News

We're on the radar screen.

Microsoft's new Windows Genuine Advantage program seeks to curb software piracy by allowing downloads only to licensed copies of their operating systems. To do this, an executable named GenuineCheck.exe (MD5 hash = 05499eaa4d4f55af32f5b14561ee7e55) gets downloaded if you go to their website with Firefox. If you happen to look at the strings in that file, you'll notice a reference to a registry key that looks curiously familiar: SOFTWARE\Wine\Wine\Config. That little string, albeit subtle, happens to be the first Wine-specific test Microsoft has made in a program.

Any developers from Redmond wishing to report bugs in Wine are encouraged to use our Bugzilla database.

This month's CVS snapshot is out. Alexandre noted the following additions:

• Still more work on the MSI dll.
• More OLE work, including a builtin stdole32.tlb.
• Fixed inter-process window resize and repaint.
• Lots of bug fixes.

Binary packages are in the process of being built, but the source is available now. Read more about this release, or just go download it.

WineConf 2005 is coming to Europe! Mark your calendars for April 30th and May 1st and start making travel arrangements. This year's WineConf is being hosted by the University of Stuttgart's Institute of Communication Networks and Computer Engineering. For more info, see the WineConf 2005 web pages. We're currently working on arranging some lodging options, please let us know as soon as possible if you plan on attending.

A new CVS snapshot with the following additions came out this week:

• Many OLE bug fixes and improvements.
• A lot more work on the MSI dll.
• Update regions now handled in the Wine server.
• Beginnings of typelib generation in the IDL compiler.
• Many janitorial cleanups.

Most binary packages have already been put together or you can compile the source yourself. Read more about this release, or just go download it.

Just in time for Christmas, CodeWeavers has released version 4.1 of CrossOver Office. No new applications are supported, but you'll find a lot of bugfixes for existing ones. That includes some big updates to improve iTunes performance. For more information, read the announcement or go take a look at the changelog.

We added an acknowledgement page last week to WineHQ. We'd like to thank everyone over the years who have made significant contributions to Wine.

Last week also saw more AppDB changes. Have you signed up yet to be an application maintainer?

Finally, Vincent Béron created a new download page for Red Hat based distros. Hopefully that will sort out some of the confusion concerning the sheer number of packages available.

It's been a few weeks, but a new release of Wine is out. Included for your enjoyment:

• Implementation of the RSAENH dll.
• More work on the Direct3D 9 architecture.
• Builtin debugger improvements.
• Reorganisation of the Developer's Guide.

Binary packages will be appearing soon, but you can find the source release on SourceForge right now. Read more about this release, or just go download it.

CodeWeavers announced the release of CrossOver Office 4.0 today. Several new applications are now supported and existing supported apps have had extensive bug fixes. The big news most people will find exciting is the added support for Apple's iTunes. You can play music, access the store, and sync with an iPod. Other new apps include FrameMaker and JInitiator, which allows people to access Oracle Application Forms via a web browser. Links you might find interesting:

• Press Release
• "The Real Dirt"
• Change Log
• CodeWeavers' Store

If you've ever aspired to become a Wine hacker, you'll appreciate a quick introduction written by Mike Hearn. It's not a replacement for the Wine Developer Guide, but it does serve as an excellent starting point for working on Wine.

Also this week, Chris Morgan and Tony Lambregts modified the AppDB to allow folks to take over an application and become a maintainer. Then you can edit comments, change app descriptions, and all kinds of other cool stuff. If there's an app you regularly use under Wine, please consider maintaining an AppDB page and help track regressions. After you've set up a normal AppDB user account, you can become a maintainer by finding (or adding) an application and clicking on the maintainer button you'll find on each app's page. Have any ideas for improving the interface? Let us know!