[Wine] Arguments for Wine on windows/incremental adoption

[James Mckenzie]

DaVince wrote:
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>> I'm proposing to port wine seriously on windows, and this at the highest priority.
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>The highest priority at this point still should be to get Wine working properly with more and more applications - in other words,
>"complete" the Windows API.
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+1.  The effort to run Wine with Windows DLLs should be HIGHLY discouraged, mainly from a legal standpoint.  Read the EULA for Windows 7 and you will understand that Microsoft understands the vulnerable place it is in and it wishes to maintain its closed operating status excepting those who have signed and comply with their NDA.  In other words, we cannot use Windows 7 dlls AT ALL.  All Microsoft has to do at this point is massively change the functionality of the existing dlls and this project is dead.  So, we have to continue to enhance the functionality of existing dlls and continue to test/probe the new dlls that come out with Windows 7 within the 'black box/white box' that we have been using.  Any other use of Windows 7 dlls is outside of the EULA that accompanies it.  Windows versions prior to this version are not, according to their EULAs, subject to this restriction AS LONG AS THEY ARE USED ON THE LICENSED COMPUTER.  That means if I have Windows XP on the same system as I have Ubuntu Linux, I am not violating the EULA (at least in the United Stated, EU members may not be subject to this restriction.)  Thus, again, we have to improve functionality of the API to the point where we do not need Microsoft dlls.  Any other attempts may bring this project to a sudden end when Microsoft decides (as it has in the past) that we are a pest and they need to leave us behind (I was a member of WINOS/2 and saw what Microsoft can do up close and very personal when it comes to modifying dlls and other code to make a project worthless.)

Please do keep in mind that running Wine on Windows should be a good thing because we are better at Windows98 emulation than Microsoft and there are programs that need that version.

The legal opinions stated about the EULA are from reading the entire text of the Windows 7 EULA and a legal opinion in the strict sense as to what Microsoft can do if we decide to include the use of Windows 7 dll files into a public release.  Of course, these opinions are based on the enforciblility of this document in a given legal jurisdiction.  The opinion is based upon case law in the United States.  I am not nor do I attempt to portray myself as a lawyer or any other legal person.  Your mileage may vary and the Microsoft EULA is worded and enforced differently in the E.U. and other legal jurisdictions.  In other words, you may be able to use Windows 7 dlls without legal reprecussions but in the United States, Microsoft will take you go court if you use their dlls in other than a test/experimentational role and even in that case, you can be sued or ordered to 'cease and desist' if you violate the agreement, even if you do not wish to take part in it.  Read the entire EULA of any Microsoft product before proceeding to use it with Wine.
  
James McKenzie

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