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Google Sponsors Wine Improvements

google-opensource.blogspot.com — "Perhaps the biggest news is that we hired Codeweavers to make Photoshop CS and CS2 work better under Wine. Photoshop is one of those applications that Desktop linux users are constantly clamoring for, and we're happy to say they work pretty well now. Perhaps not coincidentally, apps like Flash 8 are now starting to work in Wine, too."

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 15, 2008

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  • Harlem, on 02/15/2008, -1/+126People should be blaming Adobe as well. They need to get there act together and make native applications for linux.
  • ptFoe, on 02/15/2008, -22/+134Another reason to love Google and hate Micrococks.
  • RadonPL, on 02/15/2008, -2/+98And they say that Linux is made by enthusiasts.
    It's gooood to have enthusiasts like these!
  • inactive, on 02/15/2008, -0/+50great job wine dev team!
  • TacticalPenguin, on 02/15/2008, -6/+52And we thought microsoft was scared as could be when dell offered ubuntu.....
  • amfantasy, on 02/15/2008, -2/+47not just home users, but the big animation companies like Disney too
  • iofthestorm, on 02/15/2008, -1/+46Adobe needs to get their act together period. Why is there still no 64 bit Flash player? That said, why are companies still ignoring 64 bit platforms even though there's a somewhat mainstream 64 bit OS now? (Vista x64 is mainstream in the sense that it's Windows, although afaik companies still aren't preinstalling x64 on computers, which is why there are so many computers with 3GB of RAM now, which I find ridiculous.) Two if you count OS X as mainstream, which it is approaching now.
  • TheWriteGuy, on 02/15/2008, -0/+37That's the thing about Adobe I don't get: Why is the company not more actively porting their major apps to Linux? Microsoft doesn't appear to have been showing much love towards Adobe, in their attempts to create competitors to Flash and Acrobat.

    If Adobe ported Photoshop or Premiere to Linux, they could partner with a hardware OEM vendor to sell Adobe media-specific workstations for the professional photography and video industries.

    Watch your back, Adobe -- Microsoft wants to eat your lunch, or buy you out.
  • rockwellpa, on 02/15/2008, -2/+30I run Linux exclusively because I am a web developer. I develop locally using a LAMP stack. I run VirtualBox for one and one reason only:

    Photoshop

    When the ***** can I get a Linux version of Photoshop, Adobe??
  • dvsbastard, on 02/15/2008, -6/+33At first glance I thought this was about the alcoholic variety of "Wine", and was extremely impressed...

    I think I may have a problem! :(
  • tutfire, on 02/15/2008, -6/+33This is just Google's sweet revenge for Microsoft trying to snatch up Yahoo!
  • Roger, on 02/15/2008, -5/+31Nothing but Megacocks for ptFoe.
  • dotspot, on 02/15/2008, -2/+28Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo to compete in the web field, now is google's turn to play the game, but Adobe should be ashamed for not porting their major apps to linux
  • inactive, on 02/15/2008, -0/+21Don't forget Intel Native Shockwave for OS X. EVERY ***** MAC APP IS NOW INTEL NATIVE, ADOBE!
  • Roryking, on 02/15/2008, -0/+19It's a two-edged sword... if nothing from Windows ran under Linux, then people would hesitate to switch. (For example, my use of Linux is determined almost entirely by my ability to play Team Fortress 2 under it.) Then nobody would make anything for Linux. I think the Linux community is helped immeasurably by the presence and development of WINE.
  • actionscripted, on 02/15/2008, -2/+19This does nothing but allow software vendors to continue down their Windows rabbit hole, knowing that their apps will run on FOSS platforms without any extra effort. Awesome for Linux, but not necessarily bad for Microsoft.
  • sirhomer, on 02/15/2008, -1/+18Google is one of the largest contributors to open source. Linux kernel, mysql, python, and SoC.
  • clubby, on 02/15/2008, -0/+17I don't know ... I mean, wouldn't it be great if Windows were reduced to a compatibility layer?
  • jcaino, on 02/15/2008, -1/+16don't forget us Unix (FreeBSD) guys!
  • GMorgan, on 02/15/2008, -0/+14Linux has historically done well in the realms of animation and special effects in any case. Big companies in this field do not use Photoshop as a key tool. 3D rendering is far more important.
  • srg13, on 02/15/2008, -0/+14It's true that Linux is not very heavily used in the photography/graphic design world yet, but in the film world, it's pretty standard
  • vibrokatana, on 02/15/2008, -1/+15I think a few would opt to use Linux if they had the choice. Particularly if they had Linux servers as they could easily setup parallel environments. Setting up apache and mysql in linux is a heck of a lot easier then doing the same in windows or OSX.
  • Fergy, on 02/15/2008, -7/+21Microsoft makes it as difficult as possible to make crossplatform programs. To think about how difficult MS is making it: wine has been trying to run windows programs for at least a decade and it's still not 100%.
  • thomas, on 02/15/2008, -0/+14The problem with Linux is kind of a chicken and the egg situation. Linux needs big programs like Photoshop to attract users, but Linux needs are larger desktop market share to attract large developers like Adobe.
  • srg13, on 02/15/2008, -0/+13"[Citation Needed]"

    Take a look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discreet - These are very high end tools. Flame and Smoke are Linux only, Lustre is cross platform. Nuke ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuke_%28software%29 ) runs on Linux, Apple Shake runs on Linux ( http://www.apple.com/shake/ ), Iridas Speedgrade ( http://www.speedgrade.com/di/ ) runs on Linux... I could go on.

    Anyway, if you watch the special features of the extended Lord of the Rings movies, or Pixar movies etc. and look at the screens when they show compositing. 3D animation etc, it's never Windows or Mac OS...

    And it's pretty much the only OS used on render farms too...
  • iofthestorm, on 02/15/2008, -0/+13I'm confused, is being made by enthusiasts a bad thing? I would think it's a good thing, but then, I've never heard anyone say that (although it's true, open source developers always seem much more enthusiastic about their products than closed source ones, but it's probably more because open source fosters communities whereas closed source doesn't as much).
  • Mejogid, on 02/15/2008, -4/+17No... damn Microsoft for their constantly changing, poorly documented APIs and intentional developer lock-in.
  • mossblaser, on 02/15/2008, -0/+12"Don't forget Intel Native Shockwave for OS X"
    Sod that! Shockwave for Linux, at all!! Shockwave is a massive barrier for educational software and there are few more approprate platforms for education than Linux!
  • theaceoffire, on 02/15/2008, -0/+11Thats fine, I would'nt call 64 bit Vista mainstream. Its doing about as well as 64 bit XP did.
  • srg13, on 02/15/2008, -0/+11I own CS3 - but I'll buy it again if they release a Linux native version...
  • sirhomer, on 02/15/2008, -4/+14The GIMP > Photoshop

    You happy now?
  • widgetmaker, on 02/15/2008, -1/+11Nah thinking wine is a drink makes you a hell of a lot more normal.
  • mossblaser, on 02/15/2008, -0/+10"If Adobe ported Photoshop or Premiere to Linux, they could partner with a hardware OEM vendor to sell Adobe media-specific workstations for the professional photography and video industries."

    I for one know hundreds of design companies out there who would pay good money for the sort of efficiency that running a clean OS without the apple-tax for a system that ran photo shop and did seriously fast. I mean, for the cost of that windows/mac os license you could have an extra couple of gigs of ram, or a better processor or that extra hard disk for your raid array.

    I'd say that'd be a great idea!
  • thejart, on 02/15/2008, -1/+11apple makes it more difficult. their software runs in a *nix environment and i *still* can't get itunes for linux, ugh.
    /would rather have a native port of picasa anyway
  • simonwright, on 02/15/2008, -5/+15Amazing, the story's been up for hours and not a single GIMP fanboi in sight. The internet has finally succeeded!
  • actionscripted, on 02/15/2008, -0/+9To clarify: every time you run Wine/Darwine, you're telling your computer: "Hey, I know you're a Linux/Mac machine, but I'd like you to pretend to be Windows for a minute."

    You cannot assume this directly undercuts Microsoft's bottom-line (commenters above), but this is still f*cking awesome news.
  • dankegel, on 02/15/2008, -0/+9No need to wonder; the product manager for Photoshop recently explained in his blog:
    http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/02/wine_offers_i ...
    "The question is, and always has been, whether Adobe could achieve meaningful revenue growth by offering a third version of Photoshop. Would porting to Linux bring in tens of thousands of new users (those who aren't already using PS on Mac or Windows), or would it simply shift part of the existing user base to a different OS?"
  • lapichiflati, on 02/15/2008, -0/+8The apps Adobe does make for Linux, Acrobat Reader and Flash Player plugin are so riddled with bugs that I try to avoid using them when possible, so I dunno if a photoshop port would be too welcome, lest I pull out what remaining hair I have
  • Fartag, on 02/15/2008, -0/+8The main reason I run Linux is not for the cost savings. I own half a dozen Microsoft OSes (or so) but tend to use Linux exclusively. Linux is an incredibly powerful and open OS, and the "cheap" connotations that apply to it are simply limited to money cost alone.

    If we assume Wine continues to improve and run all of the Windows platform locked software, then why would someone pay to own a comparatively hobbled OS? Maybe out of curiosity? Or maybe if it's still auto-bundled with a majority of PCs on the market?
  • Stonekeeper, on 02/15/2008, -2/+10er linux has been 64bit for ages now.
  • gothicform, on 02/15/2008, -9/+17Am I the only one to read this article title expecting it to be spam about how Google was helping the Californian wine industry come up with a new Merlot or something?

    Anyway good news on Photoshop, one of the main reasons I have yet to use Linux. GIMP just doesn't cut it.
  • GMorgan, on 02/15/2008, -0/+7I don't think they are as high up the rankings as you'd think (Sun and IBM are comfortably on top right now) but they are a major contributor true enough. Simply by using Linux as extensively as they do, Google offers a lot.
  • theaceoffire, on 02/15/2008, -3/+9How is preventing 3rd party programs from working protecting their property?
  • srg13, on 02/15/2008, -0/+6"Because it is freakin expensive to port app to other platform."

    But they just did that - they ported the whole of CS3 to Mac OS... I doubt it would be such an expensive exercise now that they're a little more cross platform
  • b33b3s, on 02/15/2008, -3/+9CS3 or bust
  • Philluminati, on 02/15/2008, -1/+7"Because they know most of their software is pirated, and OSS users are known to be cheap."

    This is ***** *****. I don't know anyone who pirates software on Linux. We all run free software. My Windows using mates on the other hand constantly pirate ***** like Nero Burning ROM, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, **THE ***** OPERATING SYSTEM ITSELF**.

    If you ask me, there is 10 times the amount of piracy in Windows than in Linux. All the leet people don't bother paying because they know to hack things and all the non tech savvy windows users don't know they are commiting a crime by passing around a student edition of Office.
  • vibrokatana, on 02/15/2008, -0/+6I use linux because it works best for me. If linux cost 500 dollars per year I would likely keep using it because it simply works.

    It doesn't take much of a machine to run photoshop, you could get by with 512mb of ram and a low level p4 with some salt, though 1GB+ is ideal. Chances are most businesses don't spend more then 1.5K on any one tower, so they are likely spending 20-40% of the cost of the computer before CS3 on windows and associated licenses.
  • Fergy, on 02/15/2008, -0/+5Please google PC-BSD and DesktopBSD for easy to use and install BSD's.
  • Skootles, on 02/15/2008, -1/+6[Citation Needed]
  • absurdist, on 02/15/2008, -0/+5He's referring, of course, to the recent incredibly great troll on Cnet about it being impossible for Linux to run without Windows installed. So who's the noob?
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