Hi Tyson,
For what it's worth, it might be interesting to investigate a WINE port as a proof of concept...
I'm not sure what this project would proof.
Speaking from my personal point of view, when I left the Windows world for Linux many years ago, this step felt like a liberation. I never looked back and don't even have fond memories of any specific Windows application that I would miss today. (in contrast to how I feel about Atari, Acorn, and Amiga home computers) Although I admire the monumental effort of the developers of WINE, I'm not among its users.
From our company's point of view, I do not see apparent business value
in combining WINE with Genode. What benefits would that bring to users of WINE?
In general, I believe that the possibility to execute Windows software on Genode is a desirable feature. But I would approach this topic either by teaming up with the developers of the Vancouver VMM to assist them with making Vancouver compatible with Windows. Or alternatively, I would try to get in touch with the people at Microsoft who are working on the MinWin project. Combining MinWin with Genode would be rather interesting. Ok, we have to be realistic. .-) Even in the unlikely case that the MinWin developers would show interest in such an endeavor, I doubt that such a collaboration can happen in an open manner.
Having said all that, I think it wouldn't be sensible to schedule any of these thoughts for Genode's road map for 2012. Do you agree?
I'll admit that I'm pretty impressed with the direction that Genode is moving in (even if I haven't worked with it for a long time), though.
Thanks a lot for your nice words! :-)
Norman