Re: support for a small US college going GNU?

> If the app is mission critical (and therefore not easily substituted), then
> Citrix is really the only viable approach.  You would be nuts to bet the
> farm on Wine in its current state, and running the app in VMWare requires
> you to buy a Windows license and a VMWare license, which ends up being more
> expensive.

With all due respect, we have a very large number of academic
customers using Wine, often in mission critical roles
(the classroom is dead without the software).  In fact,
Academic customers represent our single largest block of customers.

I will be the first to admit that Wine is not yet complete and
has some serious issues.  However, I think that you underestimate
the value of Wine when run in a supported framework, such as
what we provide via CrossOver.  My whole business
(a Free Software Business, I like to think) is built on
enabling people to use Wine despite its shortcomings, so
I'd appreciate it if you didn't dismiss us completely <grin>.

With that said, I think that a balanced and pragmatic
analysis such as Karsten has recommended remains the best
choice.  And there are often situations where Wine is not
appropriate; I often recommend VMWare or Citrix myself.

However, I retain my rather biased opinion that, when it works,
Wine is the best way to solve this problem.  And Wine gets
better every day...

Cheers,

Jeremy