Re: on debian-win32 (WAS Re: Is there a Open Source WindowsSoftware Archive?)
Andrew D Lenharth wrote:
> Bernhard Rieder wrote:
> > So what does free in this term anyway?
^ mean
> We do have wine after all. If the win programs were compiled on wine,
> they would be usable on linux et al too. And they could be considered
> truely free (unless they used MFC).
An other issue is stability. If you produce Win32 Packages and they
crash a lot then it hurts the image of debian being (one of the) most
stable Distributions. I consider neither Win32 nor Wine as "stable".
The user will only see that the whole system crashed and even if it
is not debian's fault, it will hurt debians reputation.
security and the missing possibility for bugfixes is another drawback.
If you use Windows you will always depend on Microsoft to release a
Bugfixes/Patches. If you use Wine then a lot of Win32 applications will
not run. That brings me to the question: "Why should you run free
applications under Wine if you can run them in their native environment
(Linux/Hurd) more stable and more secure?"
Do not misunderstand me. I like Wine - at least for playing starcraft ;) -
but I do not consider Wine as a target platform for free software in
general and especially not for debian.
Bernhard Rieder
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