Here's my next attempt. It's smaller, thinner, anything I missed?
A few things to consider
- Biggest issue, what happens if we ask somebody to put up a Works With
Wine button, and then they release a new version that doesn't? Do they
take the button down? See below for a possible resolution to that
problem.
- Where does the button link to? I vote for a page that introduces Wine
and perhaps also Linux, how they relate etc - ie assume zero knowledge
about free software. The page then has a link to the appdb entry for the
program. The "intro" page would simply be have a dynamically generated
link to the appdb, so it acts as a kind of forwarding page. If a new
version is released and it no longer works in Wine, this can be noted in
the appdb.
- Could it be used as the start of trying to get Wine accepted as just
another version of Windows? Once the button is up on the site, I should
think the app maintainers would want to keep it there, after all if it
works in Wine then their app has a bigger market right? I started
thinking about how to get more people helping out on Wine, and
remembered that in the early days of X some of the developers signed
NDAs with hardware makers to get the driver specs. Perhaps if there is
an app that for whatever reason doesn't work with Wine, a developer
could sign an NDA, get access to the source, and either improve Wine so
it works, or alter the program (possibly both). We win, as Wine
improves. They win, as their app now works on Linux too. Of course, it'd
be nicer to have native apps, but hey.
- The button is just there if site owners would like it, I'd be happy to
settle for a textual link as well.
- Should the intro page explain about the 3 streams of Wine? IE "if the
app that linked to this page is a business app, you may have success
with CodeWeavers Crossover. If it was a game, then you might want to
investigate WineX, or you can get the latest sources direct from WineHQ"
etc
I'm happy to knock up an intro page that can be integrated into the wine
site if that's what people would like.
thanks -mike