“WineLib is the programming toolkit that lets developers compile
their Windows applications for use on Linux. Instead of relying on
Wine to run native Windows applications, WineLib allows developers
to release a Linux version of their software without having to
massively convert source code. As Wine 1.0 is still months away
from release, the Wine developers have quietly turned their
attention to WineLib.”
“‘Basically, Corel forked their version of Wine, to the extent
where it would take months to merge their tree with the primary
Wine tree,’ White says. The problem, White says, is that while the
Wine developers have been incorporating Corel code and solutions
into the main Wine tree, Corel has not been incorporating newer
Wine code into their fork. So while Corel’s plans for Wine are
uncertain, given the huge investment Microsoft had made in Corel
and Microsoft’s traditional antipathy toward anyone
reverse-engineering Windows APIs, the Wine project enters a state
of uncertainly. Which, White says, is good news.”
“‘The truth is, the uncertainty helps us out enormously,” he
says. “For companies that don’t know what Microsoft will do, the
better off we are. We can serve as the main resource for the people
who want to hedge their bets and come out with a Linux version of
their software.’ Under this scenario, commercial vendors and VARs
will need a source of expertise to come out with Linux versions of
their software, which creates a market opportunity for WineLib and
CodeWeavers — and for Linux, both on the desktop and on the
server.”