The WINE Project should solicit grants to hire professional developers

[Damjan Jovanovic]

On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 9:07 PM, Richard Yao <shiningarcanine at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>
>
>

What about persuading the European Union to spend some of the €497
million it got from the Microsoft competition lawsuit on improving
Wine?

Damjan Jovanovic