Slashdot Mirror
"Missing Link" In Windows Emulation Unveiled?
ben_ writes "According to this article on inq7.net, a Philippines company called SpecOps has revealed their Project David, a middleware layer that solves the problem Wine has been working at for years and will "enable all major Microsoft Windows applications to run on the free and open source Linux OS".
Further (and more sceptical) analysis at Linux Electrons." I'm with Linux Electrons on this; as nice as it sounds, the information about David comes via Press Release which as we all know are founts of dependability *cough*.
They do a very good job of debunking it. Its Crap. Don't believe evrything you read.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Hopefully this isn't a result of the supposed 'leaked' code awhile back. If it was, and Microsoft finds out, it could set them back twice as far as they've come.
All jokes aside, BSODs are very very few and far between (certainly on the *nix scale) since 2k/XP was released. Before 2k/XP most people blammed microsoft when in reality it was buggy drivers. Now with the new driver model these instances of drivers crashing the kernel are rather rare. When a company claims to have found a "bug" which was a relativly well-known design decision they have lost most all credibility. This is either a pump-and-dump scheme, vaporware or an instance of code stealing.
Comments on the article website seem to suggest that this *may* be a re-engineer of the Win32 api based on the stolen win2k codebase.
The phillipines is not known for its strict adherence to interlectual properties laws.
Actually, would this even be illegal?
If the codebase was stolen in the US, looked at in the phillipines and a program written based on that looking, would the program be legal in the US or not?
And what about elsewhere in the world?
Official GOD FAQ.
Hello,
this announcement reminds me of waht Lindows told us back then. I mean 100% Windows compatibility and such. The linked article seems quite ridiculous to me.
I mean "while all those projects emulating windows inherit the windows specific problems like instability, out new implementation does not contain those, thus is stabler then windows".
This is just another WINE-ripoff combined with good PR. Don't believe a thing!
Philip
"David is currently 25% completed with the Systems Design Phase of development."
... high on hyperbole with little to no substance.
If this works, great. Going through there website doesn't fill me with any confidence.
Very reminiscint of Infinium Labs [www.infiniumlabs.com]
One to watch, yes; but really, don't hold your breath.
Apparently, you don't even need to install it! What will they think of next...
If this is a silver bullet app, then why does it only work on 'major' apps???
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
I am not sure that MS would want to do anything about this. They aren't going to stop Linux, maybe slow it down , but not stop it, and I think they are smart enough to know that. If David actually passes puberty without dying, it would give MS another platform to sell their products on. Secondly it would give publishers little reason to spend time porting their code to Linux when they on't need to. That in itself might play well into MS's hand. This could be a double edged sword.
Your own citation of dictionary.com on your "complete rant" disagrees with you. "The low-level software which handles the interface to peripheral hardware, schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user when no application program is running
/ The foundation software of a machine; that which schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user between applications"
Default interface to the user? Sounds like a shell to me.
So there you go -- operating system = kernel + shell. (One could argue for a bootloader as well)
The following sentence is true. The preceding sentence was false.