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Teen coder shuts down open source Mac app Whisky, citing harm to paid apps (arstechnica.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/opensource

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[–] Mikina 50 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

He's 18, contributed to the Switch emulator Ryjunix, alongside some other projects while also doing school. His reasoning is that he along with Whisky doesn't have the capabilities, manpower and skill to properly contribute to the Wine on MacOS, just like Proton is doing for Linux, and that he's worried that if Whiskey would make CrossOver unsustainable (who do have the resources to do it better), that it could kill Wine on MacOS.

I'd say that's fair, and anyone allegeding blackmail or buying off is insulting.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

His reasoning made perfect sense to me, I don't get the "blackmail / bribe" stuff. Since the very beginning of his project he has been quite vocal about not wanting to cause any sort of harm (financially) to CodeWeavers because they do actually contribute quite a lot to the Wine project whereas Whisky did not.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

The power of open source is not wielded by a single man.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

The 18 year old should be extremely proud of themselves for making something people rely on so much.
Pressure and blackmail are both nice tools but you use them against lib- opposing political parties, not FOSS devs. Pathetic skill issue that is.

Sorry for political mentions if it's a problem btw.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why does everyone think this was pressure and blackmail?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Idk I might've misunderstood something.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

Major shame since I was about to get a friend's Mac setup to play some basic adventure games. I'll have to fuck around with Wine then which I guess will be a net positive since I need to be more familiar with Wine.

[–] ulterno -1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

So what was it?
Buying off or Blackmail?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Just personal ideology. Said paid software is the wonderful CrossOver.

[–] ulterno 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I see.
Guess I need to look into what CrossOver is doing.

Normally, I would feel like if a free app (OSS on top of it) is threatening the viability of a paid one, the latter is not particularly worth the payment.

Now unless CrossOver is actually an Open Source paid app and is significantly contributing to the Open Source part despite loss of competitive advantage, that might make sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

CrossOver's CodeWeavers is a co-op and most of the people who maintain Wine, including Wine's project lead. CrossOver the product is proprietary per-app environmental preconfigurations with professional support.

[–] ulterno 1 points 1 day ago

I see.

That makes sense to give a preference to.
And now Whisky-dev's words make more sense.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

carrot and/or stick