The WINE Project should solicit grants to hire professional developers

[Richard Yao]

Dear All:

I am a senior undergraduate applied mathematics/computer science
student and this year, I migrated from Windows 7 to Gentoo Linux on my
computers. I tried using Linux alternatives to many applications I
used on Windows, but not all software has good alternatives, so I have
been using WINE for certain things. The WINE project's accomplishments
so far have been extremely impressive, but at the same time, WINE's
implementation of the Windows API is deficient in many ways and I
think that the WINE project will need to improve its own organization
before progress toward true API parity with Windows can be made.

I can divide WINE's development resources into two groups, volunteer
and professional. The volunteer group is predominantly focused on
games.The professional group is comprised of CodeWeavers and Google.
CodeWeavers does what its customers want it to do, and as such, it has
a large focus on games. Google on the other hand, paid CodeWeavers to
make some improvements to WINE, mostly for Picasa, but also for Adobe
Photoshop CS2, the reason for which I cannot imagine. Google also has
its annual Summer of Code program. Each source of manpower has its own
special interest and I do not believe that WINE will ever obtain any
kind of API parity with Windows as long as this remains the case.

With these things in mind, I would like to propose that the WINE
project solicit grants from charitable organizations so that it could
hire professional developers to augment its existing resources,
specifically in the areas for which special interests could care less.
If the Wine project could solicit sufficient funding to hire a few
dozen developers for a period of several years, then I think that
having WINE become as good as Windows would enter the realm of
possibility. I know that many people will laugh at my suggestion
(especially when they read the organization I suggest that the WINE
project contact), but as far as I can tell, the WINE project has not
solicited grants to be able to hire professional developers and I
think that failing to solicit such grants places a handicap on the
WINE project.

There exist charitable organizations that seek to fund solutions to
"global problems that are ignored by governments and other
organizations" (as stated in Wikipedia). Because enabling Windows
programs to run on free UNIX operating systems would reduce the cost
of computing for all people, including those in third world countries,
I am certain that such organizations that would be willing to fund
WINE, provided that the WINE project inform them of its existence. The
specific organization from which I think that the WINE project should
attempt to solicit grant money is the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation. In consideration of their guiding principles and the fact
that they must spend $1.5 billion a year, it seems only logical to me
that they would provide funding for the WINE project if asked:

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/guiding-principles.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation#Activities

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is not the only organization for
which the WINE project could solicit funding, but I think that it is a
good place to start. Please consider the possibility of soliciting
grants so that the WINE project could hire professional developers.
Also, I am not registered on the mailing list, so please CC me any
responses made either directly or indirectly to this email, even if it
ridicules my suggestion.

Yours truly,
Richard Yao