USB Support For Wine Is Being Discussed Again

[wizard69]

I dunno what kind of software you're using droid, but most programs that I try in wine work pretty well. Won't say perfectly, but well enough to use

Many do work well in Wine but honestly I would like to use wine for unique software that is used to communicate with the outside world. Here I'm thinking industrial software often used to communicate with controllers and other embedded hardware. The manufactures of this hard just barely support their devices under Windows often requiring old versions of Windows. Being able to run these configuration or communications apps under Wine would be fantastic.

The other sad part here is that many of these devices are RS232 based! If laptops still came with such ports we wouldn't need USB support to the degree we do need it.

[wizard69]

The best way would be to just hook into Linux or use a linux-based library. But the Wine devs are stuck on the idea that they can't have per-platform coding, so they'll probably just do it themselves.

Well I wouldn't call it being stuck! Per platform coding should be minimized. as for lib usb how many platforms does it run on now?

Then, of course, they'll delay a half-done implementation in Wine-Staging for a few years while they have full support in crossover just to prove to their customers that it's worth paying for (despite fucking over the open source community).

Well people need to make a living some how. Since I don't have any money to donate to Wine development I can't argue this point. The problem with the so called "Free Software" is that people think it cost nothing to produce, nothing could be further from the truth.

[droidhacker]

Another possibly useful program would be Logitech's harmony software that's require to program the fancy remote controls. However, I don't know how well that software works under wine.

I absolutely hate their crappy remotes. I broke down and bought one once, turned out to be an absolute nightmare, hated it so much that I had to buy a white directv remote for $20 on amazon that actually works.

HOWEVER, there are linux programs that interface with their remotes, so you don't actually need for-ms-only software to do the job.

The nightmare problem though, is logitech MOUSE. You NEED their for-ms-only software to program those. Cannot be done with wine, which forces you to virtualbox.

[droidhacker]

I dunno what kind of software you're using droid, but most programs that I try in wine work pretty well. Won't say perfectly, but well enough to use

Try quickbooks. Not even close to adequate.
Logitech mouse software.
Qualcomm loader (required for MDP developer devices).
ChinaSoC loader.
ANY professional accounting software.
Frontrange Goldmine (CRM).

NONE of it actually works.

[droidhacker]

Many do work well in Wine but honestly I would like to use wine for unique software that is used to communicate with the outside world. Here I'm thinking industrial software often used to communicate with controllers and other embedded hardware. The manufactures of this hard just barely support their devices under Windows often requiring old versions of Windows. Being able to run these configuration or communications apps under Wine would be fantastic.

The other sad part here is that many of these devices are RS232 based! If laptops still came with such ports we wouldn't need USB support to the degree we do need it.

Get yourself a box full of pl2303 dongles. It exposes an RS232 interface at /dev/ttyUSBx, which actually do work in wine.

[slalomsk8er]

GPS! Not a single vendor has native Linux software to update maps and plan routes.

[duby229]

The best way would be to just hook into Linux or use a linux-based library. But the Wine devs are stuck on the idea that they can't have per-platform coding, so they'll probably just do it themselves.

Then, of course, they'll delay a half-done implementation in Wine-Staging for a few years while they have full support in crossover just to prove to their customers that it's worth paying for (despite fucking over the open source community).

I agree with you 100%. It doesn't make any damn sense that wine devs always choose to duplicate effort, and then their duplications suck ass. At this point wine has no value at all.

If they really wanted people to pay a commercial license then they need to make it work on linux. The thing is linux already has most of the native interfaces wine needs already implemented. But as long as they continue ignoring the work already done, and implementing broken and incomplete alternatives that don't work, then that won't happen

[Daktyl198]

Well I wouldn't call it being stuck! Per platform coding should be minimized. as for lib usb how many platforms does it run on now?

I won't refute that in many cases, per-platform coding SHOULD be minimized... But Wine tends to be of the mindset that if something MASSIVELY improves the quality of support on one platform, but no equal opportunity exists on another platform, they should ignore it. Because "equality of platforms" or something. It's sometimes annoying.

Well people need to make a living some how. Since I don't have any money to donate to Wine development I can't argue this point. The problem with the so called "Free Software" is that people think it cost nothing to produce, nothing could be further from the truth.

FOSS software is almost never created for free, and people need to eat, but it's one thing for a company to make money off of FOSS software, and another to intentionally cripple the FOSS version of your product to force people to pay for the "complete" version. That's like releasing half a game and making people pay another $60 for the other half... which seems to be an alarmingly common practice these days :/

[jfduhamel]

Good evening: I am new on this forum. I am a linux user and a Wine user, because I had to switch from Windows while I was working in the Microcontroller developpement field where a huge part of the required tools are almost only offered for Windows, working physically on USB ports or Serial ports. I had to find some solutions to continue using my existing hardware at the smallest financial costs as possible, as I am nearly to retire and do not want to reinvest either in software as well as in hardware.
Best regards to everybody on this forum.

[MrTempleDene]

It was while looking for USB support in wine I came across this, yes it's definitely needed, I just had to borrow a Windows? laptop so I could run a utility to disable "smart install" on my printer so it would work with Linux. The program only worked with windows as it had to communicate with the printer over the USB port.

Sorry if I am bumping an old thread but I had to comment.