CrossOver Mac Pro 7.0 by CodeWeavers -- It Just Works

Reviewed by Dan Robinson

$70 USD (Download)

Released: June 2008

Requirements: MacTel

Audience: Mac users who need certain Windows apps.

Strengths: Price. Allows some PC applications to run on an Intel Mac without buying Windows or virtual machine software.

Weaknesses: Not a very intuitive installation. A short list of supported applications.

Last macCompanion Review

Installation

Once installed

Introduction

I'm spoiled.I admit it freely. I've been using Macs since the day they hit my local Apple retailer in 1984.

They just work.

So you can imagine my lack of patience when it comes to Windows. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't a single thing I need to do that requires Windows.

Oh, occasionally, I need to transfer a switcher's data from a PC to a Mac, so I have to get into Windows once a week or so. But that's them . . . not me.

All this is to set up my own little story. Today, (October 27, 2008) a company called CodeWeaver offered their $70 CrossOver application for free

Crossover uses "Wine" to run PC software on the Mac.

I figured 'For free? Why not?' So last night, after midnight, I went through the process, which took an inordinate amount of time. Their webserver was already overloaded. This morning, it was down altogether, but in my email this morning there was a serial number. So after a few gyrations and modifying the URLs, I was able to download CrossOver. It was not a simple, straightforward installation. But the installer told me it was actually doing stuff, so I let it proceed, eventually coming out the other end with CrossOver telling me it had installed itself.

Then you choose from a list of "bottles," (bottles of wine . . . get it?) select the Windows installation package or CD, and once again, let it do its thing. I chose Internet Explorer. Once more, it took several tries to get it right, but finally it reported it had successfully installed.

Double-Click!

Internet Explorer comes up in X11! It's jerky, web sites are scrolling up and down randomly. After a few moments of this, the whole computer is frozen and I have to restart.

Double-Click.

Humpf! This time it opens in CrossOver and actually works as it should. It's relatively quick and acts like you expect a browser to work. What did I do differently? Beats the heck out of me!

I spent a dozen minutes rapidly surfing. Everything "Just Worked" . . . this time.

Conclusion

In spite of the hassle of installation, CrossOver performed as advertised. It would be a better choice than Boot Camp or buying Parallels and a retail version of Windows Vista! Many switchers are faced with exactly that. In one week I had three clients who switched, but had to install Windows on their Macs because their Quicken files could not be transferred to Quicken for Mac. (That's a whole 'nother rant.) Now clients with Windows Quicken have even more reason to switch. Look on the list above for other apps that don't have an equivalent version for the Mac.

So would I recommend it? Sure.

Editorial Note: Be aware, many apps have Mac versions, i.e., Adobe CS4, MS Office (see the "review" from the October 2008 issue of macCompanion). PAF 5 on the other hand, is what my mother (Carole Pritchett) uses for genealogy work and though there is a beta version for Mac OS X, it has not been released or developed enough yet, so CrossOver comes to the rescue!