lol Call it Brandy or Skotch. Or something. Alchol always motivates someone out there. It would make for some intresting code. In all seriousness, a fork would is a two edged sword. It took 15 years for WINE to get where it is now. The fork would likley be slower in development even if it draws from the other code. OTOH it could be a good testing ground for better improvements for things that users might want like better DX support. While the core WINE project is working on that others could significantly improve it. I see alot of pros to a fork...but a good amount of cons too. It is worth a discussion tho :P

The Irony being that it's for Open Source software...not their own. Microsoft really needs to stop acting desperate and just making good software. Once their marketing machine can ratchet down the bullshit and just sell a solid reliable product instead of a complicated piece of software that has become synonmous with death (BSOD reference here). If they REALLY want to make money (hope you are reading this Ballmer) They could easily make an OS based on Linux open source it keeping certain elements proprietary while still keeping with the GPL and release at a lower price point. They do something like that that allows existing compatibility with ALL Windows and Linux programs (can you imagine a debian-like OS with 100percent windows compatability) And no not like WINE, great project but still far from 100 percent compatibility. They get the best of both worlds. They get the linux marketshare...and the anti-trust hawks off their back. Because people still have a choice. And if they do what is right by consumers while respecting their freedom of choice (creating a great product without the lame ass lockin), they will earn their name as a quality software provider. As it is they create "tools" to find the openings in other products flaws, but seem to miss their own. They had a few thousand bugs still open from 2002 do they not?

If they overhaul the graphics and physics as well as add a gamebrowser but keep the gameplay intact...I will be very happy and so will many gamers. Hell it could ressurrect the genre of carmageddon games again.

Seconded. That has to be one of my alltime faves. If they overhauled the engine and physics but kept the gameplay exactly the same. Oh and obviously a game browser. For its day you had to know the SPX/IPX or TCP/IP address of the machine you were connecting to. Still be a cool feature. but a game browser would be awesome :D

You forgot to mention the most obvious change of all...his underwear. Everyday he will be changing it!!! Thats alot of change right there.

Seeing as Mediasentry has been breached and is near bankruptcy (This may bail them out?) This is not one of China's smarter moves. Allowing them to provide DRM for the olympics? May as well poke a hole in the Great Firewall, which is likley what will happen.