Irfan’s Corner on the Web On Mac, Linux, Grid, Virtualization and Software Technology

CrossOver Pro and WINE

Its been long since I last used Wine on Linux. But I am impressed by the progress it has made.

Yesterday I was attracted to the CrossOver free Software give-away. I downloaded CrossOver Pro for Mac, and instantly tried out installing some software. I was impressed how smooth the installation of Office 2007 went. MS Visio 2007 installation failed, but Visio 2003 installation went smooth.

I'm disappointed though how few games are supported on CrossOver Games. But that doesn't mean that WINE lacks in the gaming department. Many of the recent games for the Mac are using a Transgaming product Cider, which allows companies such as EA to run unmodified Windows games, such as Spore, Command and Conquer 3 on Mac using WINE. Cider has impressive performance, and I have played and enjoyed a couple of cider games, which include Spore. It been quit a journey for Transgaming because their initial product, WineX, which was a directX implementation on WINE supported only a few games, but was powerful enough to run Warcraft 3.

CrossOver Pro is based on WINE. WINE requires numerous configurations for it to work on complex software. CrossOver makes those configurations easier. Previous versions of CrossOver Office were not easy to use. Check this link here, and you can see some real geekery was involved in installing Office 2007 in previous versions.

This software give-away definitely benefited CrossOver. Because with the hue and cry about virtualization, people had forgotten that it was possible to run common Windows software without installing a complete VM. I expect this company to get more visibility in future.

Some screenshots, of successful software installation with CrossOver.

While installing MS Office 2007:

After a Successful Install