On Sat, 24 Dec 2005 19:35:07 +0100, Dan Kegel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
It's frustrating that large software vendors (Adobe,
Intuit, Macromedia, IBM) aren't paying much attention
to Wine, even though Wine's the quickest way for them
to reach the Linux desktop market. I've been trying
to figure out why they're holding back. After talking
with a few large vendors and the folks working on the Munich
migration project, I got the distinct feeling that Wine
simply doesn't have a good reputation yet.
To cut through this negative fog, we need more evidence
that software vendors can succeed in the Linux market using Wine.
So, how do we get that, if the large vendors won't budge?
One way would be to focus on the other end of the spectrum:
one-person software companies. There are so many of these
that Wine already supports some of them reasonably well.
I'd like to see the Wine community cultivate relationships
with these folks, and coax a few of them to support and promote
their apps on Linux using Wine. This will mean a lot
of hand-holding on our part, helping them test their apps
and file and fix Wine bugs they expose.
What's in it for us? Lots of things:
a) the micro-ISVs we help will be a great source of bug reports and QA
b) some of them will turn into evangelists
c) their success will attract the larger ISVs that we're having
trouble with (e.g. Intuit, Macromedia, Adobe) who *will*
be able to contribute bugfixes (by hiring contractors)
d) they will increase the pool of apps available for desktop linux
So, what am I doing about this? Well, I'm walking through the
lists of successful micro-isvs, trying out their apps, filing bugs
and helping resolve them, adding AppDB entries,
exchanging emails with micro-isvs that have expressed
an interest in working with Wine, and updating my
Wine for Windows ISVs page, http://kegel.com/wine/isv
Like everything else associated with Wine, there's enough here to
keep dozens of people like me busy. I hope I can inspire
more folks to follow my example. If you're interested, please
jump in! And do consider taking part in my little isv mailing list
experiment,
http://groups.google.com/group/wine-isv ; I'm going to try to use
it as the place where I give ISVs special hand-holding.
- Dan
--
Good initiative,
one suggestion: avoid terms like hand-holding, it's derogatory, try
guidance. It may create a negative impact if one of the holdees gets
invovled in this list and gets the impression you're being condecending.
Could undo the good will you're trying to create.
I am not at all surprised that major companies dont want to touch Wine
with a long stick. It is only just out of alpha and the
regression/breakage pattern does not seem to be a lot more stable than it
was in alpha.
Imagine a small amateur car workshop has come up with an impressive ,
revolutionary new engine that works... most of the time, but the prototype
engines they produce sometimes just dont work. Would you expect UPS to be
interested?
Having said that , I think you idea is a good way forwards. Small
companies like that have a very fast dev. cycle . I have a fairly complex
windows app that worked well except for some fancy frame borders , I just
turned them off by default. A big co. may take 6 months to process the
idea before doing 30 mins work to make a change to the code.
It would be good to fill out the app DB a bit.
seesnz greetz.
--
Using Opera e-mail on Gentoo Linux
