for a few reasons (abyssmal contracts don't pay squat; computer is a Packard Bell with their own proprietary RAM format, and Packard Bell is defunct) but I'm glad to hear that it really does work. Blah.

      Nor is the Mac advice particularly great for me, though again it's great to hear: We have a PB3400cs (192 MB RAM max, 233 MHz), PB1400c(300 MHz; 16 MB), and PB190c(not PowerPC). We technically don't have our PB1400cs(400;64-16) any more because we transferred it to our partner company. But they have it. Anyhow, it's started coming up with errors on the onboard RAM, so our first program that we run is "Puzzle", set to 16MB to eat up the bad RAM. But on abyssmal contracts, you can't afford to buy real computers. Blah.

      On another issue, since you seem to be a Mac guy, isn't there an OS-X version of Microsoft Office? Could it be easier to port that to Linux, than porting it through WINE?

      --
      Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
    3. Re:Add a little more RAM and you will be golden. by MsGeek · · Score: 1
      Well, I'm glad to hear that it will work with more RAM. Really. It still won't help me a ton, for a few reasons (abyssmal contracts don't pay squat; computer is a Packard Bell with their own proprietary RAM format, and Packard Bell is defunct) but I'm glad to hear that it really does work. Blah.

      Packard Hell. My condolences. I mean, really. They made the worst computers ever made. I feel for you.

      Anyway, here's the skinny on your Macs. Yellow Dog Linux will install on your PB3400. As far as the the 1400s, you might want to look into Debian Linux PPC for those bad boys. For the PB190, your only choice would be either NetBSD or Debian Linux 68K.

      Yes there is an MS Office for MacOS X...it's called Office X. However, I don't think that Microsoft is going to be releasing source on it to recompile for Linux anytime soon...sorry...

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
    4. Re:Add a little more RAM and you will be golden. by MickLinux · · Score: 1

      I wasn't thinking of getting Office X source; rather, I was thinking that the conversion package (like WINE) from OS-X to Debian might be a ton easier and more reliable. That being the case, one might be able to install a more reliable version of Office X than of Wine+Office ME/Office XP.

      --
      Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
  45. LGPL not GPL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They changed to the LGPL not GPL. You can still create proprietary apps with LGPLed programs.

  46. A customer's take by ThoreauHD · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have paid transgaming for about a year now. I've been testing their software and seeing how they operate. Since transgaming's stance on packaging the source code of winex has come to light, I have since neglected my subscription.

    I was able to play, in 1 years time, WarCraft 3 on 1 particular version of WineX. I don't recall which one, but the successive version broke even that. I tested all the games they purported to support. I have alot of games.

    Their forums are forums.. nothing spectacular. They have maybe 2 guys from Transgaming reading and helping users on the forums. They do not consistently respond to email. And if they do, again, it's from the guys in the forums... reminding me of a Chinese Firedrill.

    I have since decided to let my sub lapse due to the environment described above. They act as if they own this code, and their license is NOT the LGPL like wine. It reminds me alot of an artificial patent. They hold on to your code for a couple of years, while they give nothing back and try to sell it. Standing on the shoulders of others and congratulating yourself on being the first to get there is no accomplishment in my eyes. But that's just my opinion, and you know what opinions are like. Anyway, It's like this:

    "The source code to TransGaming WineX (minus copy protection related code, for now) is available through VA Linux's SourceForge website. You can examine and modify it to your heart's content, you can watch the changes we make as we go, and you can participate in detailed development discussions on our mailing list. The only thing you can't do is redistribute WineX code for any commercial purpose. The WineX code is licensed under the Aladdin Free Public License, which prohibits commercial use of our work. If you wish to use WineX commercially, please contact our sales team to arrange for alternative licensing arrangements.

    Once we have reached our subscription goals, we plan to release all of the WineX source code under the Wine license, which will allow it to be directly integrated with the core Wine project code hosted at www.winehq.com. Until then, we will periodically submit selected portions of our code for integration with the Wine project."

    Essentially, we ain't gonna see shit. And with their smacking Debian and Gentoo on the head for packaging the code, they aren't following their own rules. Commercial enterprises are for profit. Debian is non-profit. Gentoo, I didn't even know was a org.. but you get the point.

    If they are this rambunctious now and giving nothing in return- what happens if business picks up. Just my observation. My gut instinct is to say fuckem. And my gut is usually right.

  47. Could make many migration plans "fall into place" by WoTG · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This seems like a good idea to me. There is bound to be a market for quick, specialized, porting services to Linux. A lot of companies are looking at moving to Linux on at least some of their desktops but in many cases there are one or two in-house or 3rd party niche software products that will prevent migration from happening. For in-house products, it might not make financial sense to rewrite the program. And smaller niche software houses often don't have the time or the Linux market size for their products to justify a "proper" port.

    Enter a firm like Aclerex who comes along and says "we can port this for x dollars", suddenly a lot of migration plans fall into place.

    Of course this all depends on the cost and effectiveness of the folks at Aclerex.

  48. Re:It needs to be pointed out by Luke-Jr · · Score: 1

    Actually, I don't... What does RedHat have to do with WINE or any of it's forks?

    --
    Luke-Jr
  49. Most is rejected?? by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Care to share why? I'm just curious. Seems like the only way to get a decent stable wine is to buy something..

    Sort of sad if you think about it.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  50. I'm nitpicking, but.. by Sunnan · · Score: 1
    Not that there is anything inherently wrong with going from Open Source to Free software,


    Going from a non-copyleft license to a copyleft license is just going between two forms of open source/free software. (Open source and free software is basically two different groups' descriptions for the same thing.)

    (..and I promised myself I wouldn't nitpick any more...)
    1. Re:I'm nitpicking, but.. by timeOday · · Score: 1
      (Open source and free software is basically two different groups' descriptions for the same thing.)
      No, the distinction between them is pivotal to Wine. Under an "open source" license, transgaming can base their product on Wine, enhance it, and sell the modified version without sharing their improvements. Under a "free software" license, transgaming would have to open their enhancements back to Wine.

      So which is better? Ultimately, whichever one is consistent with the Wine developers' desires. But I think the emergence of Linux over BSD may be an indication that enforcing reciprocation helps a project, at least sometimes. (The GPL does turn people away sometimes, but those turned away wouldn't have been contributors anyways).

    2. Re:I'm nitpicking, but.. by nmos · · Score: 1

      No, the distinction between them is pivotal to Wine. Under an "open source" license, transgaming can base their product on Wine, enhance it, and sell the modified version without sharing their improvements. Under a "free software" license, transgaming would have to open their enhancements back to Wine.

      Your confused. Even RMS agrees that the BSD licence (and similar) qualify as "Free Software" even though it's not his prefered licnese. The ONLY difference between OSS and FS is the ideals/priorities of the folks promoting the terms. In the case of Wine they just switched from one FS license to another (or if you like from one OSS license to another) arguably more restrictive one.

    3. Re:I'm nitpicking, but.. by timeOday · · Score: 1

      Why don't you read this and get back to me.

    4. Re:I'm nitpicking, but.. by Sunnan · · Score: 1

      It really appears like it's you who haven't read it.

      And how about reading this (which says that the BSD-license is a free software license) and this, which argues for using a copyleft free software license like the GPL rather than a non-copyleft free software license like the BSD license)? (Emphasis mine.)

      And how come that both the GPL and the BSD license is on the OSI's list of approved licenses?

      It's because free software and open source are meant to describe the same thing. The two terms are used by two groups, one who openly values freedom for it's own sake, and another who, well, don't like to speak about it that much.

    5. Re:I'm nitpicking, but.. by timeOday · · Score: 1

      I agree your links demonstrate your point. I think the word I was looking for was not "free software" but "copyleft."

  51. check your facts by penguin7of9 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Your story that Wine changed from LGPL to GPL is bogus. Wine is under the LGPL license today (see here). And the LGPL license is all that is needed to prevent people from "taking without giving back".

    Putting Wine under the GPL would make it seriously less useful because one of the main purposes of Wine is to let people move commercial Windows applications to Linux, and that may involve linking with it.

  52. Portability and GUI graphics models by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1
    Back in the olden days of DOS and raw VGA graphics programming, the graphics device was simply an area of memory where you set bits. The Windows API along with the Java Swing (Sun) and Java SWT (IBM/Eclipse) seem to have busted this simple thing into three things, the properties and boundaries of which never get properly explained. As far as I can tell they all have an equivalent to 1) a graphics object that allows high-level drawing operations (no setting bits, or if you can it is one bit at a time and very inefficient), 2) a bitmap object that hides the implementation detail of how pixels are stored, but allows fast drawing of a block of pixels to a graphics object, and 3) a raster object that allows setting individual pixels like in the old days, but cannot be directly blasted to the screen like a bitmap object but requires some kind of bitmap object as an intermediary on the way to the screen.

    Why we can't do graphics as rasters and have to go through this song and dance I don't know; graphics has to be split into these three object types for a combination of device-independence and historical-bloody mindedness. On the other hand, this three-object system could be abstracted, but someone please show me the portable GUI library that has a "raster widget" which allows me to paint a picture by setting bits -- efficiently. In GUIdom, the graphics object (object 1) and its high-level ops (drawing lines, rectangles, and characters) is king, and the bitmap (object 2) is introduced as a way of blitting icons, logos, and photographics pictures sucked in from standard image file formats without having to know how the bits are stored. A raster (object 3) is somehow considered an advanced feature -- a developer is not supposed to worry one's pretty little head about graphics operations as low-level as rasters -- and if your application needs to work at the level of rasters (I compute and display "voice-print" speech spectrograms), you have some real issues with portable GUI frameworks.

    Windows actually has a powerful facility for working with rasters (bless their dark little hearts) -- the CreateDIBSection() API call that allows you to create an object that has both bitmap (object 2) and a raster (object 3) interfaces -- you can twiddle the image bits through the raster interface and then turn around and use the bitmap interface to blast this image to the screen through a graphics object (object 1). I think the reason that Windows has CreateDIBSection() and its sister call StretchDIBits() is that game programmers (especially 2-d games, I understand 3-d games have gone to using high-level graphics primitives as an intermediary to the screen) blast bits, and those API calls were what Microsoft had to offer to woo developers of VGA games over to Windows -- they preceded the full-blown DirectX API. Object framework support for this is rare, but guess what, Delphi (3 and later) has a Scanline property (object 3 interface) to bitmap objects (object 2 interface) that abstracts the CreateDIBSection() call.

    Also guess what: Kylix, the Qt-library version of Delphi has the Scanline property, but it is brain damaged. Apparently Qt allows for objects that are both bitmap (object 2) and raster (object 3) at the same time, but you cannot update just a piece of the raster without incurring the compute-time hit of reconverting the entire raster to repaint the bitmap every time you do that. So, if you want to be selectively updating a raster you have to go through the rigemarole of creating a subsized raster, doing its bitmap refresh, and then blitting to a bigger bitmap. I thought these GUI frameworks were supposed to abstract and make life simple instead of create the need to come up with all these work arounds.

    What I want to know is if WINE has an effective mapping of CreateDIBSection() into whatever Unix calls, and if so, why can't Qt have the same capability so we could port to Linux and dispense with this WINE thingy?

    Instead of replicating the Windows API, can I get the functionality of the W

  53. CodeWeavers is helping Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In fact, in my opinion, CodeWeavers may even be working with Microsoft.

    CodeWeavers' most promoted product is Crossover Office, which allows MS Office to run on Linux.

    Does this help Linux and hurt Microsoft? No . . . quite the opposite, in fact. Microsoft wants Linux users running MS Office, because that keeps them locked in to Microsoft file formats while Microsoft prepares the .Net version of Office.

    On the Xandros home page, the main heading states:

    > Xandros Desktop now runs Microsoft Office XP

    On the SuSE Linux Desktop page, one of the major benefits listed is:

    > Codeweaver Crossover Office for the integration of MS Office

    Notice how they don't say "for running Lotus Notes," or "for running Windows applications." They only talk about MS Office.

    How did CodeWeavers manage to get Office working correctly when so many others had failed? How did they work out Microsoft's secret/obfuscated calls? Did they get help?

    Or if they hacked the calls, why hasn't Microsoft sued CodeWeavers under the DMCA (or the "only run with Windows" clause in the licenses)? After all, Microsoft sued another company who made it possible to run MS FoxPro on Linux.

    What argument did CodeWeavers use to convince people to LGPL the Wine source? They used the envy-based "we don't want others to profit from our work" argument. Have you ever heard a real Open Source developer say that? I haven't. Open Source developers may talk about how the GPL protects the source from companies like Microsoft, but part of the reason for Open Sourcing your software is the hope that others might profit from it.

    Where have I heard the envy-based "surely you don't want others profitting from your work" argument? It was a common refrain by Microsoft astroturfers, who were trying to convince us that the Open Source development model will fail.

    Was there a danger in using a BSD license for Wine? Not really. Since the purpose of Wine is to allow closed source applications to run on Linux, it matters little if those applications include some extra code from Wine.

    What was the main result of changing the Wine license to LGPL? It hurt Linux! Here's how...

    The biggest area where Linux is lacking applications is not office software. It's games! And when the Wine license was changed to LGPL, it prevented most Windows games developers from using it! Unlike Office software, for speed and other reasons, games need to include some library code, not just link to it.

    What do you think the fuss was about? Why do you think many game manufacturers are working with Transgaming, instead of using the LGPL'd version of Wine? Now you know, and I thank Transgaming for their part in protecting the BSD'd version of Wine.

    So, to summarize, CodeWeaver's involvement in Wine has:

    1) Made them money.
    2) Helped Microsoft create an MS Office lock-in on Linux.
    3) Hurt Linux by making it harder to port games.

    1. Re:CodeWeavers is helping Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I disagree. Microsoft Office is the standard. Linux will never succeed on the desktop without the ability to run Office.

    2. Re:CodeWeavers is helping Microsoft by nmos · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Notice how they don't say "for running Lotus Notes," or "for running Windows applications." They only talk about MS Office.

      Sure because the majority of Windows users feel (rightly or not) that MS Office is a must have for them. Even a lot of people running MS Works or Word Perfect THINK they are running MS Office.

      Or if they hacked the calls, why hasn't Microsoft sued CodeWeavers under the DMCA

      On what grounds? Unless MS has started encrypting their Office CDs I don't see what legal leg they'd have to stand on.

      What argument did CodeWeavers use to convince people to LGPL the Wine source? They used the envy-based "we don't want others to profit from our work" argument.

      Or put another way, "We're going to pay developers to improve Wine and contribute that work back and we'd like some assurances that our competitors will have to play by the same rules". Personally I think of the GPL as just putting down in writing what would otherwise be common courtesy.

      Does this help Linux and hurt Microsoft? No . . . quite the opposite, in fact. Microsoft wants Linux users running MS Office, because that keeps them locked in to Microsoft file formats while Microsoft prepares the .Net version of Office.

      The people buying Crossover Office are already locked into MS file formats. If having Crossover available means that that's the only MS product they are locked into then I'd consider that a major improvement. Maybe once they see the incredible amount of high quality Free Software available on their Linux boxes they will re-evaluate just how much MS products are really worth.

    3. Re:CodeWeavers is helping Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > The people buying Crossover Office are already locked into MS file formats.

      Right, so having those MS Office users on Linux does them no good, because they are still trapped. And it does us no good because it gives Microsoft leverage, in that they can threaten a group of Linux users. And, worst of all, it creates a group of Linux users who are going to push for access to Microsoft .Net services.

      If Microsoft had brought Office to Linux on their own, then we would all be shouting out a warning. So why is it any better when it's done through a third party?

      There is little need for MS Office on Linux. We should be encouraging people to use OpenOffice instead.

      > Or put another way, "We're going to pay developers to improve Wine and contribute that work back and we'd like some assurances that our competitors will have to play by the same rules". Personally I think of the GPL as just putting down in writing what would otherwise be common courtesy.

      That argument is usually true, but Wine is an exception.

      Remember that Wine does nothing on its own. The only purpose of Wine is for running other software, specifically, for running Windows applications on Linux. And those applications are mostly closed source.

      Thus, even when the Wine source is LGPL'd, it still contributes to the bottom line of closed source companies who may give nothing in return.

      In other words, CodeWeaver's argument was false. LGPL'ing the code did nothing to protect our work -- companies can still profit from it, and give nothing in return. But what it did do was to discourage many companies from using Wine to port their software to Linux.

      To give one example, CodeWeavers took the hard work of the Wine developers, and contributed it to Microsoft. As a result, Microsoft is going to make more money by selling Office licenses to Linux users. But did we get any of Microsoft's code in return?

    4. Re:CodeWeavers is helping Microsoft by Karn · · Score: 1

      Microsoft will never port Office to Linux (never being a very long time) because if they do, it gives legitimacy to Linux, and it also allows businesses to switch easier (some people can't get by with OpenOffice b/c it's not 100% compatible.)

      Microsoft most certainly does not like Wine, or the ability to run Windows programs in Linux. They even threatened to sue some Wine people who wanted to demo Visual Foxpro (iirc) running under Linux in Wine, because it demonstrates the feasibility of running their software on a competing platform.

      --


      Why do I keep typing pythong?
  54. Re:Am i the only one noticing, or am i completly o by Smarmy_1 · · Score: 1

    It doesn't say anywhere in the Linuxworld article that the source will not be available, or anything at all about downloads whatsoever. I'm not sure where the submitter got this information. Could be the Aclerex site, but it's already down.

    I don't have information either way, but before jumping to conclusions and starting a witch hunt, I'd wait for the real facts. It's very possible that the reason their are "no downloads" is that's it's simply not done yet! Companies ususally announce products a fair amount ahead of their actual release.

    This sounds like a typical knee-jerk reaction.

  55. Re:Am i the only one noticing, or am i completly o by Smarmy_1 · · Score: 1

    Oops, I meant LinuxPlanet article. Sorry LP!

  56. Serial Experiments Lain reference by tempmpi · · Score: 1

    In the the very nice anime series "Serial Experiments Lain" there is a designer drug like nano-machine based "Accela" substance.
    Accela causes a change of consciousness and seems to connect people to the "Wired", a huge omnipresent network, without additional tech.

    --
    Jan
  57. Re:The All In One comment (Good) by bwcbwc · · Score: 1

    Wine is good, because the biggest barrier to native application development for Linux is market penetration on the desktop. Reducing barriers businesses migrating from Windows to Linux is a good thing. Once Linux market share approaches the share for the Mac (or once an application can be written once for both Mac and Linux), then more native apps will appear for Linux.

    On the other hand, this approach didn't work for OS/2.

    On the gripping hand, the migration to 64-bit computing is a good opportunity to break MS stranglehold. Unless MS aligns strongly with AMD, they will shortly have their own compatibility issues with their current applications when user workstations upgrade to 64 bits. If Microsoft is confident of their market dominance, they will put almost all of their development efforts to the Intel 64-bit platform and only play lip service to AMD. If they have legitimate concerns about losing market share because users will refuse to upgrade their office applications, they will give real support to AMD.

    Since AMD is such a weak competitor to Intel, it will take a VERY strong Linux to drive Microsoft into providing OS support for AMD. This means that if enough high quality Open Source 64 bit applications are available when the big migration occurs, the market will be much more open than it is now.

    WINE is a great tool for educating the market and preparing businesses to accept the idea of Linux desktops.

    --
    We are the 198 proof..
  58. WHere are mod points when you need them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone needs to mod the parent up!

  59. Moreover Code Weavers CrossOver kicks butt! by LINM · · Score: 1

    Not only are they "nice guys", but CodeWeavers Wine (CrossOver Office) works right now: today!

    I have been running Office 97 on my Xandros desktop with it since last November and it has worked pretty much flawlessly (primary exception being that I find directory management a slight pain when saving or opening). Now I run Office XP: PowerPoint, Excel, Word on my Xandros Desktop and they work perfect. No complaints, you should definitely try it.

    While CrossOver (CodeWeavers Wine) does not work for every app in the Windows universe, it does work for a couple of the most important and really kicks some butt while it is at it. By supporting these apps, it allows people to adopt Xandros where they otherwise would be stuck with Gates.

    Aclerex poses little threat. Their technology does not work today and may never. Meanwhile CodeWeavers is chugging right along building up their user base.

    My main concern is that their very open license will make it difficult for Code Weavers to make money long term. As anyone can grab the tree at any time and have their own version there is a low ceiling for what Code Weavers can charge. This in turn makes it harder for them to raise money, make money from selling their software, and, hence, invest in making CrossOver better, faster.

    --

    Hunger is the best sauce.

  60. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.


    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Ja

  61. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.


    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Ja

  62. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.


    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Japanese

  63. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.


    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Japanese

  64. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.


    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Ja

  65. DEC Alpha and em86 + WINE ...fx!32 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If only the em86 software in the Linux kernel was mature...then users of a DEC Alpha architecture could run x86/Linux binaries, which would mean that Wine pre-compiled for x86 would be working. Those of us that were using FX!32 on Windows NT were able to run quite a many applications built for x86/win16 and x86/win32, but if only em86 was more mature... There realy needs to be a native x86 crossover API in Linux, instead of BOCHS' virtual machine type of implementation. em86 is a x86 API for Alpha, but still.

    Anyone have any success or know of any plans or projects to replace or update and extend em86? em86 can run quite a bit of software today, including Netscape 4, etc. If em86 was just a little better, then Quake3 Enemy Territory would work on Alpha, but still...Tenebrae and Dark Places and everything else that's been opensourced (Duke3D yay finaly) runs on Alpha. em86 would be a godsend if it was near flawless.

  66. Re:Good Job, although it reminds me a bit of Activ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I used to support Transgaming, but not anymore..

    I think the last straw was their announcment of porting some Spy Hunter game to Mac & Windows, with no mention of a possible Linux port. The 2nd to last straw was the fact that they claimed BF1942 ran with their 3.0 release.. Sure it ran, like it would run on a 300Mhz Pentium on Windows 98. I was paying this $5.00/month for a useless product. I mostly did it to support them b/c I thought they were a decent company.

    Ryan Gordon is porting MOHAA in his spare time, by himself most probably. He's doing more for Linux gaming, and he is doing some of it on his own dime.

    He deserves my $5.00/month much more than Transgaming does.

  67. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.

    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Japanese

  68. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.


    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Japanese c

  69. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.


    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Ja

  70. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.

    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Japanese cla

  71. The Trials and Tribulations of HanzoSan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Dana Edwards was feeling a little disheartened. It had been nearly a week since he'd contacted Peacecorp and applied for a tour of duty in the Congo. He had hoped all week that his weight problem, chronic acne and asthma would not discount him from the program. Dana had been in some financial strife for a couple years now, with those tuition fees from Massachusets Bay Community College piling up. This was particularly stressful for him because, despite having taught himself to read and posessing an impressive intellect, he could not find a decent slack-off job with internet connection that would support his slashdot posting habit. Dana belched while he tapped his cordless phone and stuffed his hand into a bag of Cheetos. Dana, a Jack of All Trades had also been unsuccessful for several years in his attempts to get a night DJ position at a local AM radio station within walking distance of his mother's house. This distressed him, because being a DJ would be such a natural part-time job for him, being a skilled musician on the side. Alas, he waited still and finished the last fluid ounce of his Mountain Dew.

    Peacecorp was going to change that. Where his business sense would have failed him in the Merchant Marines and his poor physical condition were not up to snuff for the military, he felt Peacecorp would welcome him with open arms and take his student loan burden off his hands.

    "Education equals genius. Genius is good for society. I'll show them, I'm going to buck the status quo. I'm going to make a difference, I'll show them what a poor kid from the ghetto is capable of." Dana thought to himself.

    Dana had not shaven for five days, but his greasy facial hair never became very thick, even after weeks of neglect. It grew in a thin, spotty Fu Manchu pattern. Best described, his whiskers resembled soot smeared on his greasy jowels. He scratched at his armpit and pulled the tightening fabric of his pajama pants out of his groin and sighed with relief.

    "Aaaah."

    Dana was glad that the weekend had finally come around. His Computer Repair Fundamentals and Sociology classes were starting to really dig in. He blamed the teacher for sucking, and was utterly convinced that his superior intellect would reward him with first in his graduating class of 40. He was certain that the same outcome would happen if he got into MIT, but that would never happen. The rich bastards would never give him a fair chance on a level playing field. The MIT bastards hate nerds, just like everybody else. That was alright though, Dana already knew he was superior to most of them anyway. Their facilities were only useful to the superficial.

    Dana loosened up a bit by putting some music on the 'juke. He got a free MP3 jukebox from his mother and slapped an "RIAA SUCKS" bumper sticker on the side of it. Dana was vehemently opposed to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property, especially music. Dana downloaded all his favourite Pink Floyd tracks off the internet and onto the jukebox, and this brought a small amount of joy to his empty life.

    "Damn the man!" he exclaimed, raising a fist as his gut flopped out of his oil-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt.

    Ice T and Fred Durst alone had practically paved the way to justified downloads of all music ever created and served up on KaZaa. And so, Dana sat in in front of his monitor listening to The Wall, waiting for a reply from Peacecorp.

    His mother slipped in to his room briefly to set down a balogna and cheese sandwich in front of him while he fired up a beta version of Transgaming on his Pentium 166 with MMX.

    "Mom, why don't you hate the RIAA?"

    She shrugged, rolled her eyes and closed the door to his room on the way out.

    "She forgot to cut off the crusts." Dana held back the tears and ate the sandwich anyway.


    [montemplar] wuzzup hanz0?

    A privmsg came up on his IRC client. Dana had adopted the "handle" HanzoSan after his Japanese cla

  72. Reactions? Huh? by vinn · · Score: 1

    Um, I didn't really write anything about the reactions of Wine developers in this weeks' WWN. Save for agreeing with Mike Hearn that an announcement still seems pending.

    Oh well, thanks for the press. It's always nice to see.

    --
    ----- obSig
  73. Really? by Eric+Damron · · Score: 1

    "Still it could speed up Wine developement, which is always good."

    Really? Did I miss something? Has Transgaming ever released their source to the open source community?

    --
    The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
  74. Web page for Interest doesn't work by matrix_alien · · Score: 1

    For being such an ' industry leader ', how come their Interest form doesn't work? If I fill it out, it gives a Mason error complaining it can't load countries.