crossover linux

[Katyanewb]

Does anyone have any experience with crossover? It's horribly expensive at $60 per licence, so I'm wondering whether it really is better than Wine.

[birchy]

I've not used it, and would never pay for an emulator when you can have the real thing. IMO it's better to find Linux equivalent software. If nothing is available or you cannot manage without Windows, then it's better to dual boot Windows and Linux rather than mess about with emulators. The other option is to install VirtualBox and then Windows inside that, but it will always be a lower spec "virtual" machine, so is not suitable for resource hungry Windows apps such as games.

[jparshall]

Hey Katya,

Here's the deal on our product. It *is* basically a commercialized version of Wine, and our Wine is, oh, 95% the same as free Wine. We make some tweaks here and there to make sure that our supported applications (like Office 2010, etc.) continue to work, even if they are currently broken in free Wine (which can happen from time to time.) Our licenses run from $39 to $59, which I don't know if I'd describe as "horribly" expensive... to me, paying $600 for Photoshop is more on the "horrible" end of the spectrum, but to each his/her own. Anyway, if you have the technical moxie to install and configure free Wine to your liking, by all means do so. On the flip, if you like a nice UI, with easy setup and install tools--not to mention having support forums, as well as technical support folks that will actually answer your specific support issues--then CrossOver may be a better bet. Be aware, too, that when you purchase CrossOver, you are *also* supporting free Wine, because we give *all* of our Wine patches back to the Wine Project. That's significant, because CodeWeavers' employees do a lot of the heavy lifting in Wine. So, if supporting Wine's development is personally important to you, sending CodeWeavers a little of your hard-earned money is a nice way for you to directly roll the ball forward. After all, Wine developers have to eat, too.

Thanks for your interest.

Very Best Wishes,

-jon parshall-
COO
www.codeweavers.com

[kyphi]

I have always regarded the small fee charged for CrossOver as a contribution to the cause, whether it be WINE or CrossOver, as so aptly stated by jparchall.

CrossOver is very easy to use and is not subject to all the configuration requirements of WINE. You also have access to a large database and rating scale as to how well a given program will function. The programs that CrossOver staff are unable to test themselves are often tested by contributors and promoted on the CrossOver website via the Advocate Program.

Contrary to popular belief, there are some programs originally written to work with Windows, that have no equivalent in Linux. CrossOver can run some of these.

[Reorx]

...so I'm wondering whether it really is better than Wine.

Depends on your definition of "better". If you are an OS tinkerer, you might like the "free" version of wine. If you are a computer user and don't particularly care about tinkering, you might like CrossOver. Each product has something to be said for it and each product has shortcomings. Because I am more of a user than a tinkerer, I paid for a copy of CrossOver to run 1 particular Windohs application. I saw it as an opportunity to support the wine project and get a sleeker, cleaner, version of wine. As it turns out, the application I want to run runs equally well (although less than perfect) on both Wine and CrossOver. I still like CrossOver for its features and its supported applications list. My wife is a WOW addict and if I can get WOW to run smoothly under Linux, she'll be happy to say "hasta le vista" to the security hole laden bloatware from Redmond, WA.

[kbkatz1]

I have used Crossover with success. I have found it worked great for MS Office 2007, rather than pay the $60 why not try to ween yourself off of the products you are trying to use with it and go for the Open Source alternative?