Photo credit: arstechnica.com
A Tipped-Cap Moment
The homepage of Whisky now displays a prominent message indicating that “Whisky is no longer actively maintained. Apps and games may break at any time.”
In a recent blog post, CodeWeavers’ CEO, James B. Ramey, reflected on the shutdown of Whisky, accompanied by an evocative image of a glass of whisky clinking against a wine glass. Ramey expressed a sense of empathy towards Whisky’s creator, Isaac Marovitz, stating that while Whisky was a competitor to CrossOver, the situation is approached with understanding rather than rivalry.
Ramey conveyed that Whisky was a free distribution of an open-source project, created by Marovitz as a labor of love, similar to CrossOver. However, the challenges faced by Marovitz were significant, as he dealt with overwhelming user expectations surrounding game compatibility and performance improvements. Ramey elaborated that such demands require substantial resources for testing, support, and development. He cautioned that if CodeWeavers were unable to sustain CrossOver, it would negatively impact the future of WINE and Proton, alongside the support for gaming on macOS.
Highlighting the legacy of Marovitz, Ramey remarked, “We ‘tip our cap’ to Isaac and the impact he made on macOS gaming,” opting for a more colloquial expression rather than a reference to the beverage that inspired the projects.
In a conversation with Ars Technica, Marovitz admitted that while user expectations were a concern, they were not the primary reason for halting development. He mentioned his experience with large projects, suggesting that he was accustomed to filtering out external pressures from users.
The phenomenon of open-source projects ceasing operations under the weight of expectations from unpaid developers is not new within the tech community. What makes Marovitz’s decision noteworthy is his perspective regarding the larger ecosystem’s benefits from Whisky, leading him to prioritize his contributions elsewhere. Nevertheless, during its operational phase, Whisky shone a spotlight on gaming possibilities for Mac users, and its connection to the Wine project and Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit provided opportunities for Mac-based gaming, allowing users to enjoy games that were otherwise inaccessible on their platform.
While Marovitz is stepping away from Whisky, he remains engaged with the Mac gaming community. He shared that he is currently working on the recompilation of Sonic Unleashed for Mac, collaborating with others in this effort, while maintaining his enthusiasm for similar projects in the future.
Source
arstechnica.com