[Fwd: Re: Commercial support]

[StartCom Ltd.]

Or maybe just because of it, there is a need for commercial support, or 
somebody might need that support. If it would be running, by just 
clicking on the executable, no support is really needed, at least not 
for standard applications.

IBM does very well know the existents of Wine (they even acknowledged 
that by themselves lately), but may very well not support it, because of 
inter-relation with MS. As of now (just a guess), they don't want to get 
into more hot water right now....

gslink wrote:
> Go to the Wine HQ site and click on applications database.  If you 
> need more applications check the listed links.
> This is a problem with every development effort and nobody is blaming 
> anybody.  The larger the effort the worse it gets.  This is probably 
> the worst problem both Microsoft and IBM have with code.  If you 
> change anything in Wine something somewhere will probably quit 
> running.  This is simply the price of progress.  My comment, and it is 
> not a criticism, is that Wine still has rough edges.  Eventually these 
> will go away but for now, you can't simply load Wine into Linux and 
> blindly start loading in applications.  The more complex the 
> application the more likely it needs setup.  As versions progress 
> setup procedures change and as a result things quit running.  
> Microsoft Office doesn't run without setup and neither do many of the 
> older games such as Alice or Rune.  Even things like Warcraft come and 
> go.  This is not a criticism it is just the way things are and that is 
> why I think it is too early to start thinking about commercial support.
> What somebody needs to do now is to get a relationship with IBM 
> similar to the one that Eclipse has.  IBM has a problem currently 
> because there is no native Lotus Notes client for Linux.  Wine could 
> easily solve this problem.  I talked to some of the marketing managers 
> in IBM and most had never heard of Wine.  The IBM development labs are 
> currently starting to develop this native client.  If IBM could use 
> Wine it could save them money and sueing Wine is one thing sueing IBM 
> is another.

[Wesley Parish]

On Tue, 10 May 2005 11:02, StartCom Ltd. wrote:
> Or maybe just because of it, there is a need for commercial support, or
> somebody might need that support. If it would be running, by just
> clicking on the executable, no support is really needed, at least not
> for standard applications.
>
> IBM does very well know the existents of Wine (they even acknowledged
> that by themselves lately), but may very well not support it, because of
> inter-relation with MS. As of now (just a guess), they don't want to get
> into more hot water right now....

I can verify that from a private conversation I had with an IBM employee
last year at the local LUG's installfest.  He informed me that because
IBM has this sort of relationship with Microsoft, they are not free to
get involved in anything that would make use of the MS Windows knowledge
they have gained from that relationship.

Stands to reason.  But it's a pity.

Wesley Parish
> gslink wrote:
> > Go to the Wine HQ site and click on applications database.  If you
> > need more applications check the listed links.
> > This is a problem with every development effort and nobody is blaming
> > anybody.  The larger the effort the worse it gets.  This is probably
> > the worst problem both Microsoft and IBM have with code.  If you
> > change anything in Wine something somewhere will probably quit
> > running.  This is simply the price of progress.  My comment, and it is
> > not a criticism, is that Wine still has rough edges.  Eventually these
> > will go away but for now, you can't simply load Wine into Linux and
> > blindly start loading in applications.  The more complex the
> > application the more likely it needs setup.  As versions progress
> > setup procedures change and as a result things quit running.
> > Microsoft Office doesn't run without setup and neither do many of the
> > older games such as Alice or Rune.  Even things like Warcraft come and
> > go.  This is not a criticism it is just the way things are and that is
> > why I think it is too early to start thinking about commercial support.
> > What somebody needs to do now is to get a relationship with IBM
> > similar to the one that Eclipse has.  IBM has a problem currently
> > because there is no native Lotus Notes client for Linux.  Wine could
> > easily solve this problem.  I talked to some of the marketing managers
> > in IBM and most had never heard of Wine.  The IBM development labs are
> > currently starting to develop this native client.  If IBM could use
> > Wine it could save them money and sueing Wine is one thing sueing IBM
> > is another.