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Codeweavers to Support Mac OS X on Intel
An anonymous reader submits "It's official. CodeWeavers is planning to support Mac OS X on Intel chips. Many say this could stifle Windows to OS X ports of apps, but nonetheless this may make it a lot easier for people to switch to OS X from Windows."
the day i launch half life 2 on my mac, i'll weep a tear of joy. but to anyone in the know, this news is entirely obvious (and expected). codeweaver and transgaming will instantly have double the market. and not only is this new market bigger than linux, it's more standardized. no need to support 5 distros, 5 package formats, 10 different library versions of dependencies and no need to statically link things. they even can pick a single gui frontend (cocoa) and not worry about the huge amount of complaints. (omg you didn't use qt! you didn't use gtk!).
- tristan
I'm thinking of maybe getting a job as a pundit so I can get paid for this and have people respect me as an expert. Any suggestions where I should send my resume?
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
It appears the natural progression for a swoftware company would be:
(1) Allow windows app to run via emulation to gain new market at zero cost
(2) Evaluate cost of porting to new platform
(3) Port if the market for a ported app exists
This is why Mac's only get the best selling games ported over.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Yes, you are confused.
Codeweavers is the commercial company behind much of the work on Wine, which is a Windows compatability layer that allows (some) Windows applications to run under *nix operating systems without Windows being installed.
Which, had you read the linked story, you would have learned.
www.eFax.com are spammers
This is not a company making a GUI on top of Wine. This is a company that hired the most active WINE developers and told them to focus on getting programing like Microsoft Office and iTunes working in Wine. They provide support for anyone who wants to use Wine but needs help. This includes those looking for an easy port to of their Windows Application to Linux, and those who just want to see more applications work on Linux that are now Windows only.
True it only works with certain programs. However there are more are more all the time.
While I'm sure that these great apps won't go away once we switch to Intel, I'm afraid they'll get lost in the dreck that's out there for PCs as things get ported over.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
Were you thinking of Codewarrior maybe?
"Many say this could stifle Windows to OS X ports of app"
I just downloaded NeoOffice/J for the Mac and man is it ugly.
Mac users won't tolerate bad ports of useful apps. They might tolerate using an occasional windows port, but the Mac software creators don't have anything to worry about.
If you want to provide an application which is seamlessly integrated with the user's OS experience, you probably already do. If you want your product's ability to run on a platform to be dependent on a third-party piece of software, this doesn't change things for you.
Virtual PC already exists. This just provides competition for it ( though only on Intel-based Macs, I guess ). Is there more here than that ? Why would this prevent ports more than Virtual PC on Intel, which it's probably pretty safe to assume will eventually appear ?
Companies which don't port to OS X are making the bet that someone can't or won't come along and poach their potential customers with a similar, OS X-native application. It may be a reasonable bet, but it's still a bet...
Yes, Office already exists on Mac OS X (for now), but there is a plethora of other software that exists only on Windows. Well, with CodeWeavers working on WINE for Mac OS X on Intel, we'll have all that other software running in Mac OS X.
(Half-Life in Mac OS X?)
Gabriel Ricard
I think this is a great thing. I know I have two major applications - Groove and Visio, both owned by Microsoft - that have no OS X support. Entourage supports Exchange, but not nearly as well as the original Windows MS Outlook.
;).
This announcement means that Virtual PC has some real competition - rather than wasting my time booting up a virtual computer, I can just run the apps I need. Could this hurt OS X with Windows developers saying "Eh - just run Codeweaver and leave us alone?". Sure - but I think more people running OS X, even if they are running Wine-enabled applications, will still be better in the long run, since the "average user" won't understand why they're being told to spend another $50 to get a program to run on their Mac - they'll either go with a PC, or, if they've grown to love OS X, they'll tell the developer to convert.
We'll just have to see. Here's hoping Transgaming announces a similiar announcement, just for competitions sake. Like another poster, I'm also looking forward to Half Life 2 on my shiny Mactel box
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
If I had to choose between Office and Appleworks? That'd be a toughie, since Appleworks is a piece of crap. Even then, I'd probably have to run into something I just couldn't do in Appleworks before I'd shell out the money for an emulated Office. Any less of a difference in quality, I'd take the native app in a second.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Further, we work hard to make sure that the applications we support do not need any DLLs from Windows. There are certain applications, like IE, which require you to have a licensed product from Microsoft, but that is the reality of their license, and not a technical limitation of CrossOver and Wine.
Finally, yes, the Plugin functionality did get merged into the Office product about a year back.
Cheers,
Jeremy