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Posted on: February 21, 2008 6:03 PM, by Greg Laden
And they are paying for it.
Google is funding work to ensure the Windows version of Adobe Systems' Photoshop and other Creative Suite software can run on Linux computers.For the project, Google is funding programmers at CodeWeavers, a company whose open-source Wine software lets Windows software run on Linux. Wine is a compatibility layer that intercepts a program's Windows commands and converts them to instructions for the Linux kernel and its graphics subsystem.
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Comments
Fantastic blog!
Posted by: Michael | February 21, 2008 6:30 PM
I just need to give people credit where it is due.
Codeweavers does not make Wine. Wine is an open source community project, and Codeweavers came along and used the GPLed code for their own software. They contribute development time to Wine (through their own software) but are in no way the creators or owners of Wine. That's like calling Redhat the owner/creator of GNU/Linux.
Posted by: Chaz | February 21, 2008 11:10 PM
Chaz: Right. The whole point of even posting this is to discuss it, and I'm so glad you came along and started it.
I think Codeweaver's relationship to the project is legal, etc., but it is not very common.
A couple/few years ago I experimented with Codeweaver and with Wine and I found that Codeweaver was easier to install and use (for a noobie) and orgainized things well, so I stongly recommend it for people who need to run, say, Y=1-or-2 age versions of Microsoft Office and Endnote. Just pay them the 25 bucks once, and by the time the license runs out you won't need them.
Posted by: Greg Laden | February 22, 2008 7:22 AM
Another comment on CodeWeavers and Wine.
First off CodeWeavers product is called CrossOver Office. What CodeWeavers did was focus on a limited set of applications and tune the areas of the binary emulator in Wine to work with those applications. As time has progressed they have added to the list of supported applications. In addition what they learn goes back into the main Wine development. There is/was a connection established as CodeWeavers hired many of the core Wine developers to work for them. (Not sure if this is still the case.)
My understanding that there have been other cases of CodeWeavers being contracted to make certain apps work with CrossOver. I think most of those were by the software vendor. This looks like a "user" sponsored contract.
Posted by: JackU | February 22, 2008 2:06 PM
I wonder what could have happened if Google had decided to fund the GIMP instead.
Posted by: Abie | March 8, 2008 3:40 AM
"I wonder what could have happened if Google had decided to fund the GIMP instead."
Then google would be out of money and The GIMP would still suck.
:)
Posted by: Steven R | March 8, 2008 11:19 PM