Hi Group!
>The Burning Question is "Should one use Wine to run
>closed source proprietary software on Linux?"

I think the question here is related to quality and
ethics.

>Now the question is:
>A person who is using Linux primarily because of the
>Open Source philosophy, will ever run a MicroSoft or
>other closed source proprietary software on his Linux
>machine?

We are all supporting OSS model not because we hate
Microsoft ( R V? ) The point here is quality software.
it is normally seen that OSS is providing quality
software because so many hackers are working on it
making it more secure and robust. Its there toil that
makes the software bug free. The drawback with closed
source is that the source is not freely availalbe and
if a bug is pointed out, we need to wait until vendor
fixes it. This decreases their quality.

I would say if there are quality softwares under
closed source there is nothing harm in emulating it
for time being. FSF is not against Microsoft but is
against their technique of making money out of right
of knowlege.

Now consider a situation, you are in Andaman Nicobar,
ISP is down for unknown time. Your version of linux
has currupted GCC but you have wine and DJGPP. What
would you do? You know DJGPP is equivalent to GCC.
I think in this case emulating is of no harm!

>I personally would avoid installing a closed source >
>software of another OS. I won't contaminate my Linux
>machine. However I think there must be some open
>source applications developed and released under GPL
>for OS like Windows also. And if that is the case I
>won't hesitate in using WINE. What do you say?

Very true Mr. Kant, but what you do when you are in
above situattion. we all are after OSS and Free
because information has to be free! This FSF is doing
but Microsoft is not. Moreover only microsoft is not
the only symbol of closed source, even UNIX is closed
source now.

So the thing is quality here. People are using UNIX
because of quality. UNIX is being cloned now and then
because of quality. So in my opinion if quality is
there there is nothing harm in emulating it FOR TIME
BEING *NOT ALWAYS*. Emulating should not make you fan
of closed source because in no way it is good for
mankind. Quality ofcourse cannot take place of *FREE*
information but can be substitute for time being.

regards
-Himanshu

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