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CrossOver

[kraws-oh-ver, kros-]

CrossOver (known before version 6.0 as CrossOver Office) is the collective name for three commercial and proprietary programs developed by CodeWeavers that allows many Windows-based applications to run on Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris using a compatibility layer. The programs include CrossOver Mac, CrossOver Linux and CrossOver Games.

The programs are tweaked, proprietary versions of the public Wine source tree with various compatibility patches added, more user-friendly configuration tools and commercial support. CodeWeavers employs several Wine developers and contributes code back to the free software/open source software Wine project as per the GNU LGPL, although CrossOver itself is proprietary software.

Versions

CrossOver Mac

In June 2005, CodeWeavers announced a new Apple Mac OS X version of CrossOver Office called CrossOver Mac that will support Windows-to-Mac application porting on Intel-based Macs. A second public beta version of CrossOver Mac was made available for free download on September 28, 2006, and a third on November 15, 2006. A limited 60-day trial of Release Candidate 1 was released on December 22, 2006. A final version was released January 10, 2007.

CrossOver Linux

The program aims to integrate properly with GNOME and KDE so that applications will run seamlessly in the Linux environment.

CrossOver Linux is offered in two versions - Standard and Professional. CrossOver Linux Professional provides enhanced deployability and manageability features for corporate users. The Standard version allows a single user of a single machine. The Professional version allows multiple users.

CrossOver Server

CrossOver Server allows Windows applications to run in a distributed thin-client environment under Linux and Solaris. CrossOver Server was discontinued in 2007 as many of its features now appear in CrossOver Linux Professional.

CrossOver Games

CrossOver Games, announced on 10th March 2008, is a new product that lets the users play a broad range of games, "particularly games with a lot of replayability such as MMOs like World of Warcraft and the range of games from Valve (e.g. Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, and so on)". The difference with regular CrossOver is that CrossOver Games will have a shorter release cycle in order to update faster to the latest work on Wine faster than with regular CrossOver, which targets stability and reliability.

Actively supported Windows software

Productivity

Microsoft Office 2003, XP, 2000 and 97
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
Adobe Dreamweaver MX, Adobe Flash MX, Adobe Photoshop 7
Lotus Notes
Quicken
dBpowerAMP Music Converter
Zune Software

Various web browser plugins such as QuickTime and Windows Media Player

Games

Counter-Strike
Half-Life 2
Prey
World of Warcraft
EVE Online
Guild Wars
Call of Duty 2
Team Fortress 2
Most games by Valve that are available on Steam

Misc

iTunes 4.9.0
Quicktime 7

A full list is available from CodeWeavers’ website.

CodeWeavers has also designed an interest gauging system on their website where one can "donate" money towards a particular application in order to encourage the development team to focus their attention on it and make it fully compatible.