The making of Wine (how to make Windows apps merrier with Linux)

So, in 2008, the 1.0 version will hit the streets and the timing could not be more perfect. White admits that not every Windows application will work flawlessly on Wine, but many a critical one for the enterprise has been specifically optimized. These include Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Project and Visio, graphics applications like Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, and Adobe Photoshop. Several Linux distros ship with Wine, too, White says.

Another upside of the long development cycle is that the Wine community has had a chance to grow exponentially since the first CrossOver edition. White says less than ½ of the major contributors work for CodeWeavers and counting all contributors, some 800 people have been involved.

Besides letting you run actual Windows versions of software on your Linux or Mac PC, Wine is cool because of the enormity of what Julliard and White accomplished. The witty and irreverent White is unabashedly proud as he suggests that Wine be considered "an amazing technological marvel."

"We are completely rewriting the Windows operating system from the ground up," he says. "Basically we took Microsoft's crown jewel, that they've had billions of dollars to develop using tens of thousands of developers, and we, the open source community, have essentially re-implemented that. We are the scrappy underdogs. Here's where the Hollywood music comes up."