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New Competition For CodeWeavers: Aclerex

Posted by Hemos on from the competing-together dept.

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."

2 of 218 comments (clear)

  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."
  2. 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.