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没来得及做成PDF，大家将就看看LaTeX原文吧。
Why Wine is so important
为什么Wine这么重要
\emph{
译者按：
这是 www.winehq.org 上的一篇文章，在首页非常显眼的地方给出了链接。
这篇文章从各个方面论述了Wine的意义，给出的论点令人信服。我从对Wine“模拟运行”Windows软件嗤之以鼻转而坚定支持Wine就是从这篇文章开始的。
软件问题，已经不再是一个技术问题，事实上已经是一个社会问题了。
社会问题的解决往往依赖于共识的搭成，社团建立的基础是共同的纲领（如******************宣言或GPL协议），国家的建立依赖于宪法（如独立宣言）。
我们有很多优秀的技术人员，但是我们没有共同的共识，总是争论不休，难以合作。
希望这篇论文能够帮助我们在特定的方面搭成共识。
因为英语水平有限，翻译主要是意译。
文中某些词组没有找到特别肯定的翻译，是生译的，贻笑大方了。
如需联系我，请email到：mrkissinger at users.sourceforge.net
我的IM是(也是多元化的一个体现^-^)：
MSN: mrkissinger at msn.com
Yahoo: hyacinth_lz
ICQ: 112465548
QQ: 29978848
转载请保留此段。
}
原文地址：http://www.winehq.org/site/why
A lot of people in popular discussion forums keep thinking that Wine is "the last thing that Linux needs" or that it is "not important".
We are listing some info here that is supposed to thoroughly defeat these and other claims.
很多公开论坛上的人们还在思考Wine是“Linux的唯一所缺”或者它“并不重要”。
我们在这里列举一些信息来彻底的推翻这些及其他一些主张。
Five key points:
* Supply diversification
* Large homogeneous populations are a risk to society
* Any Windows replacement must run Windows applications
* Chicken-and-egg problem for Linux on the desktop
* Wine benefits
五大关键点：
\begin{itemize}
\item 提供多样化。
\item 庞大的同质群体对社会是一种风险。
\item 任何Windows的替代品都必须能运行Windows程序。
\item Linux桌面应用的鸡和蛋的问题。
\item Wine的意义。
\end{itemize}
\section{提供多样化}
Supply diversification
提供多样化
Diversifying your supply is universally considered to be an important aspect of risk management.
多样化的供给被广泛的认为是风险管理的一个重要方面。
Yet, The US Department of Justice has "found" that Microsoft Windows is run by more than 95\% of personal computers. Even taking Apple's Mac OS into account, Microsoft Windows is still present on more than 80\% of computers, and this is likely also true in most other countries, not just in the US. Thus governments, companies and home users all over the world ultimately depend on a single provider: Microsoft.
此前，美国司法部“发现”Microsoft Windows在超过95\%的个人电脑上运行。即使考虑Apple的Mac OS，Microsoft Windows仍然占有80\%的用户。不止美国，大多数国家似乎也是这样。
全世界的这些政府、公司和家庭用户最终都依赖于单一的一个提供商──Microsoft。
The question is not whether Microsoft has evil intents, or whether it may go out of business, but whether its plans match yours. A company may want to deploy thin clients to simplify administration and save money on per-client Windows licenses. But is Microsoft going to make it viable and undercut its Windows market? Where is the alternative if Microsoft implements its software subscription model? If Microsoft is not interested in catering to your market, then you have no other provider to turn to.
问题并非是Microsoft是否有邪恶的企图，或者是否会破产，而是它的计划是否适合你。
一个公司也许需要部署瘦客户端进行简单的管理，以节省每客户端的Windows授权费用。
但是Microsoft允许它存在并破坏Windows的市场吗？
如果Microsoft对其产品采用“订阅”模式收费，那么替代的方案是什么？
假如Microsoft没兴趣为你所在的市场提供所需产品，那么你将别无选择。
\section{庞大的同质群体对社会是一种风险}
Large homogeneous populations are a risk to society
庞大的同质群体对社会是一种风险。
Another aspect is that such large homogeneous populations are dangerous to society. The irish learnt this the hard way when their potato crop was destroyed by a fungus, causing the 1845 " otato Famine" and killing more than a million people (about 10\% of the population). In a large homogeneous population, all individuals share the same vulnerabilities. Find one vulnerability and you can annihilate the whole population. Since then, we, as a society, have learnt our lesson. Or have we?
另一个方面，这么庞大的同质群体对社会是危险的。
爱尔兰人为了明白这个付出了代价：他们的土豆被一种菌毁坏了，引起了1845年的“土豆灾荒”，有超过100万人死于饥饿（大约为当时人口的10\%）。
在一个庞大的同质群体中，每个个体都有相同的弱点。找到一个弱点，你就可以摧毁整个群体。
从那以后，作为一个社群，我们学到了经验──还是没有学到？
As mentioned above, Microsoft Windows is run on an overwhelming proportion of personal computers. Even taking into account the variations between different versions of Windows, mostly between Windows 9x and the Windows NT family, this represents a large homogeneous population. One on which most governments, most businesses, and many households depend on.
前面提到，Microsoft Windows在PC上有着压倒性的优势。即使考虑到Windows有不同版本，大部分人都在使用Windows 9x和Windows NT系列，这就形成了一个庞大的同质群体。
大多数政府、商家、家庭都依赖这个群体。
The elements of this population, like all other complex systems, are not miraculously exempt from vulnerabilities. The Code Red epidemic of the summer of 2001 is there to remind us of that. Code Red did what any "virus" presented with a large homogeneous population would do: it infected more than 359.000 computers in just the first day. Fortunately, it infected a less common member of the Windows family and was quite harmless: it did not randomly corrupt files or format your hard-drive. [1], [2]
这个群体中的每一个人，都象其他复杂的系统一样，无法摆脱这些弱点。
2001年夏天的“红色代码”的横行提醒我们这一点。
“红色代码”就象真正的病毒对付庞大的同质群体那样，第一天就感染了35万9千台电脑。
幸运的是，它只感染Windows系列的少数几种，而且无害──没有破坏文件和格式化你的硬盘。
It is only a matter of time before a more virulent worm appears. The only way to decrease its impact is to diversify the OS population. This issue is now considered serious enough that security analysts are calling our reliance on Microsoft Windows a threat to national security.
下一个更有破坏力的蠕虫病毒的出现只是时间问题。
降低其冲击的唯一方法是使操作系统多元化。
这个问题已经被认为是足够严重的了，安全专家们称我们如此依赖Windows是对国家安全的一种威胁。
Because it is an alternate implementation of the Win32 API and runs on top of a completely different OS, Wine does not have the same flaws and thus can provide this needed diversity.
因为Wine在一个完全不同的操作系统上提供Win32 API，所以Wine不存在这些问题，这样就可以提供所需的多元化。
\section{任何Windows的替代品都必须能运行Windows程序}
Any Windows replacement must run Windows applications
任何Windows的替代品都必须能运行Windows程序。
The dependency is not so much on Microsoft Windows as it is on Windows applications. Boxed off-the-shelf applications, games, in-house applications, vertical market applications, are what prevents users, companies and governments from switching to another operating system. Even if 90\% of the needs of most users are taken care of if you can provide them with an office suite, an email client, a browser, and a media player, then there will still be a remaining 10\% of their needs, potentially critical needs, that are not met.
人们对Windows的依赖其实不如对Windows软件的依赖那么强。
盒装商品软件、游戏、内部软件、行业软件，这些软件阻挠了用户、公司和政府转向其他操作系统。
即使提供给他们一个办公套件，足以满足大部分用户90\%的需要，但是仍然缺少10\%，而这可能正是用户需要的关键功能。
Unfortunately these remaining 10\% are spread across a wide spectrum of applications: thousands of applications running the gamut from games to specialized accounting software for French farms, via Italian encyclopedias, German tax software, child education software, banking software, in-house software representing years of development, etc.
不幸的是，剩下的10\%涵盖了很多软件：数千种从游戏到法国农场的专用记帐软件，意大利百科全书、德国税收软件、幼儿教育软件、银行软件、花了数年开发的内部软件等等。
It is the availability of all this software that makes Windows so compelling and its monopoly so strong. No platform will become mainstream unless it runs a significant portion of that software and lets individuals, companies and governments preserve their investments in that software.
所有的这些软件，使Windows有如此的强制性，垄断如此严重。
除非能够支持这些软件，保护个人、公司和政府在软件上的投资，否则没有哪个平台可以成为主流。
\section{Linux桌面应用的鸡和蛋的问题}
Chicken-and-egg problem for Linux on the desktop
Linux桌面应用的鸡和蛋的问题
This brings us to the chicken and egg issue of Linux on the desktop. Until Linux can provide equivalents for the above applications, its marketshare on the desktop will stagnate. But until the marketshare of Linux on the desktop rises, no vendor will develop applications for Linux. How does one break this vicious circle?
这把我们带回到Linux桌面应用的鸡和蛋的问题。
除非Linux可以提供以上软件的等价替代品，否则Linux的桌面应用市场将一直停滞。
但是除非Linux的桌面应用市场上升（到一定程度），否则没有厂商会为Linux开发（桌面）应用软件。
怎么才能跳出这个怪圈？
Again, Wine can provide an answer. By letting users reuse the Windows applications they have invested time and money in, Wine dramatically lowers the barrier that prevents users from switching to Linux. This then makes it possible for Linux to take off on the desktop, which increases its market share in that segment. In turn, this makes it viable for companies to produce Linux versions of their applications, and for new products to come out just for the Linux market.
再一次，Wine给出了答案。
通过让人们继续使用他们已经投资了时间和金钱的Windows软件，Wine戏剧化的降低了用户转为使用Linux的难度。
这使Linux在桌面应用得到发展，并将扩大其市场容量。
这样，对于软件厂商来说，开发其产品的Linux版本变得可行，甚至新产品可以专门针对Linux市场。
This reasoning could be dismissed easily if Wine was only capable of running Solitaire. However now it can run Microsoft Office, multi-media applications such as QuickTime and Windows Media Player, and even games such as Max Payne or The SIMS.
Almost any other complex application can be made to run well given a bit of time. And each time that work is done to add one application to this list, many other applications benefit from this work and become usable too.
Have a look at our Application Database to get an idea on what can be run under Wine.
\section{Wine的意义}
Wine benefits
Wine的意义
Last but not least, Wine can provide benefits over Windows right now:
最后却也是很重要的，Wine现在比Windows提供更多的功能：
* Wine makes it possible to take advantage of all the Unix strong points (stability, flexibility, remote administration) while still using the Windows applications you depend on.
* Unix has always made it possible to write powerful scripts. Wine makes it possible to call Windows applications from scripts that can also leverage the Unix environment to its full extent.
* Wine makes it possible to access Windows applications remotely, even if they are a few thousand miles away.
* Wine makes it economical to use thin clients: simply install Wine on a Linux server, and voila, you can access these Windows applications from any X terminal.
* Wine can also be used to make existing Windows applications available on the Web by using VNC and its Java client.
* Wine is Open Source Software, so you can extend it to suit your needs or have one of many companies do it for you.
\begin{itemize}
\item Wine允许你在使用你依赖的Windows软件的同时，获得Unix的优点：稳定性、适应性、远程管理。
\item Unix下一直可以写一些强大的脚本程序。Wine允许这些脚本程序调用Windows软件，
\item Wine允许你在几千英里外访问Windows软件。
\item Wine允许使用经济的瘦客户端：只要在一台Linux服务器上安装Wine，你就可以从任何一个X终端访问Windows软件。
\item Wine甚至可以将现有的Windows软件，通过VNC及其Java客户端，改为Web访问。
\item Wine是Open Source软件，你可以根据需要扩展它，或者从一堆从业公司中挑一家帮你做这件事。
\end{itemize} |
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