Ok, I've had some time to digest the two packed days of wineconf. It was great being around so many smart and passionate people. I've long since given up coding, so much of it went over my head but the various biz presentations hit home and I had a chance to talk to many of you to crystallize some thoughts.
We need 20 million avid Linux desktoppers. Look at what Apple's vocal minority gets them. With 4% marketshare they command sections in stores. They get hardware with Mac/Win drivers. They get documentation in the box. Even stores dedicated just to them. That's what we need to get Linux really going. If we can get the user inertia and the business inertia around Linux, then that will take it to new heights. I believe Wine will play a role in this.
But I think a slight re-focusing may be necessary. Have you ever tried to learn how to play the guitar? I think most people have at one time. First you start learning chords and you say to yourself "I'm going to learn all the chords so I can play all the songs". After about struggling through 4 of the 700 chords, you realize that it will take until 2037 to learn all the chords. To make guitar rewarding, you have to start with a list of popular songs and learn the chords just for those. This way you get that feeling of success and it motivates you to stick with it, even if it's just learning Happy Birthday. I believe a similar strategy could really energize Wine.
We need a "top 10 tree".
What WINE needs is a specific value promise to the consumer. In many ways, the same challenge confronts WINE that confronts Linux. Great things will happen *if* we get a bunch more users. But to get more users, there needs to be some specific value that people get from Wine. And it can't be fleeting value. It needs to allow them to do something specific and when they get the new version, it needs to no take away that value, but add more.
The challenge we have now is that the goal for WINE is an architectual one (learn every chord). While nobody can deny the value of a solid underpinning, users don't care about the architecture. They want to hear music! And with Wine this means "what programs can I run?"
I would also suggest that focusing around specific applications focuses energies of developers on solving specific user problems. The more problems you solve, the more users will get excited about Wine.
One question arose at wineconf which never got addressed. "How do we get more people excited about Wine?" I've been thinking about that. I believe a specific part of the answer is making Wine actually work for a subset of programs. Take it from a theoretical white paper stage to a stage where people actually use it. I'm not suggesting its at a white paper stage, but rather if the world can't use it with any regularity for even a narrow set of applications, the perception is it's nothing more than theory.
What I believe needs to happen is that we have a 'top 10' tree. A version of Wine for which the primary goal is to do a good job of running a set version of win32 programs. This serves both parties. It gets developers all laser-focused on the same goal. Because we've narrowed the universe we can do specific testing. And perhaps MOST important, consumers know what to expect. If you tell them "we have a Linux OS which will run Win32 programs, they'll bring out a geneology program from 1992 which won't run and then they'll think it sucks. If however the public commitment is "this software is designed to run the following: MS Word Lotus Notes Quicken" and it actually works, you have a believer. You have someone who will get excited and will offer their help. You give momentum to Wine. You get program sponsors (those willing to oversee ongoing supervision/testing of programs. You get more people offering to be on documentation teams. And you get more developers.
One final thought. I think the only tenable way to implement a Top 10 type approach is to get widespread support. Lindows.com alone is too small to do this in a timely fashion. So is Codeweavers, transgaming, etc. The only approach with any chance of success is one which leverages the entire community.
I can assure you that Lindows.com would put our full weight behind such an endeavor. While we only have a couple of coders, we've got a super QA department. We've got solid organizational skills. We have an enthusiastic user base we can tap for testing and support.
I'll shutup now before I get banned from wine-devel.
-- MR Ok, those are my thoughts.