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
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 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).
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
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.