The Truth About Darwine
So I've discovered a few things about WINE that I was didn't understand before.
In my last post I was all gunned up about how WINE should be able to use the actual Windows DLLs right off the Windows CD to provide it's functionality.
As it turns out, you CAN use the original Windows DLLs, which I would have known if I had actually read the introductory paragraph on the WineHQ homepage. Obviously, Wine's goal is to create a 100% MS-free solution, but in order to make their product usable in the interim (while this 100% MS-free thing is implemented) they have also provided the facilites to use the Windows DLLs. Smart.
The process for doing this is described here.
Still, I think my original idea was/is on the right track.
I think that something that would really make Darwine successful on Mac OS X/x86 is a Windows CD DLL extractor/wizard. I think it would greatly speed up the adoption rate of Darwine, by making more things work sooner.
The extractor would work by running either along with the Darwine installer or after Darwine's already been installed, sucking all the DLLs it can out of a Windows install CD, and replacing the equivalent Wine DLLs with the 'native' Windows versions. Maybe it would present you with the option of sucking the DLLs off the CD, but still trying to use the Wine DLLs first, and then if you experience problems you can flip on the Windows ones. I don't know.
If I had a machine to do some playing around on, this is something I would be working on.
In my last post I was all gunned up about how WINE should be able to use the actual Windows DLLs right off the Windows CD to provide it's functionality.
As it turns out, you CAN use the original Windows DLLs, which I would have known if I had actually read the introductory paragraph on the WineHQ homepage. Obviously, Wine's goal is to create a 100% MS-free solution, but in order to make their product usable in the interim (while this 100% MS-free thing is implemented) they have also provided the facilites to use the Windows DLLs. Smart.
The process for doing this is described here.
Still, I think my original idea was/is on the right track.
I think that something that would really make Darwine successful on Mac OS X/x86 is a Windows CD DLL extractor/wizard. I think it would greatly speed up the adoption rate of Darwine, by making more things work sooner.
The extractor would work by running either along with the Darwine installer or after Darwine's already been installed, sucking all the DLLs it can out of a Windows install CD, and replacing the equivalent Wine DLLs with the 'native' Windows versions. Maybe it would present you with the option of sucking the DLLs off the CD, but still trying to use the Wine DLLs first, and then if you experience problems you can flip on the Windows ones. I don't know.
If I had a machine to do some playing around on, this is something I would be working on.
posted by JD @ 9:27 p.m.
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