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Codeweavers Releases Crossover Office
rleyton writes "Codeweavers have just announced Crossover Office, a Wine derivitive which allows MS-Office 97 & 2000 products as well as Lotus Notes to run without a Windows OS License. If it's as cool as the Crossover plugin product, then it could mean a significant step forward in Wine's progress." NewsForge got hold of a final beta copy a couple of days ago and has a Crossover Office review up already, and DesktopLinux.com has one too. This looks pretty cool, yes.
Now if a PHB tells you can't run Linux, because you need Office - tell him you'll save money by not needing a Windows license, and call still use Office.
ALL the wine modifications which were introduced with crossover plugin were submitted back to the wine tree
Hetz (Heunique)
Interesting point, but you neglect to recognize the fact that Office is written by MS. Most every non-MS written app that can run in Win95 I've been able to get to work in wine with not much of a headache. DirectX is a little shaky still, but aside from that...
The thing about MS applications is that they have full access to the APIs, even features that may not have been documented for some reason or another. It is hard for a project like wine to create a environment when there might be API calls to functions that aren't documented outside of MS. All this said, I have never tried Office 2000 under wine, (don't have it) but Office 97 seems to work under wine...
I would say wine is an exceptionally successful project considering the scope of the problem they have decided to address.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
> all that needs to be done is support an API that is now almost 7 years old
This is absolutely false. The very act of installing Office 2000 on Win95 extends the Win32 API. When you install, you not only get Windows Installer added to the system, you also get updated version of DLL's installed under your WINDOWS directory.
What kind of Application installs OS updates without informing the user or giving you a choice?
Perhaps you never noticed why mouse scroll wheels started working in all sorts of dialogs and whatnot even if you never installed Intellimouse? The answer is that Microsoft applications routinely extend the OS and API.
Lastly, the WINE team has never said their target is to emulate the Original Win95 API. Even if they had done that, they would be dependant on the new DLL files, the same as Win95 is today.
Chris Beckenbach
I totally agree on both counts. Steve Ballmer has already stated that every Windows app will eventually be re-written to run in the .NET framework. And I certainly don't trust that .NET will be forever platform independant. In fact they only submitted a small portion to the standards committee. So support for the Win32 api will eventually be a moot point.
And your second point takes the words right out of my mouth as I was reading the article. I think as soon as the monopoly trials are over they will have enough wiggle room to put a requirement into the license for Office that it must run on Windows.
Developers: We can use your help.
People don't change to Linux because it brings too many changes. You have to adapt everything starting from e-mail, documents and ending at any special apps you may run on Windows.
If this product lets you still use Office and even run all those special apps, a change to Linux becomes a set of small changes. Change the OS first. Then gradually change more during months or years.
Amen. The more times we hear mistaken mantras about Microsoft unfairly leveraging their OS monopoly, the less likely we'll see meaningful reform. The real monopoly is MS Office, not the operating system. Repeat after me: you buy computers for the applications, you buy computers for the applications. Not the operating system. It is Microsoft's monopoly of the desktop applications arena, not operating systems, that gives them their power.
I'm not anti-Microsoft, I'm anti proprietary. I'm especially anti-proprietary file formats and network protocols. If the MS anti-trust proceedings don't diminish MS's control over file formats and protocols that we all need to use in order to do our work, then the states are prosecuting this case in vain. Microsoft will continue to monopolize the computing industry until such time as competing products are able to read and write Word, Excel, SMB, etc. A little proprietary hook here or there is all MS needs to forever erase the threat of competition.
This is why we should beware so-called "compromise" settlements in which MS promises to open their API's. All that accomplishes is a further dependance on MS product. As this product indicates, apparently their API's are already open enough to produce an emulation layer for Linux. This is not good, this is terrible. It's terrible because the operating system is not the threat! The applications are the threat! They are a threat, because they further entrench our dependance on proprietary data and protocols. And because MS controls the protocols, and because we must all use them in order to communicate with our collegues, peers, friends and family, MS will forever dominate the computer industry.
Again, I am not anti-Microsoft. I am pro-competition. I want choices. I want desktop applications to compete on the merits. This will never happen, until MS file formats and network protocols are made completely public.
Come on Microsoft - show us you can win an application showdown fairly. What are you afraid of? You have a pretty good shot, you know. Stop playing dirty tricks, and get back to basics. Make applications that people want to buy because they work better, not because they are the only choice.
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!