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Public Betas For CrossOver Mac and Linux

Jeremy White writes, "I am happy to announce that we have put up a new version of our public beta of CrossOver Mac as well as an equivalent public beta of CrossOver Linux. For Mac users, this release includes fixes to Internet Explorer, fixes for many cases where programs would crash when run (e.g. Microsoft Office 2000 and similar older applications), fixes for Outlook 2003, and a range of other improvements. For Linux users, the big highlights are support for World of Warcraft and many Steam based games (including Half Life 2 and Counterstrike), as well as support for Outlook 2003. Version 6 also represents a major improvement in the core of Wine since version 5 of CrossOver, so you may be pleasantly surprised as you try running unsupported applications."

13 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I don't know why people bother... by BritneySP2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why bother emulating the hardware when you can just emulate the API.

  2. Umm... by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know why people bother ...... when Parallels just works.

    ...Half Life 2?

    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow
  3. Re:Hmmm by chroot_james · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How did you get to use vmware for zero cost?

    --
    Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
  4. I sort of get it... by Thumper_SVX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    OK... games. That's one place the Mac seriously lacks. But having been a Linux geek for years before becoming a Mac geek this year, I've found the game situation to be almost a smorgasbord compared to what I had under Linux. Plus, of course on my MBP I can use BootCamp if I really get a hankering for Windows games... and it works damned well.

    I also use Parallels for those 1 or 2 Office type application I have left that I need Windows for.

    Which brings me to the part I don't get. Office? Why? When you're got Office 2004 (slow on the Intel architecture in my opinion), or fantastic and well-rounded free solutions like OpenOffice... why on Earth would you want Office 2000 running on your Mac? Besides, that'll just look UGLY on OSX compared to the rest of the desktop.

    If you're determined not to pay for Office 2004... great... NeoOffice is compiled for OSX natively, looks native and runs well (slow to start, but about the same startup time as Word 2004 but with all the apps there). If you're using Office 2000, then document compatbility is not a problem. Hell, if you've migrated to Mac then honestly the hard part of transitioning is over; learning the new OS. Apps are easy by comparison.

    Sorry... I do see a need for this for the gamer... but this is one Mac user who won't be buying.

    1. Re:I sort of get it... by nine-times · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why Office?-- I can think of a couple reasons. First, Office 2004 doesn't really necessarily have all the same features and everything as Office 2003. It fits better with the OS, and you might like it better, but I've had Word documents, for example, generated in 2003, where the formatting wasn't the same in 2004 for Mac or OOo.

      Also, Outlook is a big deal. Entourage is getting better, but they didn't even have Exchange support until about a year ago, and it still isn't quite up to snuff. It's ok, more or less, but IIRC, it doesn't support stationery, which as obnoxious as stationery is, I've had that be a deal breaker for some users. Also public folders don't always work correctly, and it isn't connecting through MAPI, which depending on your perspective, may or may not be a good thing.

      So what I'm saying is, there are reasons. Having IE6 on your Mac is good for those annoying occasions where you run into an IE-only site. For example, when you want to use your Exchange server's webmail with all the bells and whistles.

      Is it worth it to run these apps in Crossover? Not for me. I really like NeoOffice a lot, and it's a universal binary to boot. But yeah, I can imagine someone wanting to run Office 2003 in Crossover, and I like having the option.

  5. Lots of reasons for Crossover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's not just for Office or for games. I've used Crossover for years and it lets me stay under Linux yet run applications that may never be ported to Linux. There are a lot of applications that work great - and it sounds like that list just got even bigger. Stuff that isn't even listed on the Codeweavers website.

    I agree witht he other poster about OpenOffice - it works great. But there are also some occasions (more rare now than before) where running a real MS Office app was required. Not having to reboot into Windows (I run dual boot) was very very nice.

    Just my two cents. I think Crossover Office good stuff and there are lots of other reasons to run it besides MS Office, Internet Explorer, or games. The same will hold true for the MacOS.

  6. Re:I have to ask... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    >Windows NT runs on ... Intel 486 or higher processors, MIPS R4000, Digital Alpha AXP, or PowerPC processors.

    Ok. Show of hands... how many of you are running Windows NT 4.0 on a non-x86 architecture, and want a version of WINE to run those apps on Linux? [the room fills with silence]

    Windows USED to run on other architectures, but nobody cared, so it was dropped.

  7. Re:I don't know why people bother... by WhiteWolf666 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here's the reasoning:

    1. Some of us are opposed to Window usage in all its forms. I hate Microsoft, and choose not to support their business practices, because I do earnestly believe they conduct bad business.
    2. Native Hardware access. Wine'd applications can directly access interfaces, while Virtualized applications can only access virtual interfaces. This has implications when it comes to Network Performance and OpenGL/Direct 3D software. Half Life 2 will never work as well in Parallels as in Wine.
    3. Environmental integration. Wine applications come a great deal closer to "native" than running inside a Parallels window.

    --
    WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
  8. Re:MOD ABUSE by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Sheesh. Ask a legitimate question to spark a useful discussion, and you get labeled Troll.

    No question was asked, legitimate or otherwise. What was posted was dismissive and sarcastic. It was subsequently demonstrated to also be ignorant. Apparently a moderator or two took that to be willful ignorance, which would indicate trolling.

  9. No CrossOver for me! by Ice+Wewe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This only works on Intel macs, which means that everyone else with a PPC mac is screwed.

  10. Re:Hmmm by petard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You've activated a lot. Microsoft makes you call them every time you install after you've used a specific key a certain number of times (something like 3). Whatever, it's not that big a deal.

    I had activated twice prior to moving the key to a VM. Once when I installed initially, and once when I reinstalled because my system was crapped up from having added and removed so many software packages that the registry had grown to 2GB and I felt (correctly) that a reinstall would improve performance. And I suppose 20 minutes on hold is not that big a deal. I was just watching a baseball game while sitting on hold anyway. I did feel punished by having to sit on hold to use software I had legitimately paid for, though. If I had just used a crack I wouldn't have had to call at all.

    --
    .sig: file not found
  11. Re:I don't know why people bother... by GMontag451 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes it does. It emulates the video card, sound card, usb controller, etc. It just doesn't emulate the processor.

  12. Re:MOD ABUSE by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A call is supposed to behave as it is documented to behave. Any programs that rely on undocumented features are just asking to break.

    So? I'm not the poster you were replying to but, how does this help me, the end user, run the software I want? I tried Crossover the other day and I'm not using it because the software I need to run does not install. I don't care if it should work, I care if it does. In Parallels, it does.

    Do you run all your native Mac software in little OS X sandboxes as well, just in case they go all "rogue" on you?

    I do run one or two in sandboxes, but in general I don't. That does not mean I would not prefer to do so if it were convenient. That does not mean I'm not even more motivated to run Windows applications in a sandbox, since they are more heavily targeted.