Thursday, July 29, 2010

CodeWeavers Releases CrossOver 9.1 And CrossOver Games 9.1 For MAC And Linux

New Version Incorporates Wine 1.2, Supports Star Trek Online and StarCraft II
SAINT PAUL, Minn. (July 28, 2010) On the heels of the highly-anticipated release of Wine 1.2, CodeWeavers, Inc. today announced the simultaneous release of CrossOver 9.1 and CrossOver Games 9.1 for both Mac and Linux.

Based in Saint Paul, Minn., CodeWeavers is a leading developer of software products that turn Mac OS X and Linux into Windows-compatible operating systems. CrossOver allows Windows software to be used on Mac and Linux PCs without the need for a Windows operating system license.
Available immediately, CrossOver 9.1 fully incorporates Wine 1.2, which the Wine community released on July 16th. The Wine Project is an open source technology developed by hundreds of volunteers worldwide. Wine enables millions around the world to run Windows software on Unix-like operating systems, all without needing to run Windows itself. CodeWeavers is one of the founders and largest supporters of The Wine Project and sells CrossOver and other software as supported versions of Wine.
CrossOver Games 9.1 now supports StarCraft II as well as Star Trek Online, along with a wide range of improvements to many other games.

The regular CrossOver update includes improvements to all Microsoft Office versions, improvements in Quicken 2010 support, and a broad range of fixes that should help all applications.
"Wine 1.2 version featured the work of 328 people including a lot of hard work from our team making more than 23,000 separate patches over two years," said Jeremy White, CodeWeavers CEO. "CodeWeavers was proud to be a part of that effort, and we are thrilled to be able to bring that work to our customers with this release of CrossOver."
CrossOver 9.1 and CrossOver 9.1 Games replaces all previous versions of CrossOver. The software is immediately available at www.CodeWeavers.com.

About CodeWeavers
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. For more information about CodeWeavers, log on to www.CodeWeavers.com.
 

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Winamp for Mac OS X

Well since Nullsoft does not provide any support for other then Microsoft Windows OS it could be tricky somehow to get it running on another OS like Mac OS X or even another *nix system…but it is not impossible. The thing you need is Wine to get it running on your *nix system or if you own a Mac like me you can use your copy of Crossover as well. I must say the last option will work the best if you want to use this kind of app….
This time we are going to use Crossover Mac 9.0.1 Standard/Professional in order to run Winamp 5.57 on Mac OS 10.6.4. In advance I must say that this version of Crossover does not support Winamp by default and neither does any previous versions of it. But you might ask…is it possible anyway…? I must say yes…! To my surprise the installation went smooth without any bugs and after the installation the program does work very well or at least for everyday use. Although I have came into the problem when you drag the window around it may feel kinda laggy when doing so. But otherwise it works well for most of your tasks with Winamp.
 
As you can see from the picture above it even runs with the new theme style in Winamp but for better compatibility I suggest to use the old Winamp skin for faster response and use of the program. To setup your Bottle in Crossover you only need to use a WinXP environment and continue with the installation. Winamp does not need any other runtime components to run and after installation you can use it like you did on your Windows PC.

World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade Cinematic Intro

Thanks to Cider, Mac users can run windows applications and games without running a virtual OS. Now that I think about it… Im not sure if this COD4 was actually made for mac or if it was a port running through cider. This works for many other things as well. Codeweavers CrossOver also does the same type of thing using wine instead of cider. Somewhere on their site they have a compatibility list. I successfully use CrossOver to run Steam games like DOD:S and other stuff. With virtualization through Parallels or VMWare Fusion, you still need a copy of the windows OS. With wine, you dont. Long Live Mac! The ONLY reason I ever used windows was because I wanted to play games.

Name: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Release
Date: January 16, 2007
Platform(s): PC and Mac OS X
Publisher: Activision Blizzard
Developer: Activision Blizzard

Friday, July 9, 2010

How to Run Windows and OS X on the Same Mac

By: John Brandon

OS X or Windows? Run them both on the same machine without any trouble.
A hybrid engine that runs on gas and electricity. A football star who plays both defense and offense. A politician who understands social justice and capitalistic expansion. These anomalies are rare, but in the world of tech, they are almost unknown entities. For anyone who owns a Mac, it might seem a bit odd to think you can run both the Mac OSX and Windows, and switch effortless between them. Yet, not only is it possible to live in these two universes, it actually makes perfect sense.

One reason is that there are a handful of applications, and even a few Web sites, that only work on a PC. The most obvious examples are enterprise-level tools at work, including some apps from Oracle and Microsoft that do not run on the Mac platform and probably never will. A few Web sites require an older version of Internet Explorer, which is not even offered for the Mac anymore. And, many of the latest games such as Mass Effect 2 are not available for the Mac.

Fortunately, Apple offers an application called Boot Camp which allows you to run Microsoft Windows as though it was meant for your Mac all along. A few other virtual machine tools exist as well, including Parallels 5 and VMware Fusion, adding a few features and adding some performance perks. For more industrious users, you can also use a program called Crossover which actually runs the Windows app as though it works on a Mac, even though this approach is a bit hit or miss.
For those who want to run both Mac and Windows, heres an overview of the advantages to each approach, and a few pitfalls to avoid along the way.

Apple Boot Camp
The free Boot Camp app for Mac, included with every Mac, has one major difference compared to Parallels and Fusion: it requires that you reboot your computer. Thats only a minor annoyance, but Boot Camp does require you to live either in Windows or Mac and switch back and forth.
 
Boot Camp also supports Windows 7, but you do need the latest Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard version and the Boot Camp 3.1 Update, which you can download using the system update utility or get directly from the Snow Leopard install disc.
The important point to make here is that you will need your own licensed copy of Windows 7 (or a previous version) and, using the Boot Camp Setup Assistant (located in Applications/Utilities), you will need to install the operating system as though you just bought a brand new PC. After the install, you will also need to install the Mac drivers for Windows. (That might seem odd, but this is the step that makes Windows work with the Mac hardware.) Just insert your OS X DVD when prompted. You will also need to run the Apple Software Update utility from within Windows to update the drivers.
Then, to use Boot Camp, you just hold down the Option key when your Mac boots. You will see an option to boot into Windows or the Mac. Select the one you want and youre off.
Now, about performance. Its obvious that a Mac is designed for the best performance with OS X. Running Windows, you will notice the speed is mostly adequate, but not that comparable with a brand new laptop from, say, HP or Dell that is designed (and thoroughly tested) for Windows.
Codeweavers Crossover

One last option if you really need to run Windows apps on your Mac is CrossOver Mac, a program that uses the Wine toolkit. CrossOver makes it look like a Windows app runs natively on your Mac, mostly by loading just the required application framework. So, for example, if you want to use Microsoft Office 2007, you can load CrossOver and then install the app and run it in a window, without actually loading Windows at all.

When CrossOver works, it works wonders. The app supports popular mainstream apps like Microsoft Office and Outlook, but not any of the major Adobe products. A separate app called CrossOver Games lets you play a small number of older games, like the first Call of Duty games, but not recent titles.
CrossOver is a good idea, though, if you just need to run basic apps and dont want to bother installing Windows itself. And, the costs just $40 so it is half the price of a virtual machine app.
 

Friday, July 2, 2010

Stamping out Wine 1.2

By Jeremy White
Everyone in the Wine community is driving to release Wine 1.2 the newest and best version of Wine.
Its been two years since Wine 1.0, and weve really made huge strides. This version will include the beginnings of genuine 64-bit support, along with major Direct3D improvements, and improvements in a huge number of other areas.

Since the majority of CodeWeavers staff are Wine developers, that means were busily working on Wine 1.2 ourselves. Further, were working to roll Wine 1.2 into CrossOver 9.1 and CrossOver Games 9.1. We are really happy with the improvements and think this is going to make the very best CrossOver release.
Of course, you might wonder, when is Wine 1.2 going to come out? And when is CrossOver 9.1 going to come out? Reasonable questions, and one you think we would be able to answer.

However, its not that easy, because of the unusual relationship we have with Alexandre Julliard, the maintainer of Wine. That is, while he is our CTO, and helps enormously with CrossOver, we also have a clear understanding that he is completely autonomous in his role as the Wine maintainer.

So when we ask him, in his role as Wine maintainer, when Wine 1.2 will ship, he simply tells us when its ready. He goes on to discuss regression counts, and productivity of developers, and so far as I know, how the tea leaves look to him. This drives James, our VP of Sales absolutely crazy, which perhaps is the point.

So the official timeline for CrossOver 9.1 is one tad after when it's ready.