For a large portion of Linux and Mac users the reality is there will
be some Windows program that they will still have to use on a daily or
near-daily basis. For many the answer is Wine,
letting them use their applications with a variable amount of success
on their new *nix system. Unfortunately Wine doesn't come with any
guarantee of support for a given application, nor is there any level of
support from the developers beyond the community, or a generous
developer. Enter CrossOver.
CrossOver has been the main financial support behind the Wine project
for several years now, they offer a customized version of the Wine
codebase and even claim explicit support for a variety of applications--
some games, some productivity software, some utilities.
For many users Wine meets all of their needs, free of charge, but for
those who want that extra hand, or who don't trust that they'll be able
to configure their wine install to meet their situation, then CrossOver
is a nice compromise.
For $59.95 USD, CrossOver will give you an automated installer for
many applications, as well as integration into the package manager for
dependencies that the compatibility layer might need -- such as codecs,
mp3 and mpeg libraries, or specific fonts.
The buyer can also opt to buy phone support direct from CrossOver in
order to get their applications working on their systems. That's not the
only thing though, every purchase of CrossOver goes directly to the
continuing development of the Wine project as CrossOver employs many of
the contributors and developers, as well as contributing every fix they
develop, "no matter how tiny", directly back to the Wine project itself.
By supporting CrossOver, users support Wine.
For me personally, the biggest and most helpful feature is the
integration with the package manager. All of my main applications -- MS
Office, World Of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, and others all work fine in the
base version of Wine. But anytime I swap a new distro to try out I
always have to go back through and install all of the system
dependencies, such as (32bit versions of) gstreamer codecs, libmpg, mp3
support, and others. But with CrossOver I get prompted to install those
packages the moment I try to install a Windows application that has
those dependencies declared.
For advanced users, purchasing CrossOver may not have a direct
benefit. But for those who are less technologically minded, or that want
to help out the Wine project, then purchasing CrossOver is an easy way
to support themselves, as well as support the wider community who
benefits from the Wine project.
CrossOver has managed to work fairly well over the years, even going back to CrossOver Office 5 from 10+ years ago as well as CrossOver Games, which has since been integrated into CrossOver itself.
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