Astounding Progress Made In Porting Wine To Haiku For Running Windows Software

[skeevy420]

One way I think Haiku can potentially be more successful than Linux on the desktop is because it doesn't have a gazillion ways to distribute packages, with each way having its own share of downsides (fixed release, rolling release, PPA's Snaps, Flatpacks, etc). I mean I was lately thinking about it and tbh the package distribution situation on Linux is kinda dire imo if you compare it to other operating systems.

Long-term, that's why I think that operating systems like FreeBSD and Haiku will be the one that replaces Windows as a desktop OS. Linux shows both the best and worst parts of open source. It's good because it's open source and if there's a problem you can diagnose it, fix it, share that fix with others. It's bad for the very same reasons because the author of the original software might not want to accept that patch and, fast forward many years, now we have more distributions than I can count. A lot of those are because someone doesn't like the default desktop environment; there's gotta be like 47 Ubuntu forks for that reason. We'll probably get another 12 Ubuntu forks this year. To me that basically says that most people think:"Ubuntu good; GNOME bad".

rmfx I suppose that would be Red Hat, CentOS, and Fedora. Unfortunately they're sticking to their guns with GNOME...granted they do have Spins, but those aren't the default, OOTB experience they advertise and want us to use. Other distributions follow the Hat lead with the difference being "look how I can package" or "check out my file system setup".

[RejectModernity]

Actually the way HaikuOS is developed it's a lot more probable than the year of Linux on the desktop even though Haiku receives a one thousandth of resources poured into it.

Sorry, but wine support is yesterday news for UNIX-like OSes. All its devs do is porting qt apps, they develop nothing new unlike UNIX-commutiny. Also it still doesn't support IPv6 in 2022. Still quite interesting hobby project to look at just like Redox.

[user1]

Long-term, that's why I think that operating systems like FreeBSD and Haiku will be the one that replaces Windows as a desktop OS. Linux shows both the best and worst parts of open source. It's good because it's open source and if there's a problem you can diagnose it, fix it, share that fix with others. It's bad for the very same reasons because the author of the original software might not want to accept that patch and, fast forward many years, now we have more distributions than I can count. A lot of those are because someone doesn't like the default desktop environment; there's gotta be like 47 Ubuntu forks for that reason. We'll probably get another 12 Ubuntu forks this year. To me that basically says that most people think:"Ubuntu good; GNOME bad".

rmfx I suppose that would be Red Hat, CentOS, and Fedora. Unfortunately they're sticking to their guns with GNOME...granted they do have Spins, but those aren't the default, OOTB experience they advertise and want us to use. Other distributions follow the Hat lead with the difference being "look how I can package" or "check out my file system setup".

Personally, I actually quite like the large variety of desktop environments, because the ui is what you interact with the most in an operating system, so the more variety, the more people will find what suits them the best. For example, I've seen someone who dislikes Gnome so much, say that if it was the only DE on Linux, he would rather just use Windows. And it shouldn't cause fragmentation as long as all of them use x11 or Wayland and nothing else.

When it comes to distribution themselves however, then yeah. There's too many of them. Some may like it, but ultimately it's the other main reason (apart from the low market share) why Linux is unattractive for developers as a target platform. I mean the tons of different package distribution methods is a direct result of this fragmentation.

[creoflux]

When it comes to distribution themselves however, then yeah. There's too many of them. Some may like it, but ultimately it's the other main reason (apart from the low market share) why Linux is unattractive for developers as a target platform. I mean the tons of different package distribution methods is a direct result of this fragmentation.

Linux is not unpopular with developers as a target platform. See AWS and Azure offerings. The fragmentation narrative is largely overstated, organism have seemingly duplicated efforts because food has to support two lungs, two kidneys, etc. An alternative analogy could look at a unicycle and compare its merits to a bike. Unicycle is simpler but bike is favored by most. Also, there is no reason to believe talent working on alternative distributions would contribute to the particular distros you think they should be working on. They are actively making the choice to work on their own. This is sort of evidence that they want to do their own thing.

[rmfx]

Personally, I actually quite like the large variety of desktop environments, because the ui is what you interact with the most in an operating system, so the more variety, the more people will find what suits them the best. For example, I've seen someone who dislikes Gnome so much, say that if it was the only DE on Linux, he would rather just use Windows. And it shouldn't cause fragmentation as long as all of them use x11 or Wayland and nothing else.

When it comes to distribution themselves however, then yeah. There's too many of them. Some may like it, but ultimately it's the other main reason (apart from the low market share) why Linux is unattractive for developers as a target platform. I mean the tons of different package distribution methods is a direct result of this fragmentation.

Agree. Choice with DE is nice, but DE only.

Basically, the example to follow is Android:
One base OS that everybody use and share with a clean default UI and some custom UIs for those who want a slightly different user experience.

Gnu/Linux shoud be a unified distro made from components under the same foundation.
And forks would be basically cosmetic variations.

A few philosophers of the software freedom would moan but 95 percent would be happier…

[moilami]

Yep.
If gnu / linux / freedesktop was merged into one foundation that agrees on ONE OS, made the best possible, with high quality unified tech, it could be the most used desktop OS in the world.
Bit everyone fight for its land so in the end, it’s a engineer fantasy.

Nope. One size does not fit all. For example Android is crap, and there is your "unified" Linux distribution.

[birdie]

Nope. One size does not fit all. For example Android is crap, and there is your "unified" Linux distribution.

Android is the most popular and used OS in the world right now with over a million of applications. I would love Linux/GNU to be the same crap.

[cynic]

Agree. Choice with DE is nice, but DE only.

Basically, the example to follow is Android:
One base OS that everybody use and share with a clean default UI and some custom UIs for those who want a slightly different user experience.

Android is such a bad example.
Every phone has its own interface so that you never know where settings are and what settings are available.

Not to talk about different UIs for manage the installed applications.

[HaikuUser01234]

Between the 3d acceleration f9r AMD hardware, vulkan and now wine, someone slap me, but, it looks like games and things like Steam get closer to reality.

[zexelon]

Even as a long-term Linux user, I have one Windows app that I use frequently. I really like where Haiku is going, so a full-time switch at some point means that I do need Wine. I don't care about being unique, I just want a good OS that runs software that I actually use.

Yup, could not agree more! I have basically setup the most amazing "Lindows" system now because of this. I boot Linux, then load up a Windows VM with a GPU passed through and have it always running in the background. If I want to game I swap monitor inputs, if I just want to use say MS Office open a Remmina RDP window to the VM. I store all my data in a SAMBA share between the two systems.

It is probably the biggest abuse of system resources ever... but when you have a Threadripper dev station who cares I just leave both Linux and Windows running 24/7 on the same machine and its awesome. I can swap monitor inputs and play some CoD Warzone and then swap right back (I use Barrier to move the mouse and keyboard).

I also have a Haiku VM that I have tinkered with, its an awesome OS and I see a solid future for it, honestly more as a managed app, or a "cloud os" for users maybe?

Now if MS would please come to their senses and release MS Office for Linux I would be in heaven, ideally if it had VBA included that would be even better.

Wow, sorry for segwaying so much in this thread, but to return to the Haiku news, this is awesome news. If they could get a decent GPU driver going it would be awesome.