RE: Wine versions + future

On Thu, 16 May 2002, Patrik Stridvall wrote:

> Transgaming have released a lot thing to Wine as Gavriel himself have shown.
>
> However you can't reasonably expect them to release everything.
> They must have something to make money from.

Sorry, I haven't read a single statement asking Transgaming or any other
company to release all their code.

Actually, I do not have the impression that many people in the wine
community are hardcore followers of the FSF philosophy. That is logical,
because such people would not care about running windows apps, nor making
them available to others, because they consider proprietary code evil.
Stallman followers probably consider wine itself evil because it opens
the door for proprietary Windows apps on Linux.

My conclusion is that most wine people have moderate views on free
software and licensing issues.

Nevertheless TransGaming seems to have made the impression of
taking much and giving little on a number of independent developers.

I haven't followed the past developments closely enough to judge whether
that's true or not. But only the fact that they made this impression
should make TransGaming think.

IMO, the free wine wouldn't need direct3d support, at least not in the
short run, if Transgaming would just offer an addon module enabling
direct3d in the framework of free wine wich people could buy. I think the
licences of both the free and commercial parts should be made compatible
with that goal. I currently fail to see why the LGPL would forbid this,
but I'm (fortunately) not a lawyer.

I would really like to see people stop arguing about whatever details
in the licence(s) and speculating about future problems, and discuss
a joint approach instead that would benefit all parts, the community as
well as the companies involved. Having 7 separate wine trees will be
beneficial to noone.

It appears to me that at the core of the licensing debate is some sort of
conflict between the two companies Codeweavers and Transgaming, and
that most independent developers have been seduced to take this or the
other side. This is a pity because the free wine was there long before
either company, and provided the basis on which both of them are making
money. It is frustrating to see independent people fight and even
leave the project as a consequence of company politics.

And what will happen if yet other companies (e.g. Lindows) appear on the
scenery?

The more I think about it, the more convinced I get that the Wine/ReWind
split is about the worst that could happen to wine. Unlike others, I don't
have strong feelings about the particular license wine should have, unless
it is some resonable free software license (perhaps a new one is needed,
specifically tailored for wine's needs).

But let's unite again.

Martin

PS again, these are my personal views, not my company's.

-- 
Martin Wilck                Phone: +49 5251 8 15113
Fujitsu Siemens Computers   Fax:   +49 5251 8 20409
Heinz-Nixdorf-Ring 1	    mailto:[email protected]
D-33106 Paderborn           http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/primergy