Saturday, November 11, 2006

Project Alky is dead

Or - why reinventing the wheel is not an automatically good thing to try and do.

A while ago, the internet (ok, just the FOSS world) was temporarily ablaze with talk of a new project. The project was called "Alky", and it was to do what Wine have not managed to do, even after over eleven years of development. It was to allow Linux users to run Windows binaries.

The reason I'm not giving a link to the Alky project's web site is not because I like Wine and I find the Alky's developers approach naive (and slightly arrogant). The real reason is that the project's web site is dead. On IRC, on the Freenode network, the #alky channel holds the following topic: "http://www.alkyproject.com/ - The alky project appears to be dead and cremated; the web site is gone, as was the channel for a while. If anyone knows anything else, please add it to the topic."

When alky launched, it spread healthy amounts of great promises. It said that Wine, while doing a decent enough job in it's own niche, is not fast enough to run games. They said that the reason is the need for each Wine process to communicate certain operations with the wineserver, and that they will preprocess the binaries so that this is not necessary.

Except, of course, they didn't. Instead they closed the project down, public interest nonwithstanding.

And the sad truth is that alky was pretty much doomed from the start. Here's why:
It failed to take on the experience of predecessors.

Wineserver, while indeed a performance bottleneck, has a function. Others (such as Transgaming) did offer other solutions to the same problem that wineserver is after solving, but the simple point of the matter is that some solution needs to be offered. Alky never got around to saying what their solution is going to be.

In a nutshell, Wine is composed of three major sections. One is the PE loader, capable of taking Windows executable or DLL, and mapping it into memory and resolving dependecies the same way that Windows does. The second is the wineserver, that allows synchronization between different processes. The third is the Win32 implementation itself. The last part is, by far, the greatest one. Over 90% of the code in Wine is taken by the implementation of the various DLLs that compose the thing amorphically called the "Win32 API".

Alky got as far as as implementing an alternative to the PE loader (which was done, in Alky, as a preprocessor for the files). It then defined the problem as 90% solved, and went public. As you can understand, the problem was, at best, only 10% solved.

So the project is now dead. Though it may not sound so from my post, I'm actually sorry to see it go like that. At the very least, it would have been nice to still have access to the work already done, and see whether Wine can benefit from it.

Alky, June 2006 - Oct 2006.

Shachar

17 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the project is run by http://www.fallingleafsystems.com/ now. I thought it was naive and dead too.

1:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's effectively dead. No source code available at this point at www.fallingleafsystems.com. Kind of disappointing, when you think about it.

3:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!

5:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Side-effects cialis ED verapamil Get bactroban Order zyrtec 10mg oxytrol Without prescription sinequan

9:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

loved las vegas? attempt the all unusual [url=http://www.casinolasvegass.com]casino[/url] las vegas at www.casinolasvegass.com with on the other side of 75 chic open [url=http://www.casinolasvegass.com]online casino[/url] games like slots, roulette, baccarat, craps and more and overcome real notes with our $400 cost-free bonus.
we have even better games then the old online [url=http://www.place-a-bet.net/]casino[/url] www.place-a-bet.net!

10:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love your blog. So much useful information. Thank you.

3:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is quite weighty to match adapted distress of all your gems pieces so that they last for a lifetime. There are unalike approaches and ways to straight weird types of jewels be it gold, grey, pearls, diamond or semiprecious stone stones. Outlined below are the heterogeneous ways around which you can induce carefulness of your accessories and nurture them gleaming and redone always.
[url=http://blackfriday2010.spruz.com/]Black Friday 2010[/url]

1:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To be a noble human being is to have a amiable of openness to the in the seventh heaven, an ability to group uncertain things beyond your own restrain, that can take you to be shattered in unequivocally exceptionally circumstances as which you were not to blame. That says something remarkably weighty thither the get of the principled passion: that it is based on a trust in the fitful and on a willingness to be exposed; it's based on being more like a shop than like a prize, something kind of tenuous, but whose mere precise attraction is inseparable from that fragility.
Appareils photo
[url=http://BoutiquePhotographique.com]Compact numerique[/url]

2:44 PM  
Anonymous first fuck stories said...

Down. One local radio station, 99X, ranlistener contests offering rewards to the first person to spot the robots.
sex stories teen dad grandpa
wild french fuck stories
sex incest stories and pics
female spanking stories
cunt rape stories
Down. One local radio station, 99X, ranlistener contests offering rewards to the first person to spot the robots.

12:50 AM  
Anonymous preteen spanking stories said...

Stephanie felt shock course through her system Mysweet uncle. His wife was a high society girl that sat on the boards ofa few local charitys.
bestiality stories k-9 thumbs
lesbian stories girl on girl
baby sitting fuck stories
free taboo incest stories
free forced sex stories
Stephanie felt shock course through her system Mysweet uncle. His wife was a high society girl that sat on the boards ofa few local charitys.

7:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dating guy with adult daughters http://loveepicentre.com/map.php speed dating austin

1:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

free stock ebook http://audiobooksplanet.co.uk/de/T-R/m122431/ free best ebook for c sharp [url=http://audiobooksplanet.co.uk/Moshe-Yudkowsky/m90692/]ebook download for qam[/url] recover ebook clients tools

9:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sexy party 4.8.0 software http://buyoem.co.uk/it/product-36504/MONyog-Ultimate-4-5 shadow drive software [url=http://buyoem.co.uk/de/product-15244/MailSteward-7-8-Mac]grade school children software for mac[/url] gif image editing software
[url=http://buyoem.co.uk/fr/category-100-114/Autres]Autres - Software Store[/url] gps software netbook
[url=http://buyoem.co.uk/it/category-14/Altri?page=3][img]http://buyoem.co.uk/image/7.gif[/img][/url]

2:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

[url=http://redbrickstore.co.uk/products/apcalis-oral-jelly.htm][img]http://onlinemedistore.com/11.jpg[/img][/url]
helix pharmacy http://redbrickstore.co.uk/products/tricor.htm wegmans food pharmacy [url=http://redbrickstore.co.uk/products/prometrium.htm]hotel pharmacy[/url]
bristol pine pharmacy http://redbrickstore.co.uk/products/chloramphenicol.htm walmart pharmacy male enhancement [url=http://redbrickstore.co.uk/products/starlix.htm]starlix[/url]
life extension pharmacy http://redbrickstore.co.uk/products/antabuse.htm pharmacy technician re certification [url=http://redbrickstore.co.uk/products/carafate.htm]walgreen pharmacy puyallup[/url]
pharmacy shoppers dempgraphics 2007 http://redbrickstore.co.uk/products/hangoff-helper.htm medication pharmacy math tables [url=http://redbrickstore.co.uk/products/nolvadex.htm]nolvadex[/url]

2:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

free online dating italian [url=http://freeinternetdating.info/relationships/trust-issues-in-relationships-with-men]trust issues in relationships with men[/url] life is good dating
dating valentines day http://freeinternetdating.info/personals/swingers-personals-stickney-south-dakota free affair dating sites
cory lea dating [url=http://freeinternetdating.info/seeking/dancers-seeking-new-careers]who is seth green dating[/url] dating a pharmacist

7:01 PM  
Blogger شركة زهرة الخليج said...

شركة رش دفان بتبوك
شركة تنظيف بيارات بالدمام
شركة رش مبيدات بتبوك

6:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chalets for Rent in Canada

11:31 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home