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Saturday, August 22, 2009

Bordeaux 2009 year end roadmap

I thought this would be a good time for us to share our next six months outlook for Bordeaux. Maybe I should start with whats taken place over the past few months then go over our future goals.

Over the past six months it's has been extremely exciting times around here, we shipped Bordeaux for Solaris and now its allot easier for Solaris and OpenSolaris users to use Wine to run Office 2003, Adobe Photoshop and other applications on their systems.

We also have a Bordeaux beta for MAC users and this is where allot of energy has been going lately. Once Bordeaux 2.0 for MAC ships it will be easy and inexpensive for MAC users to run IE 7 and Microsoft Office on their beloved Mac's.

We also refreshed Bordeaux for BSD and Linux twice thus far this year and added QuickTime Player and IrfanView support. fixed a number of bugs and tweaked the install scripts for cleaner installs.

In the next few months, we plan to ship Bordeaux 2.0 and this is where 95% of our work has been focused. We started off by re-writing our build and install scripts so they were portable across all platforms. Then we bundled in Cabextract, unnzip and wget to get a feel of the bundling process. And with bundling in these tools it makes life allot easier for the end user as they don't have to go out ad install each tool on their system. It's just there and it just works.

In the past Bordeaux was a run of the mill "Wine frontend" and while their is nothing wrong with being just a frontend to Wine this approach causes massive head aches. Wine is released every two weeks and over just a couple months their are numerous versions that need to be supported. Some people stick with the stable Wine 1.0.1 version that came with their distribution while others install the latest version just after each release. And if you have used Wine for more then a month you know that what worked in one release isn't guaranteed to work in the next release.

So it has comes the point to where we need to also Bundle Wine with Bordeaux. This way we can focus on one version and test all of our supported applications against it. and not have to worry about the next Wine release breaking a application or feature. It's also opens up the availability for us to add in hacks and tweaks so certain applications and games run, or in some circumstances run allot better then with just plain stock Wine.

We have a number of hacks and fixes in the works, a hack depends on how you look at the situation in our 2.0 build and one of these new features will be the unsupported DIB Engine. We know it's not perfect but it will allow our customers to use it if needed. We will be able to support IE 7 and Microsoft Outlook in the near future with our own Wine bundle.

After the Wine bundle is complete and all of our current applications and a few new applications have been tested and gone through QA test we plan to re-write the frontend and make it extremely simple to install any application or game through the new UI.

After the new frontend is complete we plan to have our own application and game database and then tie it into the UI so you can instantly see what other peoples success was with any given application.

Here is two recent screen shots of Office 2007 running on OpenSolaris 200.06



Sound now works on Solaris



IE 7 running on Linux (Gentoo).


If Bordeaux is something your interested in we would ask that you purchase the current 1.8.2 version to help fund the next release. All of the above changes take one of two things time or money. And with your support we can invest in more hacking hours and have Bordeaux 2.0 ready for release in just a couple short months.

Keep in mind if you make the purchase now you get six months of upgrades, so you will also get version 2.0 and any service releases.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Bordeaux now available at Payloadz

We have had some recent request for ways to purchase Bordeaux other then through PayPal. So as of today we have Bordeaux listed at Payloadz.com and can be purchased without the need of a PayPal account.

Payloadz will let you use your credit or debit card to make a direct payment and access to five downloads through their servers.

If you do prefer to use PayPal just go to our store and make your purchase there.







Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Bordeaux 1.8.2 for Linux Released

The Bordeaux Technology Group released Bordeaux 1.8.2 for Linux today. Bordeaux 1.8.2 adds support for Apple's QuickTime 6.5.2 Player, IrfanView 4.25 the extreamly popular image viewer and editor. This release aslo bundles in Cabextract, Wget and Unzip to remove external dependencies. Our winetricks script has been synced to the latest official release, Steam should now install and run once again, There has also been many small bug fixes and tweaks.
Bordeaux 1.8.2 has been tested against Wine 1.1.26

The cost of Bordeaux 1.8.2 is $20.00. Anyone who has purchased Bordeaux in the past six months is entitled to a free upgrade. Bordeaux comes with six months of upgrades and support and of course a 30-day money back guarantee.

Supported Applications/Games:

  • Microsoft Office 2007
  • Microsoft Office 2003
  • Microsoft Office 2000
  • Microsoft Office 97
  • Microsoft Office Visio 2003
  • Microsoft Office Project 2003
  • Adobe Photoshop 6
  • Adobe Image Ready 3
  • Adobe Photoshop 7
  • Adobe Image Ready 7
  • Adobe Photoshop CS
  • Adobe Photoshop CS2
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
  • Steam and Steam based Games
  • Apple QuickTime 6.5.2 Player
  • IrfaView 4.25 (Image files only)
  • Winetricks support

About Bordeaux:

The Bordeaux Technology Group is a software services and development company specializing in Windows compatibility software. Users of Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac systems from time to time find themselves in the need to run specialized Windows software. The Bordeaux suite enables access to these programs and data in a seamless and low cost manner without requiring licensing of Microsoft Technology. The Bordeaux Group also provides migration services and support for alternative operating systems specializing in Windows compatibility.

There is a multitude of software developed only for the Windows operating system and even when software vendors port their applications to another platform, generally it lacks features that the Windows version contains. The only solution these developers face is to have access to both systems for testing which leads to increased infrastructure demands, and wasted project resources. If you are vendor interested in supporting your application on Linux, BSD, Solaris or Mac OS X or a software user that needs to run a Windows application on Linux, BSD, Solaris or Mac OS X we can help.

Version 1.8.2 New Features:

  • Added QuickTime 6.5.2 Player support
  • Added IrfanView 4.25 support
  • Bundle cabextract, wget and unzip support
--

Special thanks to Bar Chiu for building the 32 bit installers for us... :)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Bordeaux The frontend for Wine

Juraj Šípoš Who maintains http://www.freebsd.nfo.sk/ wrote a nice review about Bordeaux on FreeBSD. The original review is at www.linuxexpres.cz and can be translated with google translate. Just choose Slovak to English or your language of choice, Here is a link to the English translation.

Here is a small snip of the review, Juraj also talks about WineTricks and CodeWeavers CrossOver Ofiice.

Bordeaux is a port area in the southwest of France on the river Garonne. Produces are high-quality wine. Recently it its name in English (wine) of each application and environment, which programs you run Windows on Unix without that you must have installed the Windows operating system.

Bordeaux - interesting extension for Wine

Wine is something totally different, what emulators as VMware or qemu in which the user must install the entire Windows environment. In practice, this represents money for the license and the unnecessary costs. Wine is not a emulator, which is confirmed by the abbreviation of the name in English - Wine Is Not an Emulator. Wine is a working environment without emulating the processor.

When the application interface Wine saw the first light of the world (even with Win32 supporting around 1995), had many shortcomings and remember the veterans, showed that, although with some difficulties to run 16-bit Windows programs, with 32-bit environment are still problems. In those times it was difficult to configure Wine and then of course to use it.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Bordeaux for Mac OSX 1.8 status update

First I'd like to apologize to those of you following this list and waiting on a new Mac build. We plan on having the new build out in just a few more days. I'd like to go ahead and give you a rundown of the new features in what we hope will be the final release.

1. IE7 Support
2. Application Bundle support for all Win32 Applications
3. Much improved and responsive Bordeaux Setup and Cellar Manager applications

There are still some glitches such as the Application bundles don't yet have the proper icons but we are working on that and hope to have it addressed in the 2.0 build. Part of the holdup is that our patches to Winehq to support Application Bundle generation have been going through very strict review to get in the winehq tree.

You will find attached two screenshots, the first is showing the old Bordeaux Setup on the left and the New Bordeaux Setup on the right. As you can see we've got nice new Aqua styles as well as have gotten rid of that annoying double Dock icon bug.

Also you will find attached a screenshot showing the new bundles, I am still not happy as they are just all dumped in your Users Applications folder. We've not quite decided if we should create a new group called "Bordeaux Windows Applications" under the applications folder or pick another spot. Also I'm not happy with the lack of nesting and true Start Menu emulation as well as the lack of nice icons but I am afraid those things may have to wait until 2.0.



When we ship the final stable build the cost will be $25.00 per licence. At this time we will process pre sales for Bordeaux 1.8 for Mac and when the final build ships you will still receive your full six months of upgrades and support.
Benefits of pre-odering Bordeaux for Mac OS X
  • The pre-oder price will only be $20.00 so you will save $5.00
  • You will have access to all beta builds.
  • You can join our beta testing group and give feedback.
  • Users who give useful beta reports will get a extra six months of free upgrades.

Thanks,

The Bordeaux Development Team



Putty for Mac
Putty for Mac
$15.00

https://winereviews.onfastspring.com/putty-for-mac


Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Bordeaux 1.8.2 for FreeBSD Released

The Bordeaux Technology Group released Bordeaux 1.8 for FreeBSD today. Bordeaux 1.8.2 adds support for Apple's QuickTime 6.5.2 Player, IrfanView 4.25 the extreamly popular image viewer and editor. This release aslo bundles in Cabextract, Wget and Unzip to remove external dependencies. Our winetricks script has been synced to the latest official release, Steam should now install and run once again, There has also been many small bug fixes and tweaks.
Bordeaux 1.8.2 has been tested against Wine 1.1.26

The cost of Bordeaux 1.8.2 is $20.00. Anyone who has purchased Bordeaux in the past six months is entitled to a free upgrade. Bordeaux comes with six months of upgrades and support and of course a 30-day money back guarantee.

Supported Applications/Games:

  • Microsoft Office 2007
  • Microsoft Office 2003
  • Microsoft Office 2000
  • Microsoft Office 97
  • Microsoft Office Visio 2003
  • Microsoft Office Project 2003
  • Adobe Photoshop 6
  • Adobe Image Ready 3
  • Adobe Photoshop 7
  • Adobe Image Ready 7
  • Adobe Photoshop CS
  • Adobe Photoshop CS2
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
  • Steam and Steam based Games
  • Apple QuickTime 6.5.2 Player
  • IrfaView 4.25 (Image files only)
  • Winetricks support

About Bordeaux:

The Bordeaux Technology Group is a software services and development company specializing in Windows compatibility software. Users of Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac systems from time to time find themselves in the need to run specialized Windows software. The Bordeaux suite enables access to these programs and data in a seamless and low cost manner without requiring licensing of Microsoft Technology. The Bordeaux Group also provides migration services and support for alternative operating systems specializing in Windows compatibility.

There is a multitude of software developed only for the Windows operating system and even when software vendors port their applications to another platform, generally it lacks features that the Windows version contains. The only solution these developers face is to have access to both systems for testing which leads to increased infrastructure demands, and wasted project resources. If you are vendor interested in supporting your application on Linux, BSD, Solaris or Mac OS X or a software user that needs to run a Windows application on Linux, BSD, Solaris or Mac OS X we can help.

Version 1.8.2 New Features:

  • Added QuickTime 6.5.2 Player support
  • Added IrfanView 4.25 support
  • Bundle cabextract, wget and unzip support

Running Windows Apps on Solaris with Bordeaux 1.8.2 and Wine

For what seems like forever using Wine (The Windows compatability layer) on Solaris was an absolute pain. There was once a time when you had to compile it by hand, then Vit Hrachovy & Apostolos Syropoulos and Albert Lee started producing SVR4 packages that made installing as easy as “pkgadd -d winepackage”.

Since then Brandon Barker has pushed the latest stable release of Wine into the contrib IPS repository which integrates well with the new software management architecture for OpenSolaris.

By itself Wine is very usable but you need a fair amount of expertise or lots of time to get your favourite Windows application running correctly. This is why we have companies like Bordeaux Group and CodeWeavers who sell commercially supported Wine version or management tools that make our lives a little easier.

To give you an idea of how easy it is I am just going to focus on how easy Bordeaux 1.8.2 makes it to get MS Office 2003 up and running.

Installing Bordeaux:

Once you have added the “contrib” repository to your OpenSolaris sytem by typing:
pfexec pkg set-authority -O http://pkg.opensolaris.org/contrib/ contrib
You can install Wine by simply typing
pfexec pkg install wine
This will pull in Wine and all the other packages that support it.
After doing this you can run the Bordeaux installer by typing:
./bordeaux-solaris.x86.sh
You should then be able to see the new Bordeaux sub-menu in your Applications Menu:

Installing MS Office

In the Bordeaux menu when you select “Install Windows Applications” you are presented with a list of supported Windows Applications, from here I selected Microsoft Office 2003. Bordeaux then goes and fetches all of the necessary supporting components (MSXML etc…) and installs them all for you, following that you are asked to point the installer at the installer exe for Microsoft Office which you may have on a DVD disk or stored on your drive. Once you select the installer you simply go through the normal installation process, entering your product key and so on.

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