i posted the following rant to INQ7's feedback page. i don't have erwin lemuel oliva's information so i just sent it to the common feedback page. someone with more media connections than i really ought to take INQ7 up on it... (yeah yeah forgive my self-glorification at the bottom)
--- Hello, I really think your infotech reporters should do more checking before parroting the self-hyping and self-serving press releases being coughed up by SpecOpsLabs regarding their "Project David" / "Winbridge" software which allegedly runs Windows software on Linux. FYI there have been several Windows-to-UNIX products out there, among them Insignia SoftWindows, SunSoft WABI (Windows Application Binary Interface), and the open-source WINE (WINE Is Not an Emulator). If you will check the following discussion on the wine-devel mailing list, regarding the screenshots which SpecOpsLabs has provided to Flexbeta: http://www.winehq.org/hypermail/wine-devel/2004/05/0156.html http://www.winehq.org/hypermail/wine-devel/2004/05/0153.html http://www.winehq.org/hypermail/wine-devel/2004/05/0155.html you will see that the ongoing theory seems to be that SpecOpsLabs has ripped off the WINE project (which *IS* opensource) and is now hyping it as their own. Even if they have *added* functionality to WINE and can legitimately claim added value, the WINE project software is licensed under the LGPL (Lesser GNU Public License) and, unless they [SpecOps] are merely linking to the Wine code, they HAVE TO RELEASE THEIR ENHANCEMENTS AS FREE SOFTWARE. There are currently TWO commercial Wine-based "bridge software" out there which you can currently buy: * Crossover Office (www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover/) which allows you to run Office 2000 on Linux (sound familiar?) and * Transgaming WineX (www.transgaming.com) which allows to run many popular current games on Linux these two commercial offerings take the open-source, free WINE code, and add their own quality-control and bug-fixes so they can sell it. But, they do not claim revolutionary technology or anything, they both clearly acknowledge that their product is WINE-derived code. So you see, "Project David" is neither revolutionary, or even original. I think at the very least, you should be questioning the lavish claims being spewed out by SpecOpsLabs, rather than succumbing to their avid name-dropping and taking their word as gospel. Have you even noticed that MANY of the links on their web site purportedly documenting the various software luminaries who have tested their software, are BROKEN LINKS? and they can't even name that "Bose chief software architect!" they're saying vetted their product. C'mon, any company can do better than that.. besides Bose is an *AUDIO* company, so while I don't doubt they have a chief software architect, Bose is hardly the authority on software. Finally, Microsoft has claimed that they don't really mind this Project David. For obvious reasons -- most of Microsoft's revenue comes from Office, they are pretty aggressive about discounting Windows itself (e.g. XP Lite in Thailand). So the government would not save much money by using "Project David" instead of the real Microsoft thing. Not to mention, Microsoft is willing to give HUGE discounts to get government accounts. I really hope you give this missive some attention. Thanks. Orlando Andico Red Hat Certified Engineer Microsoft Certified Professional -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
