Apologies for the provocative title. But Linux is failing because of situations like the following. For those fully in-the-know on Wine and Linux, put yourself in the shoes of those that are not, just for a moment.
I start by searching for 'Wine stable linux' (in search for standard Wine). Get WineHQ top result. Great. Straight to Downloads. Great. And then the mess begins. I get:
Wine Binary Packages
Latest stable release: Wine 1.8.5
Latest development release: Wine 1.9.22
Below is something also about binary packages, but this above say Stable and Binary. So I click there.
But.... now I'm told this is not binary packages. The link? Back to downloads. This could be a long day.
Ok, after that return trip, I scroll down to WineHQ Binary Packages, and click:
Ubunto (cause that's what I got). All good? Nope. Now, after the suggestion (twice) I could download a binary stable package from this website, it appears not to be the case.
Now I've got a handy list of terminal commands to install Wine. But Wine what? I'm offered 'devel' and 'staging', not stable.
I then get the least useful text on this page:
If you prefer to use the Staging branch, replace `winehq-devel` with `winehq-staging` in the line above.
I want stable! Not even a mention of why it's not there. If this is not ready on Ubuntu, just tell us. It's fine.
So what do take from all this, other than WineHQ appears to be a mess?
There is no stable? I should drink wine? Install something else?
I don't think two web pages for installing one thing could BE more complicated (thanks Chandler)
Linux suffers so much from this 'we know it so we don't care if you don't' attitude.
Does this mess mean Ubunto has no stable WineHQ package?
Re: Does this mess mean Ubunto has no stable WineHQ package?
Short answer: Yes, this means WineHQ has no stable packages.
WineHQ only packages the development and staging releases, and only for major distros that weren't doing that reliably. Distros are expected to package the stable releases; if Ubuntu doesn't, you need to take that up with Ubuntu.
You also might want to read this: https://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#Which_versi ... d_I_use.3F.
I do agree that the placement of the links to the release notes on the Downloads page is confusing. You could file a website bug for that.
WineHQ only packages the development and staging releases, and only for major distros that weren't doing that reliably. Distros are expected to package the stable releases; if Ubuntu doesn't, you need to take that up with Ubuntu.
You also might want to read this: https://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#Which_versi ... d_I_use.3F.
I do agree that the placement of the links to the release notes on the Downloads page is confusing. You could file a website bug for that.
Re: Does this mess mean Ubunto has no stable WineHQ package?
Thanks for starting with this. I fully expect this topic to get viewed many times by newer users.dimesio wrote:Short answer: Yes, this means WineHQ has no stable packages.
Fair point. Ubuntu do. It's just called Wine. I would have directly gone for that but all searches led to WineHQ site.dimesio wrote:WineHQ only packages the development and staging releases, and only for major distros that weren't doing that reliably. Distros are expected to package the stable releases; if Ubuntu doesn't, you need to take that up with Ubuntu.
Yes, might do that but it's looks intentional to me. I would go so far as to say deceiving. The layout and content of both the home page and download page suggest there is a general stable binary release of Wine, downloadable on this site. I've not seen an open source project doing that before (with no reference or message to make clear it''s not the place for a built stable release).dimesio wrote:I do agree that the placement of the links to the release notes on the Downloads page is confusing. You could file a website bug for that.
Anyway, thanks for the reply, info and link. Appreciated.
Re: Does this mess mean Ubunto has no stable WineHQ package?
No one here stands to gain anything by intentionally misleading users about where to download stable packages; dealing with the resulting confusion just creates unnecessary work. Problems of this sort generally stem from the inability of experienced users and developers to see things the way newbies do, no matter how hard we try. Pointing these things out to us is helpful.mikeaja wrote: Yes, might do that but it's looks intentional to me. I would go so far as to say deceiving. The layout and content of both the home page and download page suggest there is a general stable binary release of Wine, downloadable on this site.
Re: Does this mess mean Ubunto has no stable WineHQ package?
I am glad I found this post. It ought to be a sticky so that it stays on top because the moderator clears up a lot of confusion in just a few sentences. Why isn't that explanation on the website?
I am a beginner. The package managers that came with my distros (I've tried Ubuntu and Mint, both cinnamon and KDE) left me uncertain whether their wine packages were the latest and greatest. So I came to your website and saw that there is a later "stable" release -- 1.8 something. So I clicked on the links and started going around in circles on your website. I could never figure out why I could not get to it. All I could get to was 1.9.21 (I think), which was clearly developmental. or "staging". Whatever that is supposed to mean.
It would be very helpful if you removed all mention of 1.8 and "stable" release. Just tell it like it is. No stable release here -- just developmental stuff. Look to you package manager if you want something stable.
That would have saved a lot of head scratching.
I am a beginner. The package managers that came with my distros (I've tried Ubuntu and Mint, both cinnamon and KDE) left me uncertain whether their wine packages were the latest and greatest. So I came to your website and saw that there is a later "stable" release -- 1.8 something. So I clicked on the links and started going around in circles on your website. I could never figure out why I could not get to it. All I could get to was 1.9.21 (I think), which was clearly developmental. or "staging". Whatever that is supposed to mean.
It would be very helpful if you removed all mention of 1.8 and "stable" release. Just tell it like it is. No stable release here -- just developmental stuff. Look to you package manager if you want something stable.
That would have saved a lot of head scratching.
Re: Does this mess mean Ubunto has no stable WineHQ package?
I've edited the sticky we already have (viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25767) to explicitly state that WineHQ does not build binary packages for the stable branch.dnl wrote:I am glad I found this post. It ought to be a sticky so that it stays on top because the moderator clears up a lot of confusion in just a few sentences. Why isn't that explanation on the website?
The stable release is an official branch and source code for 1.8 is available here. Nowhere on this site do we promise binary packages for it.It would be very helpful if you removed all mention of 1.8 and "stable" release.
Re: Does this mess mean Ubunto has no stable WineHQ package?
FYI, I've also added explicit statements about WineHQ not packaging the stable branch to the Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and Mageia wiki pages.
Re: Does this mess mean Ubunto has no stable WineHQ package?
dimesio wrote:I've edited the sticky we already have (viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25767) to explicitly state that WineHQ does not build binary packages for the stable branch.
Thank you. It's nice to see a quick response that may help other beginners like me.dimesio wrote:FYI, I've also added explicit statements about WineHQ not packaging the stable branch to the Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and Mageia wiki pages.
