Coming back from a day’s break, we present another unique and nice software as part of our Christmas Giveaway. If you remember, in our announcement post, we had promised freebies for our readers with Mac and Linux as well. Of-course majority of the giveaways were Windows based (considering our reader base using Windows), but we have a split introduction and promotion of CodeWeavers Crossover Mac and Crossover Linux.
Whether you’re running a Linux or Mac OS X machine, chances are you need a way to run at least some Windows applications or games that aren’t available on your platform of choice. CodeWeavers Crossover for Mac and Linux allow Windows apps on your Mac and Linux without Windows respectively. This is supposedly better and faster than having a dual boot or using VMWare and other Virtual machine solutions.
CodeWeavers Crossover for Mac
CrossOver Mac allows you to install many popular Windows applications and games on your Intel Mac. CrossOver includes an easy to use, single click interface, which makes installing Windows software simple and fast. Once installed, your application integrates seamlessly in OS X. Just click and run your application directly from the OS X Finder. Clicking a Windows file or document, including email attachments will launch the appropriate Windows program, allowing you to work on the files. Best of all, you do it all easily and affordably, without needing a Microsoft operating system license.
Because it doesn’t use Windows and no Windows license is required, the total cost of using CrossOver is much less than virtual machine products such as Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. CrossOver also doesn’t use the CPU bandwidth and doesn’t require the large amount of RAM that virtual machine software such Parallels or VMware require. The drawback is that CrossOver only supports a selected Windows applications, including Outlook. The company said that it would be adding support for more applications as time goes on. Click here to see the supported applications list.
CrossOver Mac Pro 8 is a smart application; it relies on the open-source Wine application for running Windows apps and streamlines the install process. Adding new Windows software is easy. Just place your install CD in your Intel Mac, and CrossOver will recognize it and offer to begin the installation process. CrossOver then completes the installation and configures your application to run on your Mac. That’s all there is to it.
CodeWeavers Crossover for Linux
Crossover for Linux is very similar to Crossover for Mac. It has support for several applications, including Quicken 2009, Internet Explorer 7, and Adobe Photoshop CS2. According to Codeweavers, it also offers improved support for Microsoft Office 2003/2007, Outlook 2000, and Adobe FrameMaker, among others titles. The CrossOver Standard and Pro versions (which sell for $39.95 and $69.95) include six and 12 months of paid support, respectively. The Pro version offers some other benefits, including multi-seat deployment tools and physical software media.
The company limits its formal technical support, however, to a shorter list of about 130 Windows apps, including business productivity tools, graphics software, Web design and development apps, and even Windows system software such as DirectX.
Personally, I feel there is a lot of scope to improve on the current software and with Crossover 9 being in roadmap, I am sure the company will iron out the existing bugs and adds support for more and more Windows applications.
Crossover for Mac and Linux – Free Licenses giveaway
We have 25 free licenses of Codeweavers’ Crossover 8.0 for Mac/Linux Pro version to be given away. The best part is, once you get the license, you can choose to register them as you prefer! As usual, leave a comment on why you like to win a license and you are in for the giveaway! If you promote this on Mac/Linux Tech forums you will have a better chance to win the license.
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Martin is giving away FILEminimizer Pictures and Image Converter Plus. Be sure to check it out.
Winners: slamp, Aaron Turrall, Paul, hideipuser, Saurabh, Stephane ROBERT, jyothiprasadb, Steph, Gianluca, James Cain, Murugesan, Nicolai S, Albert H, Abhishek, Ubiq, Venkat, peter, Brigitte, Devon, juju, k19s, bill ehm, Sean, Kristian Matthews, Slipdisc, Matias S. Aquino, jose
Raju PP is the founder-editor of Technically Personal. He holds an Engineering degree in Electronics & Communication, and has previously worked as a Technical Specialist in Banking Software domain.
