Slashdot Mirror
CrossOver Plugin 1.0 Demo Version
jwnewman writes "CodeWeavers has released the Demo version of CrossOver plugin." I bought the regular version when it first came out, just to try it out. It's pretty impressive - I've only had some problems with it under Konqueror, but that's had more to do with my plugin setup. The demo version is a full version, but with nags in it. It's well worth checking out.
Personally, i feel programs like these are great. However, having to pay for them takes the purpose out of any free operating system. I'd just assume use windows for those programs, rather then pay a company to allow me to use those programs on a different operating system. Although, i understand why these programs have to be paid for. With the current American Economy, noone will develop anything without a monetary incentive. I just hope somewhere there is someone with extra time who will design a program such as this out of the goodness of his/her heart!
AJ
-------
artlu.net
Maybe they should have some 'home' (non-business) site license for about $25 ;-)
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
My question is whether others out there think this is a good software model? Personally I think it is. They have identified a genuine lack of service which they provide. They provide this service by building on open source technology, namely wine, and then provide a closed for profit products on top of this technology. The revenue generated by these products allow for greater development in the underlying tech (again namely wine) while still providing the desired service, the Windows plugin support.
Aside from the "well these plugins are free on windows, we shouldn't have to pay for a product that lets us use them in Linux" comments. Do people have anything else they'd like to say about the CrossOver plugins or their business model?
I purchased Crossover several weeks ago and have been completely satisfied. Quicktime works great. Being able to watch the Fellowship of the Ring trailer on Linux is great! Shockwave works well for many sites. (In particular, Shockwave plugins for stuff like 3D has problems.) Codeweaver's tech support mailing list is great, the developers reply quickly and are very helpful.
While I would prefer that Crossover be free software, at least Codeweavers is contributing most of their improvements back to the main Wine project. Pretty much only the Crossover plugin itself is proprietary software. Buying Crossover is a great way to support the development of Wine and get Quicktime support on Linux right now.
Does it bother you that you have to pay for your computer system (hardware) too???
I cannot imagine a better day to release this than today.
Capitalize on all the frustrated geeks and their inability to find a non-Linux box to view the teaser.
Lemonade always sells better when it's hot outside.
I purchased Crossover when it was released. There were a few initial setup problems but their support is very good. I checked their archives and found an answer to my problem (pugger.so was conflicting with the QuickTime plugin in Netscape). Though I didn't report any problems I received emails from their support staff just to make sure everything was fine.
Performance is, for the most part, indistinguishable from a native Windows version on my 900MhZ Athlon. I understand that there is some initial delay the first time the plugin is started on slower machines. It's been fine for me though.
Netscape *seems* to be a touch more unstable with the plugin installed. There are occasional long delays but I have not confirmed that this is not just some DNS timeout or other Netscape instability (I'm running 4.78... I have not tried installing on 6.1).
No, actually, unlike Winzip, which only nags you each time you start the program, CrossOver nags you about every 15 seconds, and places the nag right over the top of what you are watching. So, there is an incentive to pay for the thing.
Personally, I applaud the creators. While the nag is annoying, I'm rooting hard for anyone who can release good, useful, commercial software for Linux and make a buck or two off it.
What people won't pay for are the trivial little programs you see announced on freshmeat.net hundreds of times a day.
"But even better, you can open this type of attachements directly from any mail client."
I am guessing it is only a matter of time before someone writes code that will wreak havoc on the linux community.
I generally don't buy software without having tested it out yet, and just playing with this software for ten minutes is more than enough time to justify the twenty bucks for the thing.
First time I've been truly impressed with some piece of software for Linux in the past nine months or so, and this is to the point where twenty bucks for the full version seems like it's UNDER priced.
Download the installer, run it, press a few buttons inside the config gui, and suddenly you can watch all the movies on quicktime.com.. with no stuttering or slowness.
Damn fine piece of work guys.
Unfortunately, I accidentally downloaded the CrossingOver plugin by mistake, and now all the Web pages I view ask me a lot of vague questions about dead relatives.
Open the QT control panel and go to Plug-in settings (or right-click on a movie).
Then click MIME Settings and unselect anything you don't want QuickTime to take over. (I think more recent QuickTime versions don't intercept PNG by default.)
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
If it counts, i'm another happy user of the CrossOver Plugin. What got me to jump on board and fork over cash for the 1.0 release? Easy. truth in advertising.
They made a point of telling the truth about their product and are making all due effort to support and enhance it. Great company who are doing a needed service for the Community. Not only that, they are a major supporter of the wine project. Got a few bucks? They deserve our support.
As for me, the software has been absolutely flawless. I did have some issues on a Mandrake box but it ended up being Crossover was fighing a battle with Plugger. One minor plugin deletion / restart later it installed like a dream.
Support the community! They deserve it!
If only these would have been released under some opensource license. These plugins could have been implemented in the next version of SuSE/Redhat/Debian/name your dist. and would have really bridged a gap for getting windows users comfortable with using linux on the desktop.
Oh well, it's still cool news.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
This sounds like a great product. I don't understand the people here who disparage it because you have to pay for it - there is nothing that says you can't run payware alongside (or on top of, as the case may be) open source and *gasp* GPL'd software. Don't come down on it because it isn't "free" or Free.
Personally, I don't have a real need for this product, so I won't be buying it - I really don't ever see many QT trailers or whatnot to justify it, and all the Shockwave stuff can go out the window as well - give me quality content and information, I say.
I would much rather see the development of an open source video codec on par with Sorensen, and have it become well developed and widely used, but I tend to doubt such will happen, as so much of the tech involved in such an endevor is locked up in patents.
My main concern about such software (like this plugin) is that related to security - whether any exploits could be run against it to gain root access, or something. I tend to doubt this, and if you are running as a user, and you have a good firewall you should be mostly protected - but it is something I always have in the back of my mind...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
An actual installer! It understands the differences in Distros and even puts links/launchers/icons into the menu systems of BOTH KDE and Gnome! Wholy cow!
This is something that developers have needed to do forever. Forget the RPM vs DEB vs Tarball wars and make it easy for the user dammit!
We all gripe about Micro$oft developing software that is just bloated eye candy with crappy (or no) guts. IMHO Linux developers have been too busy neating up the guts to notice that no one uses their program beacuse it takes two friggin days to satisfy all of the needed dependancies just to compile and then annother two to figure out where the damn thing's files should reside.
Oh ya, after the install the product actually works as advertised too.
These guys get my $20!!! Kudos Codeweavers!
"Smile, listen, agree, and then do whatever the fuck you wanted to do anyway." ~Robert Downey Jr.
wget http://movie.url/movie.mov -O movie.mov && wine C:\whatever\quicktime.exe
Of course I'm sure some Dennis Ritchie wannabe is gonna reply to this and tell me how to do it with piping (you know you want to).
I suspect Apple can get a high quality, Linux native port of Quicktime done relatively quickly and inexpensively. However, what value does it have for Apple? Will it increase sales of other Apple software? Not likely. Will they sell alot of copies of the Pro version for Linux? Not likely. Will the port strategically help Apple in any real way? Nope. In Apple's mind, Quicktime for Linux has no value, so investing any time or effort into it is a bad idea.
Quicktime on Windows is a different story. It probably doesn't make Apple much money. I wouldn't be surprised if it cost more to develop than they make in Quicktime Pro sales. However, if Quicktime stopped being supported on Windows the world would move to another format (probably Windows Media) practically instantly. The market share of Windows is too important to miss. Apple needs Quicktime on Windows as part of their holding action. Linux doesn't have that leverage, so we're going to remain second class citizens for some time.
Installed flawlessly, nice configurator, it looks nice and best of all IT WORKS. I was skeptical at first but then I got to see the Star Wars trailer. I'm going to shell out the $20 for it. Try it out you might be as surprised as I was.
On a side note they don't disable the demo after 30 days. It looks like its more of an on your honor system. But it does put little messages to buy the software at the beginning of the movies. (At least in quicktime).
Again though, this looks like it was well worth it and the $20 goes to Wine.
The Anti-Blog
They have an interesting coming soon product. I'm referring to the second item, basically a simple client workstation built just to run Windows apps, but without purchasing Windows. I don't think this'll take off for internet appliances (might as well make a special Linux distro for that with custom apps), but it may open some eyes to other possiblities. Maybe distros built specifically to replace MS licenses. Maybe transitional product lines for moving MS users to free-as-in-speech platforms. I think making that transitional product is a great idea, and of course charging for it is logical and potentially very profitable in the long run.
Having transitional products is the best way to show corporations how much money they can save from MS licenses, while getting them onto free software. This is very and sounds like a great business model (at least for this specific product).
Developers: We can use your help.