Commercial Wine software ‘Cedega’ is to “cease operation” at the end of February, parent company TransGaming Inc. have today announced.
The proprietary fork of WINE, which proved popular with Linux users thanks to its enhanced support for Windows gaming titles, will instead live on as a free service under the new name of ‘GameTree Linux’.
In the statement sent to subscribers the company said: –
“…the Cedega Gaming Service is coming to a close in its current incarnation, and will cease operation as of February 28, 2011. While it is never easy to turn the page on such a revolutionary service, we are excited by the possibilities to come as we retool Cedega into a different offering.
Please be assured, Cedega as a technology is not being retired, but rather, it is evolving into a new enablement technology for the Linux desktop.”
Contentious presence
‘Cedega’ was not without controversy.
Although based on code from the Wine Project Cedega was released as proprietary software (thanks to then lenient licensing of Wine). This move that rattled many, unhappy that TransGaming was to benefit financially from the free work of others.
Subsequently the Wine project changed its license to one requiring all modifications and changes made upon it’s source to also be made freely available.
Refunds
Users who have recently purchased subscriptions are eligible for partial-refunds, and should contact accounts@cedega.com by January 15, 2011.
Thanks to John Hamelink