Bridgeplay Issue #79: Why the NotProton Maintainer Objected to Raymond Chin's Fork
Part 2 of the series on Raymond Chin's Bridgeplay. A day after issue #2, the NotProton maintainer opened issue #79, "This should not exist." This part covers the objection, Raymond Chin's admissions, the split community, and the point where the right to fork and the appropriateness of forking part ways. Built from public screenshots; not legal advice.
RAHMAT WIBOWO | 24 OCTOBER 2026
Issue #79: the upstream objection
The NotProton maintainer explained at length. NotProton deliberately supports only CrossOver because CodeWeavers funds most Wine development on macOS. Projects like Bridgeplay, they wrote, take without giving back and set a price CodeWeavers cannot compete with. They also objected that work-in-progress pull requests they were still reworking had already been pulled in. Their closing was hard: these forks harm the Wine Project.
The same promo post, quoted again
A commenter summed up the objection in a list: be a top influencer, fork instead of contributing, build a marketing page, build a narrative. The last item was the same promo post as gap 1 in issue #2. While things are calm, a small ethics gap looks small. Once someone is upset, it is read as intent.
Raymond Chin did not defend themselves blindly:
Raymond Chin admitted not having given back upstream, admitted porting two open pull requests (#219 and #221) before they were merged, and promised to take only merged changes from then on. One disagreement remained: Bridgeplay stays free and non-commercial.
The community
The community split. Some defended access, because a CrossOver licence feels expensive for someone who games occasionally. Others replied that anyone who can buy a Mac can buy the licence. The comment I valued most sat in the middle:
Where right and appropriateness part ways
This reply holds the most honest sentence in the thread. The maintainer acknowledges that the licence they chose gives the right to fork, then adds that the right does not make it appropriate. They say they had stated publicly many times that they did not want such forks, and blocks Raymond Chin from the NotProton repository. They quote the old free software phrase: free as in speech, not as in free beer.
Raymond Chin answered once. The GPL, they wrote, protects both freedoms. That matches the text: GPL-3.0 section 4 allows conveying copies "for any price or no price", and sections 7 and 10 forbid imposing further restrictions on recipients. They cited an April 2025 CodeWeavers blog post saying Wine is developed so anyone can use it, including to build their own tools such as Whisky. I could not open that page directly, so I record it as their quotation. They also withdrew a 32-bit fix claim they had never reproduced on stock CrossOver and NotProton, and was open that Bridgeplay is built with heavy AI assistance, with an AGENTS.md file in the repository.
From this I take three layers. Law asks whether the licence allows it; for Bridgeplay the answer is yes. Ethics asks whether the origin is named where people actually look, and whether anything is given back. Relationship asks whether the upstream maintainer's intent was heard before the product launched. Many disputes happen because people stop at the first layer and are then surprised to be treated as an enemy.
Limits and right of reply
Evidence is public screenshots as of 24 October 2026, with dates estimated from relative times. I am not a neutral party: I opened issue #2. This is not legal advice and does not judge anyone's character. The full list of limits is in the overview.
Right of reply. Raymond Chin, the NotProton maintainer and anyone quoted can send corrections to [email protected].
Raymond Chin and Bridgeplay: the series
- Overview: timeline and six conclusions
- Part 1: Issue #2, the early attribution review
- Part 2: Issue #79, the upstream objection (this page)
- Part 3: When criticism becomes an attack
- Part 4: Ten fork manners
#RaymondChin #Bridgeplay #NotProton #GPL