Mike Hearn wrote:
Hey, we won by a large margin!
Congratulations!!! You've earned it, and you deserve it!!
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27213...
Wine 293 42.59% Crossover Office 139 20.20% Cedega 131 19.04% VMware 101 14.68% Win4lin 24 3.49%
Good going chaps and chapettes! Nice also to see the results are ranked in rough order of "freeness" too.
I am surprised that you are surprised by this ranking order. It seems clear to me (as a user interested in this functionality) why the ranking is in precisely this order:
Wine, while not always easy to use (a minus), is a) free/gratis (meaning that it's easily available, a plus) and b) free as in FOSS (a big plus, since many users who use Wine, rather than dual-booting or making a Windows box available, do so because they have an objection to Microsoft and so *care* about freeness, both in terms of money and licence). Plus, it c) generally works well in most instances (and works noticeably better every month, which is also a plus, making this a plus and a half). So overall there are many more reasons to love Wine than "hate" it (even though sometimes getting any given application working can be rather hellish, even for "technically-inclined" users), and for the majority of users with "non-specific" program needs/desires, it is understandably the first choice.
Crossover Office, although not free/gratis (a minus, but not necessarily a big one), is very (very) clearly a professional product in the true sense of "crafted to a standard". This professionalism makes it very obvious that, should one choose to buy it, the buyer will not be throwing their money away (naturally, a huge plus when buying any product). The product *guarantees* that it will do what it says on the tin (another huge plus if you want me to give you my hard earned Euros), and while it doesn't serve all general needs the way that Wine aims to (minus), if the user has the needs that this product very explicitly states it will serve, buying it is a bargain, because it's a damn good product (another plus, because we've all had the experience of buying something that just wasn't any good, even though the product "did what it said it would" successfully). Furthermore, since everyone who knows anything about "the Wine issue(s)" knows how closely CX is related to Wine, there is no question-- despite CX being a closed product-- that Codeweaver's is anything other than a fine and upstanding member and contributor to the community (another plus, since even if I don't like spending money, it hurts less if I'm clearly supporting the community by doing so). Discounting the opinion of those who have some objection to buying any Linux program (since they live in a pretty unrealistic dream world), the only reason that CX is not voted above Wine (imo) is because of CX's limited scope, since from a 'pure consumer' viewpoint, it stands head and shoulders above all the commercial Linux applications I am aware of, in any field. And head and shoulders above not a few Windows applications, for that matter; CX is very much in the very small class of apps I (would) buy simply because they are every bit as good as they say they are.
Cedega is 1) not free in any sense, 2) not a good product, 3) not a good and upstanding member of the community in the eyes of the community, and 4) not very consumer-friendly in the most ordinary sense of the word. No ordinary consumer is going to feel good about being forced to buy a product with absolutely no assurance that it will in fact do what it says on the tin, whether they care about FOSS issues, or know the history of TG, or not. The policy offends even the 'ignorant' (in the simple sense of "not knowing anything about the history or issues involved"), and any consumer can surf the TG site/forums and other forums, and see that they're pretty much up the creek without a paddle if the supposedly working game they attempted to run does not in fact work-- especially if that game is not one of the "hot 5 of the month" or you have an ATI card (as I do). Plenty of people who actually subscribe hate this program, it seems, and I suspect the only people who have (unbelievably) voted for it as "the best" are 1) in the specific situation of running only one or two of the "supported" games (with an nVidia card), and thus had a good experience (unlike many of the rest of the users), and 2) are the same people that think it's OK (or even good) that you are required to have a Steam account and broadband Internet connection for that Steam account in order to play Half-Life 2 single-player, after spending 50 Euros for the game. I'm not sure that these voters are respondents whose opinion I trust or value, and the fact that there are so many of them causes me to wonder about the composition of the responding group.
VMWare is, of course, very expensive, which knocks it right out of the running for many. From what I have heard from users of the program, I am not surprised it is voted above Win4lin, and my impression is that it would also be worth the money if one needed it. But again, this program is for relatively specific needs (which condition is also indicated by the pricetag; it's not for "Joe Average User"), and has requirements that may be above the heads of the "average" user, assuming said user could afford it. The kernel has to be (re-)compiled to support it, you must have a Windows license to use it (to install Windows), and you need a fair amount of technical understanding to set up the virtual machine and maintain it. After you've done all that, there are whole classes of programs that the virtual machines do not support anyway, so this is not really a viable option for the "general" user, explaining why Wine, CX and Cedega come in above it. LQ respondents are more likely general users than the specialized users that would find VMWare valuable, but it's nice to see that there were a goodly number of such respondents around to make their mark.
I'm sure Win4Lin must have a user base, but they are either not very vocal, or not very many... one certainly doesn't seem to hear much about or from them in the course of participating in large forums or following distribution mailing lists and the like. So it is by no means a shock that less than 5% of respondents chose it.
Let's see if we can win again in the 2005 voting :)
Oh, I think you're going to wipe the floor with everybody in 2005... I cannot express how much Wine has improved since I last used it intensively a few (4-5) months ago-- and this is not even with "focused" testing, just noticing that "the same old stuff I always install" installed easier, and ran better without me having to do any tweaking or dll copying or anything of that nature, at all. I really felt as if I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel; still rather distant, perhaps (or perhaps not), but distinct and visible in my vision.
I installed "In Memoriam" (aka "Missing: Since January"), which is a pretty recent game compared to what I usually install (2003 in Europe, 2004 in the US). It installed without difficulty, which was a pleasant surprise, and the opening QT (or Shockwave or whatever they are) movies ran fine, which was another pleasant surprise. But I was alarmed when I started the game (which I didn't really know much about; a gift from the Bargain Bin) and discovered that it uses Internet connectivity extensively to provide game information (you get an account with Freeserve and receive emails either via the web or in your own email client, and there are many links within the game-- that you must follow from within the game-- to websites where you must go to find clues to stop the serial killer) to advance the plot.
It works perfectly. I mean, *perfectly*. I gave my gmail account in the opening screen, and I get the mails in gmail (finally, a use for bloody gmail). I click a link in the game and the game opens Firefox. Yeah, I had to install the Shockwave plugin, but even that worked (and Wine must have done that, since the Shockwave plugin is a Windows plugin), and the Shockwave web pages run great.
I am no expert on Wine, but I am absolutely sure this would not have worked a year ago, and maybe not even 6 months ago. My jaw is on the ground that it works now-- without me having to do anything at all. No config tweaks, no dll overrides, no nothing. It "Just Worked".
And if Wine is coming along that well... oh yeah, you're going to wipe the floor with *everybody* (except CX, but you're not in competition with CX) in 2005. And the world will stand in awe.
:-D
Holly
thanks -mike