Wine Reviews has release information and reviews of Windows applications and games running on Linux macOS and ChromeOS using Wine from Winehq.org Proton Lutris Q4Wine PlayOnLinux PlayOnMac WineBottler WineSkin WineTricks and Wine-Staging.
I am delighted to announce that CodeWeavers has just released CrossOver 16.2.0 for both macOS and Linux. CrossOver 16.2 has many improvements to our core Windows compatibility layer and also specific enhancements for several popular applications.
CrossOver 16.2 is the first version of CrossOver which supports Microsoft Outlook 2013. We have also made improvements to our compatibility with the rest of the Microsoft Office 2013 suite, including fixes for problems which caused some users to be unable to register.
CrossOver 16.2 also has several improvements for Quicken users who had seen problems with Quicken updates not applying cleanly.
CrossOver 16.2 has a full merge of the final release of Wine 2.0. This final, stable release of Wine means widespread improvements in compatibility with Windows applications. It is the latest step in the continuous improvement of our core compatibility layer technology.
CrossOver 16.2 also has bug fixes which improve behavior in the older Microsoft Office 2010 suite; improvements to games performance; and several fixes for macOS users in the areas of window management performance and clipboard support.
Mac customers with active support entitlements will be upgraded to CrossOver 16.2 the next time they launch CrossOver. Linux users can download the latest version from https://www.codeweavers.com/
Change Log For CrossOverMac and Linux :
16.2.0 CrossOver - March 23, 2017
Application Support:
CrossOver now supports Outlook 2013.
Bugs with Quicken updates have been fixed.
Connection issues with Outlook 2010 have been fixed.
Bugs activating Office 2013 in some circumstances have been fixed.
Wine Update:
CrossOver 16.2.0 includes the final release of Wine 2.0.
Performance Enhancements and Other Improvements:
We have made improvements to our Performance Enhanced Graphics which should improve performance with a variety of games.
Windowing behavior on macOS will be faster and more reliable in some circumstances, including cases where productivity-style applications make use of OpenGL.
Bugs with copy / paste have been fixed on macOS.
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
I am delighted to announce that CodeWeavers has just released CrossOver 16.1.0 for both macOS and Linux.
The big news in CrossOver 16.1 is that we now support Quicken 2017. We know many of our customers use Quicken and CrossOver to do their taxes this time of year. With CrossOver 16.1, you can use the latest version of Quicken.
We have also fixed a number of other bugs since our last major release. Notably, we have fixed a problem with Microsoft Office 2013 installations in certain locales. We also addressed a problem which could prevent Microsoft Office 2010 from completing online activation.
Mac customers with active support entitlements will be upgraded to CrossOver 16.1 the next time they launch CrossOver. Linux users can download the latest version from CodeWeavers site.
Founded in 1996 as a general software consultancy,
CodeWeavers focuses on the development of Wine the core technology found in all of its CrossOver products.
The company’s goal is to bring expanded market opportunities for Windows software developers by making it easier,
faster and more painless to port Windows software to Linux.
CodeWeavers is recognized as a leader in open-source Windows porting technology,
and maintains development offices in Minnesota, the United Kingdom and elsewhere around the world.
The company is privately held.
Change Log For CrossOverMac and Linux :
16.1.0 CrossOver - February 6, 2017
Application Support:
CrossOver now supports Quicken 2017.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed a bug which prevented Microsoft Office 2013 from
installing in the Spanish locale.
Fixed a problem which could prevent Microsoft Office 2010 from
completing online activation.
Fixed a bug in the CrossOver preferences pane which
prevented the preference for recording usage statistics from
being properly displayed.
SAINT PAUL, Minn (December 12, 2016) — CodeWeavers, Inc., developer of
CrossOver the easiest, fastest way to run Windows software on Mac and Linux announced today
the release of CrossOver 16. With CrossOver 16, you can run thousands of Windows software titles,
without the need for a Windows OS license.
CrossOver 16 supports Microsoft Office 2013 on both MacOS and Linux.
This brings the convenience, ease, and interoperability of the full
featured, modern Office suite to our Linux and MacOS customers.
CrossOver 16 is the first version of CrossOver to support 64-bit
Windows applications, with automatic install recipes for a
few popular titles already. CrossOver 16 also incorporates code from the upcoming Wine 2.0 release,
the open-source technology that allows Windows applications to be run on Unix.
The net effect is that CrossOver 16 users will be able to run many more Windows applications,
with enhancements to their performance and graphics.
Founded in 1996 as a general software consultancy,
CodeWeavers focuses on the development of Wine the core technology found in all of its CrossOver products.
The company’s goal is to bring expanded market opportunities for Windows software developers by making it easier,
faster and more painless to port Windows software to Linux.
CodeWeavers is recognized as a leader in open-source Windows porting technology,
and maintains development offices in Minnesota, the United Kingdom and elsewhere around the world.
The company is privately held.
Change Log For CrossOverMac and Linux :
16.0.0 CrossOver - December 13, 2016
Application Support:
CrossOver now supports Microsoft Office 2013!
Microsoft Office 2013 can be activated with either an Office
365 subscription or a product key.
Core Technology Improvements:
CrossOver 16 is based on Wine 2.0, with thousands of
improvements to Windows compatibility across the board.
CrossOver now supports 64-bit Windows applications, with new
bottle templates and 64-bit dependency management.
Bug Fixes:
Quicken 2014-2016 updates will now apply automatically
during installation.
Fixed a bug which prevented saving very large files in
Microsoft Excel 2010
Fixed a bug which prevented opening hyperlinks from
documents in Microsoft Office 2010.
Shell folder links will now be updated when importing
bottles into CrossOver from an archive file.
Fixed an audio bug which could cause Blizzard games to emit
unwanted noises from the speaker.
Fixed a bug in Tencent QQ which caused the application to
hang when adding a new contact.
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 will display correctly again.
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
Stefan Dösinger wrote an extensive summary of the talks at WineConf this month.
He also recorded some Videos and did all the postprocessing to make them enjoyable online.
We thankfully include it in this WWN:
On November 12th and 13th the Wine developers and a few users met in St.
Paul, Minnesota for the annual project meeting WineConf. The conference
featured technical presentations and discussions about changes to the
way Wine’s development processes work. This renewed installment of World
Wine News gives a short summary of the discussions and agreed
decisions.
Following the tradition, WineConf was kicked off by Alexandre Julliard,
the maintainer and Benevolent Dictator for Life of Wine. After giving a
slightly different keynote last year, he went back to his old keynote
template full of statistics and commit graphs.
It was delightful to see that the number of commits increased again last
year, after being in decline for a while, even though it is still far
away from where it used to be around 2010. The new patch sign off system
is working well, and the experiences with the staging branch have been
positive. Discussing the impact of these changes in detail was moved to
separate sessions and is described in this summary in separate sections.
The Wine developers decided to switch to time-based releases last year,
so a code freeze will come soon, and Wine 2.0 will be released most
likely in December or January.
The expected main areas of development after 2.0 will be Aric’s HID
support, the ongoing DirectX 11 work. Alexandre was hoping to merge the
Android code CodeWeavers was working on before 2.0, but decided to
postpone it because integrating the Java parts into the build system
proved to be difficult.
Aric Stewart: HID Support
Aric Stewart presented his work on supporting the Windows human
interface device layer in Wine. This is a low level interface that
allows applications to talk to devices like joysticks, keyboards,
gamepads, etc. Few applications use it to use joysticks, instead they
use higher level libraries like DirectInput or XInput, which then talk
to this lower level layer. Wine currently supports DirectInput, so
joysticks and gamepads work in many games. Unfortunately XInput is
missing. Aric’s plan is to provide the low level hid.dll and
(re-)implement dinput and xinput on top of it. This puts all operating
system abstraction code (Linux, OSX, Android specific joystick handling)
into hid.dll and allows applications that talk directly to hid.dll to
work. Those applications are rare, but they exist.
Aric also sent a mail explaining the current status to wine-devel
:
This means that applications that use hid.dll or direct device access to
HID devices will start seeing and being able to interact with devices.
This is very exciting but is just the very first step. Of course any
application trying to do HID directly would be a wonderful test case, I
am sure there are many many things that will need to be refined and
added before a real application starts being happy....
Looking forward, the hope is that then we will be able to build RawInput
support on top of HID, and also dinput and xinput support as well. As a
fun challenge I have been working to get native dinput from DirectX 9
to work on Wine on top of HID and it is moving forward much better than I
expect, with a lot of hacks at present. (native Dinput sees the
gamepads and even start trying to read them, but current is not getting
reports properly)
Jeremy White gave an update on CodeWeavers and its involvement in Wine:
CodeWeavers had some ups and downs. They spent a lot of time last year
on Android and had some business opportunity in China that didn’t work
out. Google announced that Chromebooks would run Android apps, which is a
very welcome development because they use a mouse and keyboard and
mostly have Intel CPUs, which makes them a much better target for
Windows applications than phones and tablets.
Sadly the consumer sales are declining. The porting business is strong
and increasing, which excitingly was the original business model behind
CodeWeavers’ Wine engagement.
Exciting opportunities in the pipeline that Jeremy White cannot talk
about in detail yet.
The company turned 20 this year, so next year it gets to drink :-) .
[Under the rather strict US liquor laws.]
Consumer sales are about 10% Linux and 90% Mac, but there are some
larger corporate customers that pay for Linux. Business interest in
Linux is slightly increasing as companies migrate away from Windows XP
or want to run Windows applications on embedded systems.
CrossOver Android is in the Play Store as a technology preview. It is
available for signed up beta testers only, and only works on tablets
with an Intel CPU because Qemu is too slow to run applications in a
useful manner on ARM-based tablets. Various companies have impressive
ARM emulation demos, but they don’t hold up to closer scrutiny. Sadly
Intel recently announced that they are dropping out of the mobile
business. The bright side for CrossOver Android are Chromebooks, as
mentioned above.
Jeremy White says CodeWeavers should probably do a better job announcing
its contributions to Wine, and crediting customers for key
contributions. On the other hand, CodeWeavers overshadows Wine’s
development already and Jeremy would love to have more non-CW
contributions to Wine and a more widespread community.
Due to having financial resources and being able to pay developers
CodeWeavers can do the really tricky and annoying work, for example
getting the copy protection and activation of Microsoft Office 2013 to
work.
User Support
Rosanne Dimesio gave an update of problems Wine users are facing and
their most requested features. The most common request is support for
the newest game. [Which, sorry, is a moving target and really hard to
do]. A common issue is the lack of packages for stable branch in some
distributions. Users are happy with the support of Microsoft Office 2007
and 2010. Few users want newer versions so far, because people who
invest money into MS Office usually stay with this version – which is
why we still have users running Office 97. This is likely to change when
Microsoft breaks file format backwards compatibity.
Support for USB devices (especially HID) is a recurring source of pain. Aric’s work will hopefully help here.
Spammers are a constant problem on the forum and wiki. The wiki has been
locked down and users have to request edit permissions before being
able to edit. The captchas on the forum help against bots, but there are
human spammers that can get past them.
Rosanne could really use help from other people with answering questions
on the forum. There are some people who help (Thanks!), but more would
be very welcome. We should probably do a better job explaining how
non-coders can help out.
We want more users attending WineConf to get their perspective. For next
year we will try to announce this in a better way. WineConf is open to
everyone, users are very welcome! We would also like the input of people
who develop software around Wine like PlayOnlinux. Travel sponsorship
is available too, contact us if you would like to come and money is an
issue for you.
If you want to represent Wine at an event or Linux user group near you
please get in contact with us. Travel sponsorship is available for this
too :-)
Sign-Off change review
There was quick consensus that the Sign-Off system is a major
improvement. It allows people to send patches originally written by
other people and maintain authorship information. Sebastian Lackner has
brought in many patches from wine-staging, and Andrew Eikum has fixed
and submittet Maarten Lankhorst’s pulseaudio driver.
Wine-Staging report
Erich Hoover gave an update on the state of the staging branch.
Unfortunately Sebastian and Michael, the main maintainers of this
branch, couldn’t come due to their time constraints.
Sebastian is doing most of the work and is turning into their Alexandre.
He has been working very hard on getting things reviewed properly on
wine-devel and make patches go into Wine directly. The number of commits
that go into staging is declining, which is a win because it reduces
the maintenance burden.
Existing patchsets in staging slowly make it into Wine. Two big sets
that did not, so far, are the multi-threaded command stream and the
Vulcan wrapper.
The overall consensus is that the staging branch is helping Wine. It is a
place that collects unfinished patches. Those patches often point out
ways to fix bugs (Jeremy called them breadcrumbs), and we really want to
have this information, even if their author does not want to see them
to conclusion. The staging maintainers try to provide incentives for
people to finish the patches rather than just dropping them off.
Staging also provides a place to test in-development work and catch bugs early.
Direct3D Update
Stefan: Quit CodeWeavers about a year ago and moved to a different job,
but is still hanging around Wine. Fixed a bunch of tests over the past
year, and fixed two bugs that fell in line with the tests. Benchmarks
not running because computers are sitting in a corner because doesn‘t
have enough space in the shared house in Staines.
Józef is working on DirectX 11: A lot of work got upstreamed in the past
months, but there are still many missing features. Compute shaders are
missing, as are many view types. It also needs Matteo’s GL core context
work on many drivers, which depends on the blitter rework Stefan was
working on before he left. However, some games start showing signs of
life. During the conference Andrew Wesie sent a set of patches
to make Blizzard’s Overwatch run. In a way it also depends on the
command stream, which would be very helpful to have tfor deferred
contexts. [Editor’s note: Józef’s statement was deciphered from a really
quiet recording with lots of background noise. It may be inaccurate in
some parts.]
Henri is working on upstreaming the multithreaded command stream
(Currently it’s in staging, but not the master branch). He wasn’t at
WineConf, so we couldn’t really come to a conclusion when that work will
be finished. It depends on Henri’s other tasks, CodeWeavers keeps
dropping work at him that needs to be finished yesterday. Henri has made
progress in the past months, merging the patches that unify 2D, Cube
and Volume textures into one texture resource, but merging textures and
buffers into one common resource is missing, and the blitter support in
the current command stream code is a mess. The ETA depends on where
Henri wants to go exactly.
Future WineConf
In 2012 and 2013 we experimented with joining FOSDEM to attract people
who are not long-standing Wine developers to join the talks. This was
successful in many ways, but we felt that it made discussing internal
matters like the patch acceptance process more difficult. For this
reason we went back to a “classic” WineConf in 2015 and 2016 and were
again stuck with the feeling that it’s just the same people attending
every year.
To address this we will try to more actively invite people from outside
wine-devel. As mentioned in the User Support part of this summary, we
would enjoy having more users of Wine around, and people who are
building front-ends around Wine.
The next WineConf will in all likelyhood be in Poland, hosted by Jacek
and Piotr Caban, and it will be somewhen in Fall 2017. If you are
interested, come! We will announce more details once we have a specific
date and exact location and hopefully won’t forget to announce it beyond
wine-devel :-)
We will be having a CrossOver Mac and CrossOver Linux sale going on until October 31st 2016 this sale price is only $19.95 for a 1 year activation key / serial number. We only sell activation keys and CrossOver is a digital download only. Simply click on one of the links below to get your copy of CrossOver before this sale ends.
CrossOver Mac and CrossOver Linux can get your Windows productivity applications and PC games up and running on your Mac or Linux machine quickly and easily. CrossOver runs the Windows software that you need on Mac and Linux at home, in the office, or at school without purchasing a Windows license, without rebooting your computer, and without having to use a virtual machine. And CrossOver can run a wide range of Windows games and entertainment applications.
A brief overview of CrossOver Mac.
CrossOver Mac is a powerful and useful Mac OS X application that enables you to easily install and run the desired Windows productivity applications or PC games on your Mac with just a few mouse clicks.
Provides you with an easy to install environment for running a huge selection of Windows applications on your Mac
The best thing about CrossOver Mac is that you can enjoy various Windows software on your Mac at home, in the office or at work without purchasing a Windows license.In other words, you do not have to go to the trouble of installing a Windows virtual machine or creating a Boot Camp partition on which you can install a Windows copy. The fact that you do not need to reboot your system to logon on a different operating system or share your resources with a Windows virtual machine translates into a faster and smoother application usage.
Extensive list of supported Windows programs and support for running a multitude of others that haven't yet been tested
CrossOver Mac comes with support for a long list of Windows programs and games, you can visit CrossOver Mac’s support page and view What Runs on CrossOver. Additionally, you can access the CrossOver Software Installer and search for the desired application using the built-in search form.
What is more, you can configure CrossOver Mac to install certain programs or games via specific installers and into the desire Bottle. The Installation process will guide you through the necessary steps to deploy your software.
Powerful and handy tool that enables you to use virtually any Windows program on a Mac
CrossOver Mac is easy-to-use and kind to your Mac’s resources, and provides a simple and clean user interface. From CrossOver Mac’s main window you can choose between two simple options: “Install Windows Software” and “Run Installed Software”.
As expected, the first option takes you to the above mentioned CrossOver Software Installer window from where you can install the programs you need while the second option enables you to run the installed programs.
CrossOver Mac is a commercial product that provides Mac OSX users with an easy way to install various applications and games that run only on the proprietary Microsoft Windows operating systems. Technically, the application is a GUI (Graphical User Interface) front-end for the well known Wine software, which provides a set of APIs and libraries to emulate several Microsoft Windows OSes on top of your Mac operating system.
Features at a glance
By default, the program comes with support for a very large selection of Windows applications, allowing users to install and use them without the need for a Microsoft Windows license. However, this does not mean that you won’t have to own a specific software license. It is distributed as a binary packages that supports Mac OSX 10.8 or higher.
Supported Windows applications
Considering the fact that CrossOver is just a simple user interface for Wine, it comes with support for all the applications that can be installed by the latter, such as the entire Microsoft Office 2010/2007/2003/XP/2000/97 suite, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Access.Among some other Windows-only applications that can be installed by this software, we can mention Internet Explorer, MicrosoftProject, Adobe Photoshop, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Visio, Quicken, FrameMaker, Shockwave Director, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, as well as numerous games.
I am delighted to announce that CodeWeavers has just released CrossOver
15.3.1 for both Mac OSX and Linux. CrossOver 15.3.1 has important bug
fixes for both Mac and Linux users.
Mac customers with
active support entitlements will be upgraded to CrossOver 15.3.1 the
next time they launch CrossOver Mac. Linux users can download the latest
version from https://www.codeweavers.com/.
Change Log For CrossOverMac and Linux :
15.3.1 CrossOver - October 4, 2016
macOS:
Fixed a bug which could cause Windows applications to hang
when working with directories that contained many files.
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
Today I woke up to a surprise, a package was on the counter waiting for me from CodeWeavers. About a month ago Jana Schmid was announcing on CodeWeavers Twitter feed that they were giving away free T-Shits to people who posted reviews of their upcoming CrossOver Android product. So I sent Jana a e-mail asking for a shirt and happily it arrived today.
One XXL T-Shirt :)
I would like to say "Thank You" to everyone at CodeWeavers for the T-Shirt I absolutely love it.
I am delighted to announce that CodeWeavers has just released CrossOver
15.3.0 for both Mac OSX and Linux. CrossOver 15.3.0 has important bug
fixes for both Mac and Linux users.
Mac customers with
active support entitlements will be upgraded to CrossOver 15.3.0 the
next time they launch CrossOver Mac. Linux users can download the latest
version from https://www.codeweavers.com/.
Change Log For CrossOverMac and Linux :
15.3.0 CrossOver - September 20, 2016
Linux:
CrossOver should no longer complain about a missing libpng
package on Debian 9.
CrossOver will no longer have problems with its Perl
dependency on Debian 9.
Bug Fixes:
Steam crashes when loading certain fonts have been
fixed.
Fixed some crashes in GOG Galaxy.
Fixed a crash in the Microsoft Office 2007 diagnostic
tools.
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
Last week, CodeWeavers announced that after three years of development, a preview version of CrossOver for Android would be released.
Why was I so excited? Because CrossOver allows you to run Windows
programs on Mac and Linux, and they brought their expertise over to
Android. After trying out the Preview version out for a week (which you can sign up for here), I'm extremely impressed by its capabilities, despite some major limitations.
Disclaimer:
Since I do not own an Intel-based Android tablet, and my Chromebook
does not yet have the Google Play Store, I tested CrossOver on the
latest version of Remix OS on my Dell Windows laptop. It is possible
that some of the bugs I experienced are issues with Remix, but
CrossOver's compatibility with Windows programs is identical no matter
how you run it. CrossOver for Android is in early beta, so everything in
this review is subject to change with subsequent updates.
First impressions
CrossOver's entire user interface consists of the virtual desktop,
where all the Windows programs live, and an 'Install Application'
button. The installer functionality is where CrossOver shines on the
desktop. With the WINE
open-source project that CrossOver is based on, getting a program to
run (even at all) can mean hunting down forum posts to see what
LinuxFan78 typed in the command line.
CrossOver tries to alleviate this pain with their installers, which
downloads a given program and performs all the necessary tweaks for the
program to run automatically. For example, when I installed Steam
through CrossOver, it downloaded multiple fonts that Steam requires
before proceeding with the actual Steam installation.
CrossOver for Android only has a few 'known-good applications', but
if you so desire, you can try installing any of CrossOver's available
applications. The selection is fairly expansive, but if you want to
install something not listed, you'll have to download a web browser like
Firefox inside CrossOver and download it manually.
The virtual desktop is fairly basic, showing some app shortcuts at
the top and a Start menu with access to your programs at the bottom.
There's also a very basic file manager, a setting to add/remove
programs, and the Wine configuration tool.
Games
Perhaps the most exciting prospect of running Windows programs on
Android (or a Chromebook) is playing Windows' vast library of games.
That's a huge reason Wine even exists, despite the rise of Steam OS and
Linux gaming, most new titles are still locked to Windows. Linux and Mac
users have used Wine, CrossOver, and other similar software for years
to play Windows-exclusive titles.
Steam is easy to get up and running, just choose it from the Install
Application dialog and click Next/Accept on all the installer popups.
But trying to play games is where I ran into problems. Wine, and thus
CrossOver, only supports DirectX 9 - meaning most new Windows games will
just plain not work. CodeWeavers is working hard on adding DirectX 10 and 11 support,
but it's a massive undertaking. Many games also offer an OpenGL mode,
except that doesn't work here either. Android only supports OpenGL ES,
not the full OpenGL spec that Windows programs expect.
Another frustrating problem is games cannot lock the mouse inside the
program. To my understanding, Android doesn't allow applications to
lock the mouse at all, so FPS titles won't be playable without a
controller. Games running in full-screen seem to be buggy as well, but
most games have windowed modes anyways. Finally, there's no way to
change the resolution of the virtual desktop, so older games expecting a
smaller screen might have problems.
I didn't try many of my Steam games, but I did successfully run three
titles - Half Life 1, Team Fortress: Classic, and Game Dev Tycoon. Half
Life 1 (pictured above) only worked when I disabled full-screen mode
and switched to software rendering instead of OpenGL. The mouse didn't
lock so it was uncontrollable, but moving around was buttery smooth.
Team Fortress was the same story, and Game Dev Tycoon surprisingly
worked without messing with the settings.
If your game can run either on software rendering or DirectX 9, and
doesn't need to lock the mouse, there's a good chance it might run in
CrossOver. Especially if you install it through CrossOver's install
mechanism. As stated earlier, CodeWeavers has been working on DirectX 10
and 11 support on the desktop versions of CrossOver, so it wouldn't
surprise me if those changes trickle down to the Android version at some
point.
Other software
You'll need to use a web browser to install software not available in
CrossOver itself. I used CrossOver's installer to download Firefox,
seen below. I tried to run a recent release, version 45 to be exact, but
it froze whenever I saved a file so I switched back to Firefox 7 (which
is still usable for most sites).
One of the best use cases for CrossOver is to run full Microsoft
Office, but Office 2013 and newer don't work at all thanks to their
dependence on DirectX 10. CodeWeavers officially supports Office 2010
and earlier, but I didn't have a copy of that version, so I tried out
LibreOffice. If you've never used it, LibreOffice is an open-source
office suite with MS Office compatibility, and it works fairly well in
CrossOver.
Granted, it worked until I tried to save a file, then it froze. So close!
Holy Photoshop, Batman
I was incredibly surprised to see my copy of Photoshop CS3, without changing any settings, worked in CrossOver. Well, mostly.
I tried basic image manipulation including transforms, gradients,
cropping, filters, etc, all with success. However, it does crash when
trying to use fonts, and a few other times randomly, but it's extremely
impressive that CrossOver can run it at all. Photoshop CS6 requires some extra packages in Wine, known as 'winetricks,' to run perfectly - but as far as I can tell, there is no way to install winetricks in CrossOver yet.
Android/Chromebook integration
CrossOver's integration with the host operating system, be it Android
or Chrome OS, is rather limited but still more than I was expecting.
The root Android file system shows up as a drive in CrossOver, allowing
you to transfer data back and forth without too much trouble. For
example, I could easily open pictures in Photoshop from the Android
downloads folder.
Announced
back in July, the Crossover for Android Preview by Codeweavers is
finally here. The Codeweavers blog posts in the run-up alternated
between pride and caution in regard to user expectations, but now that
I’ve tried the alpha release they really should have dialed up the pride
more. Even in this early of a state, it’s more than functional and an
exciting look at the potential for future (gasp, even beta!) releases.
Just as a quick recap, the Crossover for Android Preview caveats:
Your
Chromebook needs access to the Play Store, which is currently only
available for three devices. The Asus Flip, the Acer R11, and the Pixel
2015.
Of
those three devices only two have the Intel processors that Crossover
requires, the R11 and the Pixel. Sorry Asus Flip owners! But there are
likely many Intel based Chromebooks on the horizon.
If
you have an R11 or Pixel (2015), you need to be tuned to the Beta
channel (previously Play Store access was only in the developer channel,
but it’s improved leaps and bounds and now the Beta channel has it.)
Once
(or if, depending on when you signed up) you receive an email from
Codeweavers saying that you have access to the Preview, you’ll be able
to follow the link they provide to get access to the Crossover app in
the Play Store.
Initially
I had to install it to my Pixel via the browser, but once it’s
installed, you can uninstall/reinstall from the Play Store on your
device.
Codeweavers has a guide on installing the Preview here:
But there’s a few items you can skip (or at least that I did, with no apparent side-effects). The big one being that you don’t need
to switch your Chromebook to Developer Mode. Which is nice, since it’s
easier than you’d think to accidentally wipe your Chromebook every time
you boot, and the big scary boot screen will greet you with an
absolutely terrifying beeping if you don’t CTRL+D to skip the boot
sequence.
Second,
I’d recommend sticking with the Beta channel. I was running the
Developer channel just to test out Android apps on ChromeOs, and it’s
exactly what you would (or should) expect from a Dev channel. It’s
unstable. My apps crashed more, my fans/Chromebook had a tendency to
race and heat up, and generally not the best day-to-day experience if
you rely on your Chromebook for any amount of real-life work.
Codeweavers
gives a ballpark figure of about an hour from Powerwash to first
install, but I imagine that will vary widely. The Pixel is pretty zippy,
and when I timed it from start (Powerwashing) to finish (actually
logged into Steam via the Crossover app) the whole process clocked in at
just under 7 minutes.
When
you launch, you’ll notice the very first thing it suggests you install
is Steam. There are some built-in tools such as a file browser, command
line, and access to the Wine configuration settings, but the only
guaranteed working programs at the moment are Steam, Microsoft Office
2007/2010, and WinZip 14. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can uncheck
the “Only known-good applications” box and see what else is on the
list. The DirectX for pre-XP games and for Modern games could come in
handy, depending what you’re installing.
I
was able to install LibreOffice 5 with no issues via the file explorer,
but every other install file I tried from other sources failed/errored
(such as GoG games). The fewer extras what you’re trying to install
requires (like .Net), the more luck you’ll have installing it outside
the official “Install Application” menu list. The Pixel has an unusually
high resolution for a Chromebook, so at the moment this makes the
Crossover app text very, very, (very) tiny. You may also run into odd
resizing issues. Steam will only cover the top half of the screen, for
example. Even while maximized. For other windowed apps such as
LibreOffice, you should be able to drag the program window to fully
cover the workspace if you experiment with maximizing/minimizing the
Crossover app itself, and then the programs running inside of it.
But really, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be spending most of your time in Steam.
My
personal Steam library isn’t extensive, so I wasn’t able to try out
many full games. But I did download every demo I could find that seemed
even mildly interesting. Altogether I tried out 50 different games. Out
of those 50, I was able to successfully start 13. Of those 13, 10 were
in what I’d consider genuinely playable condition. That’s without
messing with Wine configuration settings or Library overrides, which
from my point of view are indistinguishable from blasphemous magicks.
As a final attempt to temper folks’ expectations, I
don’t recommend installing this Alpha with the expectation it’s going
to replace your Windows desktop or Crossover for Linux/Mac.
Apps will crash. Some games will be working perfectly one day, and
refuse to launch the next. Installed programs will break Wine (I think
certain games force updates to DirectX or other Windows files that make
games with different needs a bit angry and sullen), forcing you to clear
the app’s data entirely and start over. In some cases, certain settings
and changes persist even if you uninstall and reinstall the app, and
you’ll need to Powerwash your Chromebook to start from scratch (it’s a
Chromebook, so your stuff is in the cloud anyway, right?)
While I
found performance and load times to be completely reasonable, the Pixel
has a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and Intel HD 5500 integrated
graphics. Once the new wave of Chromebooks come out with full (non-beta)
Play Store support come out, I’m sure they’ll come close to that amount
of horsepower, but for now it’s a minority in a minority in a minority.
If you have an R11, be prepared to wait when apps are first launching.
People this preview is for:
Curious early adopters.
Patient hobbyists.
Egalitarian product testers.
Pickers, grinners, lovers, and sinners.
Who this preview is not for:
People who need a specific Windows program to run perfectly for their work or business.
Folks
who don’t read instructions and will ultimately try to install the
Preview on ARM devices or games that aren’t even supported by Wine. No
new DOOM here, move along.
Veruca Salt inspired individuals who expect something free to provide them effortless instant gratification.
Jokers, smokers, and midnight tokers (who get their lovin’ on the run). Your skills are needed elsewhere.
Now,
10 out of 50 may not sound good. But this is the very first public
alpha release, and keep in mind THAT A MONTH AGO THIS WASN’T EVEN
POSSIBLE.
Plus, when one of the games that works is Half-life 2, that deserves bonus points. Let’s call it a 50/50 split.
Braid
installed with no muss and no fuss. Framerate was good and the controls
were responsive. There was one fluke where I somehow disabled the
audio, and couldn’t get it to come back until after a Powerwash and
fresh install of Crossover. I did find the overall framework/story to be
a bit depressing. Don’t play this after a breakup or fight with your
partner. The idea of grown individuals referring to their partners as a
princesses non-ironically seems weird to me, even in a world with dino
salesmen and some sort of springy bush people that seem like they’re
trying to mind their own business until you jump on them.
Half-life
2 was hands-down the most exciting game I was able to get up and
running. Initially the game would start, but with no video. You could
hear Gordon moving around and responding to keyboard commands. It turns
out there’s a setting in the advanced video options called “Multicore
Rendering”. For Source Engine games like HL2, Portal, or L4D2, you’re
going to want to disable that. Everything else can be set to whatever
you like, depending on your tolerance for framerate drops and jitters. I
will say that Valve did not design these games with touchpad and
touchscreen users in mind, so I spent an embarrassing amount of time
staring at the floor and/or ceiling until I got the hang of things
enough to actually look around. Which severely hampered my progress at
figuring out a way to kill Barney, because, well, he’s a dope.
Apparently even alien gods have a special provenance for
interdimensional fools and children.
I
have a soft spot for Treasure’s excellent shoot-em-ups, even if my
reflexes aren’t up to snuff when it comes to actually playing their
bullet hell games. There’s an issue getting Ikaruga going (also
described in the description here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJGxbJoKUQU )
involving the DirectX update it requires failing because it can’t
overwrite certain DLLs in the System32 folder. Delete them, install
DirectX from the Ikaruga Steamapps folder, then restore them from the
trash (overwriting the new DLLs in the process). If you’re not super
stoked at the thought of dodging hundreds of lethal colored blobs while
returning fire with your own colored blobs, you may want to give this
one a miss, just because of the extra effort required. If you go to the
trouble, however, it plays perfectly.
Left
4 Dead 2 is technically playable, albeit with no sound and some
graphical glitches. I even successfully joined an online game by
accident, so the multiplayer works! But again, not really designed for
touchpad/touchscreen control. I spent my time staring at the
floor/rooftop, contemplating what horrible transgressions Ellis
committed in a past video game life to be stranded in a world of zombies
with no control over his Y-axis.
I
believe Limbo is one of the games mentioned in the Codeweaver blog
posts, which is what gave me the idea to focus on 2009-2011 era DirectX
8/9 games to begin with. The game runs perfectly, but it does feel a bit
sluggish (in the video and controls). I’m not sure how much of that is
being run through Wine, and how much is by design since you’re
essentially some sort of dead ghost boy in a foggy ghost world with
unclear motivations and probably not a lot of time-sensitive
appointments.
This
is my first experience with Portal, and I can see what all the fuss was
about. It runs just as well as Half-Life 2, once you disable the same
“Multicore Rendering” setting. Once I started dropping myself through
infinite loops it occurred to me that this is a great game to be testing
on a program whose name is a recursive acronym. It’s hobby inception.
Torchlight
and Torchlight II both run fantastically. Even if you crank up the
settings, the framerate is still playable. Also, because the game is
mouse focused, you can place 90% of it by tapping on your touchscreen.
It’s practically a tablet game experience at that point, and a lot of
fun. They do suffer from what I can only describe as executable file
ennui. Sometimes when you click play, it will appear to start, and
nothing will happen. Clicking on “Play” and holding it down for about
five seconds seems to help, but that could also be completely
psychosomatic as I repeatedly click on the play button until the game
concedes and finally launches. It’s not unlike being a five-year-old
poking your sleeping parent in the side until they finally relent and
get up so you can open your Christmas presents BECAUSE REALLY CHRISTMAS
TECHNICALLY STARTED FOUR HOURS AGO HOW CAN YOU STILL BE SLEEPING?
Half-Life 2, Portal, and the two Torchlight games are the gems of my
Crossover for Android experience thus far.
Trine
runs well, the graphics are good, and the controls responsive. I am,
however, potentially the world’s worst grappling-hook based video game
player in the world, if there are championships for that type of thing
(I’m available!) and an impartial way of quantifying just how terrible
one needs to be to get stuck between too inconveniently placed sliding
wood medieval doors. Trine 2 seems like it would also run just as well,
but there doesn’t seem to be any key, key combination, or mouse click
capable of starting the demo. Maybe folks with gamepads will have better
luck.
On
the one hand, World of Goo runs perfectly. On the other, it seems to be
a bizarrely story-driven game about sentient globs of goo. With
eyeballs and childlike gurgles of glee. This is what happens when you
don’t just let your children have that puppy they wanted because they
promise to love it and walk it and take care of it at least until the
next iPhone comes out and then you end up doing all the work but at
least they’re not obsessed about semi-solid socialist blobs.
For
people interested in seeing how the games perform in action, I’ve
uploaded several clips to YouTube. Theoretically running Screencastify
may have given me a framerate hit, but the performance you see in the
videos is very close to what I experienced actually playing the games.
That includes any stutters and freezes, and the audio is a bit crackly
for all programs running through the Android app.
CrossOver For Android Torchlight II
CrossOver for Android Torchlight
CrossOver for Android Half life 2 Black Screen
CrossOver for Android Half life 2 test 2
CrossOver for Android Portal
More Videos
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
