Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
The bigger problem is that the new design of the MD UI will shift allot of the alpha-blending stuff to the new KDE WM, as stated by Paul... this will effectively kill all other WM options for LinuxMCE... this shift i all heartedly disagree with...Edit: I forgot to mention that I did install Cedega and Crossover Office (two Wine variants) on my Core and they worked just fine.