"Damages Wine on the Mac": Open source tool Whisky stops further development
Whisky makes it easy to run Wine on macOS in order to play Windows games. The developer fears that this will damage the runtime environment and stops.
(Image: Steven Binotto, unsplash.com)
The open-source tool Whisky is losing its main developer: Whisky will no longer receive any further functional updates, as the developer Isaac Marovitz has announced. There will therefore be no more upgrades to newer Wine versions, and no more important adjustments to run Windows games and applications better on the Mac. Accordingly, it is possible that games and apps may suddenly “stop working” at any time, Marovitz emphasizes.
Should an upcoming macOS update disable the Whisky app itself, as macOS 15.4 has just done, he will “occasionally” make improvements, the maintainer promises.
Whisky brings Windows games from Steam to the Mac
Whisky is a graphical user interface for installing the Wine runtime environment and Apple's “Game Porting Toolkit” (AGPT) very conveniently on macOS. The software is specially designed to install Windows games subsequently on the Mac via Steam and is therefore a free alternative to the top dog CrossOver, which is subject to a charge.
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The Game Porting Toolkit is actually intended for Windows-focused game studios to test runnability on Macs before making adjustments for Apple's Metal graphics system.
Developer: Threat to the further development of Wine for macOS
Marovitz, who is still a student, writes that he has lost interest in the Whisky project because it “eats up an incredible amount of time” and he is not paid for it. The developer also believes that such a free tool is ultimately detrimental to the Wine community. The further development of the runtime environment is already difficult enough, especially for macOS-specific adaptations are required and there are only a few developers with the necessary knowledge.
Without the commercial software CrossOver, there would ultimately be no more Wine on the Mac and no Apple Game Porting Toolkit either, according to Marovitz. The free Whisky is based on CrossOver, but does not contribute “customized fixes” to Wine because it lacks the time and knowledge to do so, according to the developer. This is not a “fair trade” and Whisky ultimately harms Wine on the Mac.
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