So I finally sat down and decided to try CrossOver for Mac. As I mentioned before, there’s a lot of anticipation and high hopes. I downloaded the public beta. To my absolute delight, CrossOver is just an application that you drag into your Applications folder. It doesn’t even try to install system level stuff (there was no authentication dialog).
First stop was installing Internet Explorer 6. The process is easy. Choose it from a list of software. CrossOver takes care of nearly everything else (save for the installer prompts). It even creates “bottles” for each of your software packages. Get it? It’s based on WINE. Bottles? Nevermind.
When they label this software a beta, they mean it. The first time I tried to install, it froze my computer. I had to restart, delete the bottle, and reinstall (I know, tempting fate). That time it went through. A short time later, I was greeted by Win IE 6.
I felt dirty. Worse, it didn’t even perform as expected. Attempts to use Gmail, Hotmail Live, and Yahoo Mail beta all failed. For basic pages, the IE installation seems to work just fine, but nothing complex. I don’t own the other software in the supported list, but considering the results I got with IE, I’m thinking this is just a solid start. If you have anything mission critical, CrossOver just isn’t there yet.
Is there a way to get CrossOver to do a Windows XP mode? Because I tried installing Windows Live Messenger and it said u need XP to install it.
Well, as I've been using Crossover since alpha1, I can tell you that the proccess has gotten a lot easier, more stable, and faster than before, though installing Magic: The Gathering Online is stll not nearly as fast as it was on my old PC.
It isn't bad but needs work but in time i'm sure it will get better and better.The only program I wish they would support is msn messenger......I tried msn messenger 6 & 7 but neither work.I installed them in the same bottle as internet explorer because otherwise you get an error.But just at the start of the installation of msn messenger it says error "you need a Pentium processer"????..anybody have any ideas???
I have actually installed (a legal copy of) Office 2003 and it went perfectly. Word works great, but sadly Access kept on crashing when trying to save a new document. InfoPath does not find the template forms. On the plus side, I also have a couple other programs that we use at work installed and running, which is really all I need to keep from rebooting to the other side.