A little while ago I talked about Darwine, a program that allows you to run Windows applications on your Mac without Windows installed. Well, there’s also a lesser-known method for running WINE on your Mac, called CrossOver Mac. The software is made by CodeWeavers, who makes the popular, paid version of WINE, CrossOver Office for Linux. CrossOver Mac is their attempt to port CrossOver Office to the Mac platform. Currently the software is in alpha and in order to obtain it you need to send an e-mail here requesting it. I’ve had CrossOver for Mac for a little while now, and even though it is more stable and full-featured than Darwine, it still has a lot to be desired. Alpha 2 should fix some of the problems, with features such as a self-contained app, the beginnings of a redesign in the program, faster speed, and many other improvements. I haven’t tried out Alpha 2 yet, but when I do I’ll make sure to post my experience with it here on MacUser.
I couldn't find any Windows software tha runs completely without any problems under Darwine (other than winzip & windows file manager that come with it). Is Crossover's compatibility any better?
I've been running Parallels Workstation since the first beta and I'm very happy with its stability & compatibility.
Musch better. For one thing, they have a somewhat lengthy list of different programs that have been tested and work, such as MS Office, IE6, and Photohshop. Of course, many programs run very slowly, but hey, it's not even in beta yet.
By the way, Crossover Mac Alpha2 is only compatible with the newer Intel based Macs.
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.