The Wine project has been around since 1993, longer than many Linux and open source proponents. It started as a way to allow Linux users to run software written for Windows 3.1, and over the years has expanded to include software for newer Windows versions, as well as more Unix flavors that run on Intel architectures. Due to the complexity of the goal and the continual moving target, Wine has a bit of a reputation as, as project member Marcus Meissner puts it, "that neverending alpha project."

Today, there is still no Wine 1.0, meaning that there is still no "final release" available for this project--and don't think for a moment that this is due to laziness: Wine boasts over 1 million lines of C code. However, the 90,000 users claimed on the Wine project's web site is a testament to how far this Windows implementation has come.

There are over 300 individuals who work or have worked on the Wine project, so I'll leave it to the Who's Who listing on the Wine web site (www.winehq.org) to make sure that everyone gets their due credit. However, in any large endeavor there are key players who coordinate development, or have the capacity to make particularly important contributions along the way.

Major players in the Wine project include both volunteers and company employees. Some of the original volunteers now work for some of the companies, but from my understanding, some of the major volunteers are: Uwe Bonnes, Marcus Meissner, Andreas Mohr, Dmitrie O Paun, Eric Pouech, John Sheets, and Martin Wilck. Amongst those who contribute to the Wine project as part of their work (and were likely Wine volunteers before being paid for it) are CodeWeavers' Huw Davies, François Gouget, Alexandre Julliard, Dmitry Timoshkov, and Jeremy White. In TransGaming Technologies the major Wine contributor is Ove Kaaven, and from Lindows.com Michael Cardenas has done his part.

Of course, we're not here just to honor a list of names, as much as we all might like Wine and find it really useful. Let's take a look at how this bevy of commercial and volunteer interests interacts.

Next: How it All Comes Together »