James Ramey
The Mac gaming app Whisky has reached its end. Isaac Marovitz, its creator, has announced that development and maintenance will no longer continue. Whisky may have been a CrossOver competitor, but that’s not how we feel today. We’re not ecstatic at learning of Whisky’s demise; we’re not jumping for joy at the thought of one less competitor in the market; and we’re not talking of ‘world domination’ or ‘superiority’ in and about our offices. Our response is simply one of empathy, understanding, and acknowledgement for Isaac’s situation.
You see, Isaac did it right. He took an open-source software project and packaged it so that tens of thousands of Mac users could play Windows games on macOS for FREE!!! Was Whisky a competitor to CrossOver? Absolutely, it was but, so is Wine and a half dozen other applications all derived from Wine. But Isaac was part of the ecosystem; the community; and the brethren. He followed his passion, and he DID something with it. That’s commendable, and we empathize with Isaac as that’s essentially what sparked the start of CodeWeavers nearly 30 years ago. CodeWeavers was founded with that same passion and dream of giving people options in how they engage with their software. CrossOver isn’t free, but it is—just like Whisky—a labor of love built by people who care deeply about giving users more choices. We develop Wine so that anyone can use it, whether they buy CrossOver, download Proton, or build their own tools like Whisky. I think it’s to that last point that we’re most sad. Isaac provided a free tool, and it was very popular with Mac users. Unfortunately, he was met with an avalanche of user expectations. Users asking for support of their favorite games. Users asking about making their game run better. Users asking about future Whisky features. And (some) users unfairly posting to Reddit when their expectations were unmet. But bear in mind, he was a one-man shop providing a free software that was a passion project for him!!!
As I am sure Isaac learned, it is difficult to provide a very high and consistent level of service for free software. We understand the difficulty of supporting software, especially when it’s free. The reality is that testing, support, and development take real resources, and while we’ve built a business around that sustainability, we’ve never lost sight of the passion that started it all. And if CodeWeavers were not viable because of CrossOver not being sustainable, it would likely dampen the future development of Wine and Proton and support for macOS gaming. The costs of CrossOver really do go to pay for Wine from software development to support services.
As CEO of CodeWeavers, I want to acknowledge that Isaac did great work. He also got a lot of great press on the Internet for both Whisky and Wine. He built a useful tool that was innovative and one that people enjoyed using. And he was incredibly respectful to the Wine community, including CodeWeavers. Isaac acknowledging that he wanted to do no harm to Wine, and him recognizing that Whisky was potentially doing so by taking business away from CrossOver is incredibly insightful and dauntless on his part. Everyone here at CodeWeavers hopes that Isaac can pursue another of his many technology passions going forward.
So now what??? We ‘tip our cap’ to Isaac and the impact he made to macOS gaming. We continue to improve Wine which continues to improve CrossOver and Proton. We continue to provide service to customers wanting to play their favorite Windows games on macOS and Linux. We continue supporting the many other open-source projects that provide indirect benefits for non-Windows platforms. And we do all this with the understanding and acceptance that we are contributing to an ecosystem that encourages future tech enthusiasts, like Isaac Marovitz, to one day follow their passions and build their variation of Whisky so that they can play their favorite games on the platform of their choice. This is what we do and that is ultimately what Wine is as an open-source project – an opportunity to follow your passion. Thank you, Isaac. We wish you the very best.
About James B. Ramey
James B. Ramey is the CEO of CodeWeavers. His life long love of video gaming started at the tender age of six with an Atari 2600 and evolved over time to include Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Apple Mac IIc, Windows PC, and MacBook Pro. When not fiddling with technology, James enjoys cooking, travel, debating politics in the office, and spending time with his wife, daughter, and their two rescue dogs. For the past 20 years, James has worked with clients around the world in best implementing technology to maximize a return on their investment. He is a graduate of Moorhead State University and earned his MBA from the University of Phoenix. You can find James on Twitter at @jbramey.
