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Old 21st July 2008
DrJ DrJ is offline
ISO Quartermaster
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Gold Country, CA
Posts: 507
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TerryP View Post
The problem I have with WINE, fast forward a few decades....

What if all/most mainstream applications for Linux and Windows are writtin using the Windows API via WINE and kludges for compatbility where they differ.

INSTEAD OF PORTING THE RAT *****ING PROGRAM PROPERLY !!!!
This always comes up, but I think it is a red herring. Linux programs will be written for Linux, and that will not change.
Do you really think Gnome or KDE are suddenly going to switch to a Windows API? Really? And once the Linux version exists, it will be ported to BSD (with a few notable exceptions).

Commercial programs just don't run on BSD, as a rule, so if you want to run any of them, you need to use something like Wine or a VM. Yes, a few important ones run Linux with the Linuxator.

Practically, Wine can be useful for a few applications, but it will never be a full-fledged, bug-free implementation if history is any guide. The API it uses too is becoming out-of-date, so they will have to expand the whole thing for Vista.

I'm grateful Wine exists -- it can be useful. But it certainly is no panacea.
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