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The good news: increased base of support for games.

The bad news: Codeweavers makes much noise about their "supported games". But what they don't make explicitly clear is that these games are, for the most part, games that have been reported to work. Don't take my word for it, go and check. Out of 174 games listed on that page, one is "known not to work", 149 get an "honourable mention" (meaning they've been reported to work, but they are not supported by Codeweavers), two get a bronze, and 22 get a silver. So that's 174 games listed, and just 24 of those are supported if there are issues.

Rather disingenuous, really, to have that information tucked away in a pop-up tooltip that only appears when you hover over the medal. I wish them luck, but I can't help but feel that they need to be a little bit more open with their customers.

It also doesn't help that that list hasn't been updated since July ... eight months. Not exactly confidence inspiring, alas.

IE for Linux and MS Office for Linux. You're welcome.

but as for my computer, uh, let me know when i can play simcity 4 on it.

You can play SimCity 4 on Linux right now.

I can attest to this. An Australian company called Sparx Systems produces an UML modelling tool called Enterprise Architect.

In a previous job, this piece of software was used and to my surprise, Linux was supported. It's up to version 7 now and for the last couple of major versions, Linux support is provided through Wine. More specifically, they support running it through the commercial version of wine, Crossover Linux.

I don't think they'll even realise: most serious gamers will either be running Windows, or dual boot into Windows. The rest probably use Codeweavers' Crossover

I will say that although I have not had the joy of opening Office 2000 files with OO.o 3.0, I do recall there being some serious issues between powerpoint slides.

I've heard that about prior versions of OO.o, but I don't know if the same is true of 3.x. I have had problems with some older Word documents not showing some images when opened in OO.o, including 3.0. If your main concern is viewing or converting old files, why not keep Office 2000 around? What's the point of getting rid of it completely?

Just use OpenOffice.org to create all new or revised files, as they can be opened universally, in part because free ODF plug-ins and converters are everywhere. If you have an older file that needs a revision, convert it to an older or more consistent format (Office '95 and '97 formats work for me most of the time), and then open the converted file in OO.o, without losing any formatting or data. A variety of external or command-line format converters also exist, which are useful for batch converting legacy files.

I have several old copies of Office 2000 and 2003 floating around the office, mainly to convert between old file types ad-hoc. Microsoft also offers read-only Office document viewers and converters of their Office line, for free:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/HA010449811033.aspx

I think most of these tools, and some versions of the full MS Office Suites, also work on other OS platforms via WINE.

http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?appId=31
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/differences/

I regrettably give you the option of getting Novell's OO.o distribution (here) in which you can install an extension for OpenXML.

Why the regret? Novell maintains a good package of OpenOffice installers and extensions. There are also Open Source ODF and OpenXML converters:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter

And OpenXML support comes with OpenOffice.org 3+ "out of the box":

http://blog.mypapit.net/2008/04/openofficeorg-30-supports-microsoft-openxml-docx.html

Going forward, the ability to convert almost every legacy document format that ever existed, to an International Standard like ODF, makes most file format differences a non-issue.

Not everyone has caught up with current standards, so we make it company policy to use ODF formats internally, but we convert files down to Office '97 or PDF when sharing them with external contacts. Everyone with any Office suite from the last 10 years can open our converted files without installations or issues.

Didn't Disney pay codeweavers a bunch of money to make photoshop work well under wine?

True, Disney funded getting Adobe Photoshop 7 to work in Wine (pdf). But just because PS 7 works doesn't mean later PS works. Besides, Disney also paid U.S. senators a bunch of money to make copyright work well over the human lifespan.

As a game developer, I'm kind of annoyed how trivializing this is to the development process. A great game can take a team of ...

I think it would be adequate if you "just" ensured that games worked well under Wine, or, more practically, it's game-specific derivatives.
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames/
http://www.cedega.com/

Which supports all of the above for a small cost.

Except that it doesn't. Let's check their compatibility database:

• Photoshop CS3 - known not to work
• Office 2007 - bronze (SP1 known not to work)
• Internet Explorer 7 - known not to work

Which supports all of the above for a small cost.

Except that it doesn't. Let's check their compatibility database:

• Photoshop CS3 - known not to work
• Office 2007 - bronze (SP1 known not to work)
• Internet Explorer 7 - known not to work

Which supports all of the above for a small cost.

Except that it doesn't. Let's check their compatibility database:

• Photoshop CS3 - known not to work
• Office 2007 - bronze (SP1 known not to work)
• Internet Explorer 7 - known not to work

Which supports all of the above for a small cost.

Except that it doesn't. Let's check their compatibility database:

• Photoshop CS3 - known not to work
• Office 2007 - bronze (SP1 known not to work)
• Internet Explorer 7 - known not to work

Neither Photoshop CS3 nor Internet Explorer 7 work using Crossover. Also it does not support all applications of Microsoft Office 2007.

Neither Photoshop CS3 nor Internet Explorer 7 work using Crossover. Also it does not support all applications of Microsoft Office 2007.

Neither Photoshop CS3 nor Internet Explorer 7 work using Crossover. Also it does not support all applications of Microsoft Office 2007.

This should not surprise anybody, for most Linux users Office 2007 and MSIE aren't high on the priorities list.

According to Codeweaver's Top Lists Internet Explorer 7 has 294 votes and $3866.44 pledges (rank 3 and 11). Microsoft Office 2007 has 219 votes and pledges of $9026.44 (rank 5 and 1) respectively. I would not call that minor.

Which supports all of the above for a small cost.

Any dollar NOT spent on Microsoft makes the world a better place.

Now one would think that these major apps would be high on the priority list, as I'm hopefully not the only (commercial) web guy trying to use Linux as a serious desktop, and getting them to run perfectly would effectively make Windows redundant for a large number of people, not just web devs. I find it puzzling that Wine can run something like World of Warcraft, but not MS Outlook. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some Warcrack, but it doesn't pay my bills.

If you can't use the Linux native alternatives to Photoshop CS3, Office 2007, MSIE 6/7 under Wine you should use Windows, or consider something like the VMware/Parallels simulators. That's what most Linux users I know do. If you simply can't stand the sight of Windows the only other alternative would be OS X where you at least get native CS 3 and MS Office. Wine is a third party implementation of the Windows API created without any help from Microsoft and even the repackaged versions like CrossOver Office don't support MISE and Office 2007 all that well. This should not surprise anybody, for most Linux users Office 2007 and MISE aren't high on the priorities list.

You can already run Steam and some games on OSX and Linux. I've played Portal and Half Life 2 on my Mac using Codweavers' software. It played pretty well.

I wonder how much work it would really take to get more games running in WINE or some derivative, assuming that was a goal of the game developers.

Someone capitalizing off of Linux by selling WINE?! Preposterous!!

DISCLAIMER: I have nothing but love for these guys since getting mine free

"Guess I must be the only one here using Chrome."

Thats because its not officially released for Linux yet!

There fixed that for ya. http://www.codeweavers.com/services/ports/chromium/

Actually, it is. The folks at CodeWeavers did it.

http://www.codeweavers.com/services/ports/chromium/

Well you can use it anyway... There is a crossover version for both Mac and Linux, you can build your own version for both Mac and Linux, and there's a recent Mac build here. I'm sure there are lots of other builds available as well.

Seems like I should have checked things out a little more befor posting, I always thought it was the majority of the source that was open and only a little blob in the direct x -support part that was closed, seems like I was wrong.

Yep. Codeweavers are the ones with an open-source friendly commercial product based on Wine - it's a slightly modified version of Wine (all changes available), plus a closed-source installer and technical support. I believe

Transgaming Cedega started off as a totally closed-source fork. As I understand it, they're adding increasing amounts of new code from Wine under a license that doesn't allow them to closed-source it, since Wine has things like much better installer support.

And yet for many users they must manually edit and configure xorg.conf to get anything to work, and sometimes they never get it to work.

The chronometer on your time machine is malfunctioning -- it's 2008.

Xorg is painfully slow

It's so slow that my Windows games running under Crossover games/Wine which actively translate DXSL to GLSL in real time for a graphics server that isn't even running on ring-0 (like Windows and OS X are) is able to beat both OS X and Windows XP/Vista in performance and quality (I can boot the quality settings right up without performance issues) on the same hardware.

Now try Gentoo which doesn't autoconfigure X and see how X performs with your hardware.

I'd rather be gaming with my already good enough, better FPS than Windows/OS X setup. I'm not that much of a tweaker.

But once it's booted up it can actually play the games I want to play. Fast boot times are meaningless if you can't do what you're wanting to once it's started up.

Thank goodness I can have a fast booting system, games running faster than Windows (thanks to Crossover games) all under Linux.

- Quicken

Quicken, Quicken 2007 - 2008 works decently in Codeweavers.

- Civ4

According to, http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=2514 apparently runs very well.

- Neverwinter Nights

Also apparently runs very well.
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=870

- web (using Firefox)

- copy DVDs

I'm assuming you know of k3b.

Three of those can be done natively in either Linux or Windows - the other two require jumping through several, arguably complicated hoops. What's the point?

I pretty much stick to using Crossover over Wine for my games and everything. It uses a brain dead UI (my games work well with it - some of which have more FPS than under Windows natively).

CrossOver Chromium is exactly what you're looking for. It's not officially by Google, but ported by CodeWeavers, the WINE folks.

Before anyone gets their hopes up, let's reprint something from the FAQ re: crossover chromium

Q. Should I run CrossOver Chromium as my main browser?
A. Absolutely not! This is just a proof of concept, for fun, and to showcase what Wine can do. Chromium itself is just beginning. As the Chromium project progresses, they will be providing more compelling support for Mac OS and Linux, particularly with process security and memory management. Those future versions from Chromium will be better suited for daily use than this version.

Now perhaps you had some luck with it, but I found it to be little more than a decent proof of concept. The UI on Fedora 8 was pants, the option/settings pane was useless, and it couldn't deal with the Squid proxy I'm sitting behind. Just sayin'.

CrossOver Chromium is exactly what you're looking for. It's not officially by Google, but ported by CodeWeavers, the WINE folks.

The main site has been replaced with: http://down.codeweavers.com/ It loads quickly but the link to get your serial number still fails.

Since so many people are having trouble accessing the front page of their site, here is where to download the fully unlocked builds

http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-pro-7.1.0.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-games-7.1.1.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-pro-7.1.0.sh
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-games-7.1.2.sh
You can get a serial number from the one below, but good luck getting it to work!

http://lameduck.codeweavers.com/free/

Since so many people are having trouble accessing the front page of their site, here is where to download the fully unlocked builds

http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-pro-7.1.0.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-games-7.1.1.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-pro-7.1.0.sh
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-games-7.1.2.sh
You can get a serial number from the one below, but good luck getting it to work!

http://lameduck.codeweavers.com/free/

Since so many people are having trouble accessing the front page of their site, here is where to download the fully unlocked builds

http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-pro-7.1.0.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-games-7.1.1.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-pro-7.1.0.sh
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-games-7.1.2.sh
You can get a serial number from the one below, but good luck getting it to work!

http://lameduck.codeweavers.com/free/

Since so many people are having trouble accessing the front page of their site, here is where to download the fully unlocked builds

http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-pro-7.1.0.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-games-7.1.1.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-pro-7.1.0.sh
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-games-7.1.2.sh
You can get a serial number from the one below, but good luck getting it to work!

http://lameduck.codeweavers.com/free/

Since so many people are having trouble accessing the front page of their site, here is where to download the fully unlocked builds

http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-pro-7.1.0.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/crossover-games-7.1.1.dmg
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-pro-7.1.0.sh
http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/lameduck/install-crossover-games-7.1.2.sh
You can get a serial number from the one below, but good luck getting it to work!

http://lameduck.codeweavers.com/free/

Their low-bandwidth page also contained direct download links for unlocked versions of their products. The page is down, but the downloads still work (they come from a different server). So if you're only interested in having an unlocked version, you can help keep the load on their registration page down. Here are the links:

• CrossOver Pro 7.1.0 for Linux (26 MB)
• CrossOver Games 7.1.2 for Linux (26 MB)
• CrossOver Pro 7.1.0 for Mac (35 MB)
• CrossOver Games 7.1.1 for Mac (35 MB)

Their low-bandwidth page also contained direct download links for unlocked versions of their products. The page is down, but the downloads still work (they come from a different server). So if you're only interested in having an unlocked version, you can help keep the load on their registration page down. Here are the links:

• CrossOver Pro 7.1.0 for Linux (26 MB)
• CrossOver Games 7.1.2 for Linux (26 MB)
• CrossOver Pro 7.1.0 for Mac (35 MB)
• CrossOver Games 7.1.1 for Mac (35 MB)

Their low-bandwidth page also contained direct download links for unlocked versions of their products. The page is down, but the downloads still work (they come from a different server). So if you're only interested in having an unlocked version, you can help keep the load on their registration page down. Here are the links:

• CrossOver Pro 7.1.0 for Linux (26 MB)
• CrossOver Games 7.1.2 for Linux (26 MB)
• CrossOver Pro 7.1.0 for Mac (35 MB)
• CrossOver Games 7.1.1 for Mac (35 MB)

Their low-bandwidth page also contained direct download links for unlocked versions of their products. The page is down, but the downloads still work (they come from a different server). So if you're only interested in having an unlocked version, you can help keep the load on their registration page down. Here are the links:

• CrossOver Pro 7.1.0 for Linux (26 MB)
• CrossOver Games 7.1.2 for Linux (26 MB)
• CrossOver Pro 7.1.0 for Mac (35 MB)
• CrossOver Games 7.1.1 for Mac (35 MB)

To get your free software, simply enter the code above at the following URL:
http://register.codeweavers.com/
Once you've done that, you will be able to log into your account on CodeWeavers' web site, and download your product.
*Alert* This serial code will have a short shelf life. The original plan was that it would be valid only today. But the response has been overwhelming for our server, so that site is not working.
Given that, we intend to honor the serial codes through the end of October, with the hope that our server will get time to recover.
Please try the registration again tomorrow. We will be putting direct download links to the full version live on our site shortly, please check our main page to get a full download.
Limit 1 copy per customer. Download only.

It was down.codeweavers.com.

And of course, it's down.

You can try Crossover Chrominum if all you want to know is what it is like.

Does valve hate linux?

Nope, they have released a CLI steam client for downloading, updating and installing Linux game servers.

Anyway has anyone had success running steam and valve games in VMware or should I just not bother?

Steam runs fine under Crossover games for me. However due to a screw up by the team at X.org, the X11 server on Ubuntu hardy has some issues that could be problematic for some games.

So you replaced one proprietary system with vendor lock-in with another?

I'm not locked into anything. If I want to I can install Ubuntu, which I was planning on at first, or another Linux distro. I'm typing this in a Firefox tab. My office suite is NeoOffice, the original native Mac port of Open Office. I also have other open source programs installed. Because I installed Fink and MacPorts I can install a lot of software for Linux. I can install Debian packages using .deb or apt-get as well as packages using Redhat's .rpm. And if I need to, though I haven't yet, I can get and install Cross Over for Macs so I can run Windows software.

Fact is is a Mac can run more software than any other OS/hardware combination. And don't try to say Macs are more expensive either. Macs have not been more expensive than Windows PCs in years. Actually before I got mine, I compared it's price to prices of Windows laptops that had similar configurations. Most OEM PC were about the same price, though some cost more. Dell's was about $200 more.

Hardware wise my laptop isn't any more vender lockin than a Windows laptop either. I'm still using the same router I got for my Windows PC, then used with my Linux PC, and am now using with my Mac. My Epson scanner works fine with it as does my Iomega external drives and my Canon printer.

Falcon

Older versions of office work very well under Wine and they are supported under Crossover. You owe it to yourself to check out Codeweavers.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxlinux/

According to the Crossovers Compatibilities list, Outlook 2007 is rated meh (my interpretation of bronze) with a few silver ratings by other people. http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/?app_id=2841
This is of course for Crossover's version of wine with their proprietary fixes, for good ol gnu wine has Outlook 2007 listed as garbage.

Personally, I would nag on the IT people to free themselves from depending on an untrustworthy company.

Ummm.... No.

Doesn't work for me. "wine ChromeSetup.exe" gives

fixme:advapi:CheckTokenMembership ((nil) 0x12a078 0x33f930) stub! fixme:process:SetProcessShutdownParameters (00000280, 00000001): partial stub. fixme:ole:CoInitializeSecurity ((nil),-1,(nil),(nil),6,2,(nil),64,(nil)) - stub! fixme:winhttp:WinHttpOpen ((null), 1, (null), (null), 0x0): stub

Good for Crossover!

How 'bout you actually try the Crossover packages then like you were supposed to? http://www.codeweavers.com/services/ports/chromium/

I almost forgot, Picasa 2 runs GREAT under CrossOver Mac. It's truly amazing how well it works. I wasn't willing to shell out the $60 just so I could use Picasa, but picasa and a few other apps ran great under the trial version. I might have to check it out again to see how well it works with Picasa 3.

The tagging, searching and organizing of photos under Picasa might be worth the bucks Crossover costs. Iphoto does a terrible job of organizing and tagging. Bibble is great for editing, but sucks entirely for organizing or searching. Actually, those features are non existent.

"At home, again, I thought I would probably finding myself switching back to windows to do certain things, but that hasn't been the case (I haven't tried to manage my iPod yet, though)."

Although I haven't tried this solution myself, apparently CrossOver Linux from CodeWeavers supports running iTunes. You might want to give it a try. Of course, make sure to have a good backup of your music and iTunes Library just incase.

As a alternate, you can try gtkPod, which runs natively on Linux. This article gives you a quick rundown on the program's features.

Good luck...

Oblig. disclaimer: I'm not associated in any way with CodeWeavers or the gtkPod project for that matter.