With the release of 0.2 we will be bringing in a whole new infrastructure and way of doing things, WDDB - (Wine-Doors Data-Base) and karma.

From now on all the information for each application pack will be stored in WDDB, so instead of updated lots of XML files every time we release a new wine-doors release or a WINE breaks things, we can just teach WDDB how to output in the new format.

The 0.2.X Wine-Doors client will be very tightly integrated into WDDB. If an application pack fails to install, Wine-Doors will submit information about your WINE setup back to WDDB and give this pack bad karma. When the karma goes bellow a certain point, the pack will become invisible.

The minimum required karma level for applications to display is configurable. So Wine-Doors could be configured to display only the most solid/compatible apps for users in a business environment, it also allows us to use it as a package testing environment. New packages will have a low karma level at first, but then package testers (users with their karma level set low) can test them. If the  packages are good they receive good karma, and vice versa.

A package can have multiple karma levels. For example: if users with an ATI graphics card have problems with a package, the package will have a lower karma level for people using ATI cards. This is also true for many things, both software and hardware related.

So to cut the long story short: WDDB can automatically detect which packages are good and bad. Unlike WineHQ’s AppDB which requires thousands of users to submit data manually.