Crossover Linux and Crossover Mac Go 6.0
This announcement is likely to get lost in the hoopla, given the Stevenote announced so many cool things today. However, this itself is fairly cool–the release of Crossover Office Linux 6.0 and Crossover Mac 6.0. Unlike, say, VMWare or Parallels, Crossover runs Windows applications natively without needing a copy of Windows. This is accomplished by mapping the Windows system calls into native Linux or Mac calls. For some applications, this works well. For others, not so well. On the plus side, it means you don’t actually need a licensed copy of Windows to run Windows applications.
The big thing they appear to address in the 6.0 release is compatibility with Office 2003 as well as some games, most notably World of Warcraft. There are also numerous bug fixes, as there always are with new releases of Crossover.
Crossover Linux/Mac is based on the open-source Wine project. The lead developer of Wine, Alexandre Julliard, is also Codeweavers CTO. Many other Codeweavers employees also participate in the Wine project. It’s a fine example of making money in Open Source. Okay, not gobs, but enough to pay the bills I’m sure.
