Google’s Open Source Patches to Wine   1 comment

Posted at 3:23 pm in Software

Daring Fireball Linked List: Google’s Open Source Patches to Wine

This idea deserves a full essay, but for now, consider: In the same way that Apple took Mac OS X and Cocoa and shrunk them to serve as a handheld device OS, I think Google could take Android and grow it to serve as a PC OS. Wine would be to Android what Classic was to Mac OS X.

The big win is saying “screw you” to KDE and Gnome and all those crap Linux interfaces and APIs. Start over with something new, cohesive, better, and, most of all, which is not, conceptually, a watered down clone of Windows.

I’m really not sure where Gruber is going with this. Google seems to like Wine for various reasons (mainly Picasa), but I don’t really understand how it could vault Android into desktop fame. It seems Wine is a “watered down clone” of Windows (its internals, anyway) and I don’t really see much future in it.

Obviously Gruber and I disagree on the various successes of the “open-source desktop” mission, but I don’t think Wine is the way to success.

John, I await your full essay; perhaps I misunderstand?

Written by Andrew on October 13th, 2008

Tagged with , ,

« Palin hits Obama for ‘terrorist’ connection
Save paper: Opt out of ad circulars »

One Response to 'Google’s Open Source Patches to Wine'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Google’s Open Source Patches to Wine'.

  1. Ken

    13 Oct 08 at 16:24

    For what it’s worth, Gruber is not the first to suggest Android as a desktop OS (http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/gacl). I do agree with you that Wine is absolutely NOT the way to success in such an endeavor. I’d imagine Google would agree. I think Google’s contributions to Wine are more to do with improving compatibility with their existing products (specifically Picasa) than anything else.

Leave a Reply