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by pbhjpbhj
3073 days ago
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I've had bad experiences with Wine's app db: # The information is poorly presented IMO. # Gold/Platinum apps fail to work at all for me. # In addition, info seems to be culled readily, I went back to find info I'd posted so I could setup a game again and the info had been deleted (turns out they had emailed me to tell me that if I didn't actively maintain it then it would be removed - I no longer add data). Wine has always seemed so brittle, needing cryptic incantations to put the Windows environment in to just the right state. |
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"Gold" and "Platinum" obviously mean different things to different people. If you go strictly, it's hard to call anything "Platinum" because almost everything has some differences in behavior v. native, even if they're only cosmetic. If a tester hasn't run into any, it's more likely that they've just done a superficial check of the program, said "Yep, it launched, looks like everything is here", and submitted "Platinum".
AppDB's moderation perspective and codebase was badly outdated when I was involved (several years ago now). I haven't checked on it recently so maybe they've redone things, but this is why you've seen inconsistent entries in the past.
As for the Windows environment, yes, different programs need different registry settings and other environment hacks. The main company that funds Wine development makes their money by selling software that manages these environments. There is also a free script called winetricks that will help install programs with the correct environment settings.
Despite semi-complex environment management requirements and the outdated AppDB code, Wine remains one of the most impressive pieces of software in production today. It's an extremely ambitious project and it's handled very professionally. It's a great all-around reference point for code quality, standards, and community. Alexandre Julliard is a deeply underappreciated BDFL and IMO his name belongs up there with other open-source luminaries.