CrossOver Mac beta released: run Windows apps in OS X

Nope, this isn't a virtual machine a la Parallels or VMware for Mac, this is the real deal: CodeWeavers released the beta of CrossOver Mac, a WINE environment port to OS X that allows you to run Windows apps without actually running Windows. (Sorry everybody, Intel Macs only!) We kicked the tires on this sucker, and can definitely report back that it works -- well, mostly. Click on to check out what the CrossOver Mac beta is like!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Yep, there it is, all 80MB of it.

It needs the quartz-wm library, though supposedly it will run without. We didn't try for this Q&D run, but c'mon, give it what it needs.

Obviously the first thing we wanted to see was IE6 on OS X. So what if we're gluttons for punishment! (P.S. -Did we mention how much we love Opera?)

Creating a new bottle (get it -- WINE, bottle?) takes a long ass time, and for some reason it defaults to Win98. We redid our install with an XP bottle, though we didn't see any difference.

Then it has to grab the IE installer from the web. That was an automated cinch.

Ah, how many times we've seen this dialog. IE, we missed you so.

Just your usual install, went very quickly.

Not bad for a beta!

Chortlegigglechuckle.

Yep, you guessed it, IE didn't work. Well, it started, but it wouldn't load any pages (including this one).

So then we wanted to try something that wasn't supported -- our favorite Windows FTP app, Filezilla.

We downloaded it and selected it with the installer wizard, not too difficult.

Despite the warnings we installed it to our XP bottle along with IE6.

Things went pretty fast on this one, too.

Yep, just the usual Filezilla installer.

Worked like a charm, no errors or nothin'.

And there we have our long lost FTP app. It even let us drill down into Mac .app files. Now that's compatibility!

But alas, we got a startling reminder that yes, this is still a beta. Good luck!

[Jeff Lerch @ Aug 31st 2006 4:12PM]

Wow :-0

[Goobimama @ Aug 31st 2006 4:12PM]

You guys are faster than even TUAW at bringing us Mac news!!! Keep it up.

[Matthew Fitzsimmons @ Aug 31st 2006 4:13PM]

IE worked fine for me when I did it. What's funny, though, is that Virus Barrier found a virus in the one installed from their special download.

[Interesting @ Aug 31st 2006 4:14PM]

That's pretty sweet. Did you try to go into the Connection settings to see if you could fool around with IE to get it to work? I figure that would be the only thing holding it back. But who knows ... regardless, this looks like a promising development.

[conrad @ Aug 31st 2006 4:16PM]

Wow. That's exactly what I thought too. Bring on the good news!

[Jon @ Aug 31st 2006 4:23PM]

I wish they would make this a Universal Application so I could run it on my G5!

[Rick Lyon @ Aug 31st 2006 4:27PM]

That's awesome for Intel-macsters who need to run PC apps.

[Fritz @ Aug 31st 2006 4:27PM]

Running it on your G5 would be impossible. Windows runs an x86 environment, and WINE does not emulate your hardware. You have to run an Intel Mac for this to work.

[James Whited @ Aug 31st 2006 4:28PM]

Funny, I got IE6 to load this site, and it runs quite slow. But its under a 98 bottle, I will try it under XP. But still a cool piece of software.

[Adam Pennington @ Aug 31st 2006 4:28PM]

> I wish they would make this a Universal Application so I could run it on my G5!

You might have been joking, but that isn't going to be able to run anything which isn't from the PPC version of windows. You're emulating syscall support and GUI with WINE, but not the processor itself.

[Ridge @ Aug 31st 2006 4:29PM]

Where can i get this precious beta.

[Jamie Grieve @ Aug 31st 2006 4:33PM]

So if it will allow your mac to run Windows programs will it allow Windows virus's to run riot ?

I'll think I'll avoid this for now!

[maximilian @ Aug 31st 2006 4:48PM]

you guys should mention that it only works on intel macs in the first sentence so us powerpc people don't get as depressed as i just did after visiting the site.

[Mr. B @ Aug 31st 2006 4:51PM]

...now I really want a 12 inch Macbook Pro... if only.

[sid @ Aug 31st 2006 4:56PM]

someone give sonicstage a try on this for me, if it works i can finally get rid of my pc

[blah @ Aug 31st 2006 5:10PM]

This was useful in Linux, when there weren't any tenable alternatives, on that platform, to key Windows apps (MS Office, et al); however, times have changed: Linux has mature, fully-featured alternatives to the big apps in Windows. Crossover is even less useful in OS X, where such alternatives have existed for even longer than in Linux.

About the only thing Crossover is good for, is those obscure niche apps, from Windows, that have no equivalents, yet, on the other platforms. The problem is that, generally speaking, the more obscure an app is, the less likely that you'll be able to get in running under Crossover/WINE. That has been my experience: I've thrown about 10 niche apps at Crossover, and NONE of them would install/run. Even worse, my many emails to Crossover's developers, about the issues, after having paid for several liscences for their product, went UNANSWERED. Hell, I was so desparate to get one particular app working, for a client, that I offered to visit Crossover's developer's offices, personally, here in Ottawa. Of course, they never responded to that offer.

Suffice to say, I think Crossover is a useless, anarchic piece of shit that no longer serves any useful purpose for 98% of Mac, or even Linux, users. And, yet, it's been marketed/covered as something more than a quaint, hackish curiousity...

[Brian O'Connor @ Aug 31st 2006 5:14PM]

blah: ++ Crossover/WINE is nothing more than an underdeveloped "proof of concept". That is, it shows what's possible, but fails to actually deliver when it really matters.

[Robert Brodrecht @ Aug 31st 2006 5:21PM]

@Jamie Grieve

Not to worry. Someone already tried to run Windows viruses with WINE with limited success. They wrote an article: http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/1430222

[All Your Lost Socks @ Aug 31st 2006 5:36PM]

If it could run Windows viruses, then logically, it would only be able to mess up the Windows compatibility and applications - not your Mac itself, see? WINE is just a wrapper, so the viruses would not be able to screw up your base OS, if they were only designed to mess up -windows specific- computers. However, if someone designed a WINE-friendly virus intended to use its interoperability behind the scenes to access bits of the OS X filesystem, that would be another story.
Of course, what do I know? Those are just my hypotheses :)

[Aaron @ Aug 31st 2006 5:53PM]

Contrary to what some have stated here, I think CrossOver is fantastic stuff. I've been using it to run Photoshop 7 and Flash (though not flash 8 unortunately) under Ubuntu for a while now. They both work great.

Glad to see that they have started to do Mac stuff as well now.

[Thataboy @ Aug 31st 2006 6:19PM]

As someone noted above, there seems to be an issue running IE6 in an XP bottle. They know about it. It apparently works fine in the 98 bottle (I think they said that is the default, but I haven't tried it).

What I want to know is if Tivo2Go works so a Mac user can transfer .tivo files to the computer for iPod/PSP use. I have a suspicion that anything involving media/DRM will not work in Crossover, but if someone can give it a shot...

[Sylvain Jette @ Aug 31st 2006 6:24PM]

Regarding Internet Explorer. I originally entered "www.engadget.com" and got the same blank page, however I clicked stop then press enter in the address field an dthe page came up. Overall it is very good, I am running Picassa with no problem, I will test by installing various unsupported applications and provide the results later.

[ryan @ Aug 31st 2006 7:08PM]

@blah

Ummm.."obscure niche" apps? The PC version of Quickbooks is pretty standard, the Mac version is useless to me becuase we have multiple users that need to access the files and the Mac version does'nt support that, so i have to run a freaking citrix server for my all mac office. Granted though quickbooks does'nt work well in linux crossover but give it time.

This is VERY useful.

[Harbinger @ Aug 31st 2006 7:21PM]

Yah so, now I can use the PC-only PSP apps I've been having to boot into XP for, sweet.

[blah @ Aug 31st 2006 7:30PM]

ryan: so, win2mac ( http://www.quickbooks.com/support/index/win2mac/ ) doen't work for you? I haven't looked too hard, but I'd be surprised if there weren't some better solution out there for you than the one you're currently using...

In any case, you've only reinforced my argument: the fact that Crossover doesn't completely support Quickbooks is not a "feature". ;) But, please, everyone: don't take my word for it. Absolutely: try this product and see how you "like" it. I realize that everyone loves to hate a critic, regardless of whether the critic is right, so I invite you to try Crossover for yourself. :)

[ToeKnee @ Aug 31st 2006 8:40PM]

"blah" blathered:

"But, please, everyone: don't take my word for it. Absolutely: try this product and see how you "like" it. I realize that everyone loves to hate a critic, regardless of whether the critic is right, so I invite you to try Crossover for yourself."

I invite you to try Crossover Mac for *yourself* before playing the expert. It's a more updated product than the older Linux versions you are purported to have tried and running on a different platform. Me? I've used the alpha versions and am about to try this beta. My experience has been awesome with Crossover Mac.

So blah.

[Dave @ Aug 31st 2006 8:42PM]

Will this finnally fix the problems for gamers w/ Macs? I thought i saw Half-life in that screensho! Anyone try it?

[Mike10010100 @ Aug 31st 2006 9:01PM]

I wonder if it would work on video games. Been waiting to get Battlefront 2 on mac.

[Marcus Olsson @ Aug 31st 2006 9:12PM]

Wow! This makes we wanna buy a Mac even more! Applestore, here I come!

Though I hope that it proceeds from the BETA pretty soon.

[Meltz @ Aug 31st 2006 10:26PM]

does this work with games?

[shane blyth @ Aug 31st 2006 11:41PM]

There are emulators to rum Mac stuff on a PC and have been out for years.
I have used the alpha of crossover for mac for a month and found it works reasonible but i really dont need any windows apps as there are plenty of good Mac apps out there. It is just really for the odd app that someone may need to run on occasions but a great idea I have not tried any games but imagaine it wont run that great Anyone that wants to run special PC games just run bootcamp and dual boot or buy a console like i did one heck of alot less hassle

[Peter Payne @ Aug 31st 2006 11:55PM]

I am a developer of "hentai" games (PC dating-sims). For the record, the games I tested with this environment seemed to work fine, although there were sound issues (how does one install DirectX into the bottle?). This would be great -- a way for bishoujo game fans to not have to run Windows to play our software.

[blah @ Sep 1st 2006 12:21AM]

ToeKnee: Whatever man. :) I have used and worked with Crossover EXTENSIVELY, both at home, AND in the ENTERPRISE, since about 8 months after it's inception. I'm no neophyte, and I'm not talking out of my ass.

You are full of shit. :) But, as I said, everyone should try it and judge for themselves. Or are you afraid people actually WILL take me up on my offer, and come to agree with my opinion: that Crossover is almost totally unneccessary, and complete shite? :)

[ToeKnee @ Sep 1st 2006 12:56AM]

blah belabored:
"Whatever man. :) I have used and worked with Crossover EXTENSIVELY, both at home, AND in the ENTERPRISE, since about 8 months after it's inception. I'm no neophyte, and I'm not talking out of my ass."

Yeah, except you admitted you have not tried this product. It doesn't matter how long ago you first used the Linux version of Crossover, it was not the same as this newly developed product. You can CAPITALIZE all you want, we're not impressed. Your experience is all but irrelevant to this, because it's outdated and from from a different platform. And a month outdated in the world of software development is old news.

Go bother someone who cares. Or try this software and actually develop an opinion that matters. I've been using it all night. It's amazing. Sure it doesn't work for everything, and there are glitches. That's the whole idea of a public beta.

[Kevin Selkowitz @ Sep 1st 2006 1:14AM]

IE6 does work by default (Win98 bottle). Its a bit slow and choppy, but works well.

Interesting notes:
Copy and Paste between Mac and Windows works
Trackpad scrolling features work in Windows programs
Apps are installed in the user profile (~/Applications), not /Applications
The "bottle" concept may not make sense to mainstream mac users

Its an impressive beta, especially since IE6 is about the only Windows program I need.

[blah @ Sep 1st 2006 1:35AM]

ToKnee:You seem to care an aweful lot for someone that keeps responding so pationately. It's kind of strange, actually.

To be honest, dude, I'm not sure what you're getting so worked-up over. Don't you *want* people to try Crossover? yes? Well then, what are you arguing about? I've already said twice that people should try the software and make-up their own minds. I'm thinking maybe you're one of the devlopers of crossover, and can't handle my uncompromising criticism of your total inability to get your product working decently after all these years. That's just my opinion tho and, as you said, it doesn't count for much. If it did, you wouldn't bother replying. Right? ;p

[blah @ Sep 1st 2006 1:38AM]

Oh and, in addition to that, you've failed to make Crossover relevant to anyone all but the most marginal of computer users, like I said before. Deal with it the reality man. :)

[mike @ Sep 1st 2006 1:47AM]

i just wish i had a reason to use windows. hm.

i'm downloading this thing because it looks great. maybe one day i'll need it.

[ToeKnee @ Sep 1st 2006 2:48AM]

Dearest Blah:
No, I am not an employee of Codeweavers or related to them in any other way, though I'd love to work for company with such an exciting product.

What I believe has caused me to respond with vigor (other than happening to have this product on my plate all evening and reading several forums to see what apps are working/not working) was how on this first day of the public Mac beta, you rip it viciously without having even tried it. You conclude your 5:09 post: "Suffice to say, I think Crossover is a useless, anarchic {sic} piece of shit that no longer serves any useful purpose for 98% of Mac, or even Linux, users. And, yet, it's been marketed/covered as something more than a quaint, hackish curiousity..."

At 7:08, ryan explains a common situation-- the PC version of Quickbooks has more features than the Mac version (and the same is true for Intuit's other popular products, as well as Microsoft's Office Suite). You completely ignored that very important point about feature parity and at 7:30 you ignorantly suggest that it's simply a matter of transferring the data format from Windows to Mac. It's not, and if you were half as experienced as you claim to be, you'd know that.

Then, the juicy capstone is your ridiculous "invitation" for people to try CrossOver Mac. Oh, thank you! How gracious of you! I am sure many who were reticent to accept Codeweavers free public beta invitation now felt able to do so by your self-important statement.

When I pointed out that your experience is with prior versions of CrossOver on a different platform and therefore not relevant, you ignore that completely and repeat the same tired baloney about your irrelevant CrossOver Linux experience.

The next juicy nugget was this: "Or are you afraid people actually WILL take me up on my offer, and come to agree with my opinion: that Crossover is almost totally unneccessary, and complete shite?"
Take you up on your offer? What offer? You have nothing to do with this software package and have nothing to offer until you, yourself, actually try it. People will download and try the software and make up their own mind. But the fact is, the success of WINE and the CrossOver products show that there is demand to run some Windows software on other platforms. You are just plain wrong about that point.

The cracks in your brand of logic show clearly with these statements:
"ToKnee:You seem to care an aweful {sic} lot for someone that keeps responding so pationately. {sic}"
--er, huh?

and then: "That's just my opinion tho and, as you said, it doesn't count for much. If it did, you wouldn't bother replying. Right?"
--What? Does that really make sense in your brain?

I am really sorry you supposedly had such bad luck with older versions of CrossOver on Linux, but that's really not relevant to this article or this product. I have never used Codeweavers' Linux products, but I've used the alphas and now the beta of the Mac product, and I predict it will be very successful. The fact that some have reported today getting Access to work with cx Mac alone means that sales will be hot.

Sleep well. I look forward to some informed opinions from you when you actually try the beta which is the subject of this article.

[Stephen Chan @ Sep 1st 2006 4:00AM]

check this out...
http://student.dcu.ie/~chans3/screen.jpg

this Beta is really quit powerful...!

[urafreak @ Sep 1st 2006 6:24AM]

Hey ToeKnee, that's quite a lengthy, pedantic rant you've wasted your time writing.

Um, get a life? ,:p

[ToeKnee @ Sep 1st 2006 6:46AM]

hey, that's quite a lengthy, pedantic rant at someone else you wasted your time reading.

Um, you too?

[pnarse @ Sep 1st 2006 7:14AM]

This is fantastic!

It runs pretty much everything I was using parallels for but saves me keeping a 10GB disk image and booting windows whenever I need to use some obscure app or test a site in IE6.

The fact that Half-Life is listed as a supported app is all the more interesting, so this has D3D/OpenGL support?! Great!

I wonder if apple is up to something similar for leopard... could be one of the 'secret features' jobs promised during the sneak preview (when he told us next to nothing about the upcoming release, unless you count the 10 'features' as anything actually interesting!)

[MacDork @ Sep 1st 2006 8:27AM]

Holy smokes! Thanks for the screenies, guys!

[JAH @ Sep 1st 2006 2:39PM]

Long time mac user.
Recently ran into a situation where I needed to run an app that was only available on a PC.
Spent a half hour on Dell's website.
Spent $400 on a scratch & dent machine.
It arrived in the mail a few days later.
Works fine.

How much time would it have taken for me to try all this on crossover or parallels?

Which is more valuable? Your time or your money?

Bottom line:
PCs are cheap and easy to find - if you need to run some obscure PC-only app - get a PC. If you want to run mainstream apps and productivity tools ... well... choose your platform.

[Klocke @ Sep 1st 2006 5:29PM]

This program does an impressive job at emulating some programs but it hogs the memory and cpu usage. While emulating DC++ with crossover I had a couple of "wineloader" threads. the program was killing the CPU on my macbook and fans were running at max speeds. >(

[Drew @ Sep 1st 2006 7:18PM]

If you have one of the new Intel-chip powered Apple computers you can go to APPLE.COM/BOOTCAMP and install a FREE program to let you run Windows XP Pro with SP2 on your computer with no assistance.......You can run both OSX Tiger and Windows XP on the same computer and they both run extremely well, even with Windows games.......I have the Dual-Core 2.0 IMac with 20" screen and love it.....There is also a program call PARALLELS DESKTOP for Mac that lets run them at the same time on the same screen..........Fantastic.....Check it out......

[Shaun Morrison @ Sep 2nd 2006 3:13PM]

Highly Recommended.

Crossover provides an easy way to test IE6 - great for a nascent web designer such as myself. Previously I was using screen shot web utilities which have (obvious) huge drawbacks.

As a mac-user and a very recent graduate, I didn't want to have to buy spend the cash on Parallels and Windows just to test IE. Now I don't have to.

I am definitely going to pay the reduced pre-release price of $40 (as opposed to the $200+ you would pay for other solutions).

The only negative is stability issue (IE sometimes freezes and flickers). The bugs should be ironed out by the time CrossOver comes out of beta.

[Rich Jacobson @ Sep 2nd 2006 8:46PM]

Has anybody tried to get Microsoft Outlook to work? That is the obscure app I would like to run.

[Matt @ Sep 3rd 2006 4:10AM]

WINE has never worked that well, I doubt it will work any better for OSX users.