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CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2

By | July 30, 2010, 10:52am PDT

Summary: CodeWeavers this week updated its eponymous virtualization environment that lets Mac users run Windows programs. The update, Version 9.1, supports the latest release of the Wine Project, optimization for Microsoft Office applications and Quicken 2010, the company said. The edition for running Windows games was also updated

CodeWeavers this week updated its eponymous virtualization environment that lets Mac users run Windows programs. The update, Version 9.1, supports the latest release of the Wine Project, optimization for Microsoft Office applications and Quicken 2010, the company said. The edition for running Windows games was also updated.

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.

Unlike Apple’s BootCamp, Parallels Holdings’ Parallels Desktop, and VMware’s Fusion, all of which run Windows applications in a copy of Microsoft Windows, CodeWeavers runs Windows apps in its own implementation of the Wind32 API, and doesn’t require an installation of Windows. This limits its compatibility and sometimes performance. Still, many popular Windows programs operate in the CrossOver environment.

There are three versions of CrossOver Mac: a Standard edition for individuals, and the Professional edition, which lets sysadmins create package installs of CrossOver and Windows applications for deployment across a network. The Pro license also comes with a license for CrossOver Games.

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CodeWeavers Inc., Wine, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, David Morgenstern

David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years.

Disclosure

David Morgenstern

Freelance journalist/blogger David Morgenstern has nothing to disclose.

Biography

David Morgenstern

David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years. In the recent past, he founded Ziff-Davis' Storage Supersite, served as news editor for Ziff Davis Internet and held several executive editorial positions at eWEEK. In the 1990s, David was editor of Ziff Davis' award-winning MacWEEK news publication as well as its successor title, eMediaWEEKly, which focused on multiplatform professional content creation. His byline can be found online and in print publications including CreativePro.com, Peachpit Press' Mac Bible and Popular Photography.

Talkback Most Recent of 17 Talkback(s)

  • Oh, for crying out loud!
    WINE [1] is not a "virtualization" environment. It's a freaking set of libraries, and WINE processes run in the host OS' task list. Try doing a ps -fe
    some time and you'll see them.

    [1] Hint: W ine I s N ot an Emulator
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Yagotta B. Kidding
    30th Jul 2010
  • Hint: Emulation does not equal virtualization.
    Virtualization (Computing): not physically existing, but made by software to appear to do so.

    WINE is a virtualization tool. It allows your Mac to appear to be running Windows.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    frgough
    30th Jul 2010
  • WINE allows your Mac to ...
    ... run Microsoft applications. They appear to be Mac apps, though.

    WINE on Mac is no more "Windows emulation" than including the X11 libraries is "Unix emulation."
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Yagotta B. Kidding
    30th Jul 2010
  • RE: CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2
    @frgough
    The issue is not that it appears to the user that it is running Windows, the issue is that it appears to the software that it is running on physical hardware that doesn't exist. Each instance of a VM thinks it is running on it's own processor, with its own RAM. This is not the case with WINE, where API calls are merely rerouted.
    That said, again, in order to actually work, there IS some trickery going on in the APIs to trick them into thinking they're implemented in an environment that does not actually exist. Maybe you want to call it pseudo virtualization, on an API by API basis.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DeusXMachina
    30th Jul 2010
  • RE: CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2
    And YBK, you keep using the terms emulation and virtualization as if they are interchangeable. They are not. Perhaps if you were clearer with terms, you would stop arguing past each other.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DeusXMachina
    30th Jul 2010
  • RE: CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2
    @Yagotta B. Kidding
    You are both incorrectly using the terminology. YBK keeps using the terms emulator and virtualization as if they are identical, but they are not. While you are correct that WINE is not an emulator, this says nothing about whether it is a virtualization environment. VMWare on a PC is not an emulator either. Are you claiming it is not a VM application?!?
    That said, WINE is also not really a VM. It makes no attempt to create a virtual machine environment, either in hardware or software. It simply translates one set of API calls to native calls.
    That said, it does have to do some things that one could argue are virtualization-like, in order to trick the API calls in to believing they are correctly being implemented, and even to implement them in the first place.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DeusXMachina
    30th Jul 2010
  • RE: CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2
    Ugh. Who cares. If you want Windows compatibility, buy a PC. If you can afford a Mac, can also afford a PC.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jgoode@...
    30th Jul 2010
  • If you want Windows compatibility, buy a PC.
    But I don't -- I just want to run certain applications (e.g. a DICOM viewer). I really don't see any point in buying a computer for one application -- especially one which is a PITA to use and maintain.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Yagotta B. Kidding
    30th Jul 2010
  • RE: CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2
    @jgoode
    Since WINE is free, and I already have a mac, that makes running Crossover compatible programs free. Last time I checked, even cheap PCs were not available free of charge.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DeusXMachina
    30th Jul 2010
  • RE: CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2
    @DeusXMachina But,crossover makes setting up easy and they financially support WINE.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ssj6akshat
    1st Aug 2010
  • RE: CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2
    @ssj6akshat
    My point was that it is not pointless to use WINE, and rather silly to pay for a separate PC.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DeusXMachina
    1st Aug 2010
  • RE: CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2
    @jgoode@... Well, the thing is: CrossOver is not only available for Mac, but also (and mainly) for GNU/Linux.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    pool7
    30th Jul 2010
  • RE: CodeWeavers updated with Wine 1.2
    Wine is neither an emulator nor a virtualization environment. Rather, it is an implementation of Windows APIs in *nix. These APIs are not emulated or implemented in a Windows environement; they exist directly in the *nix environment.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    JDThompson
    30th Jul 2010
  • Arguments Galore
    You all could argue about a glass of water being half full or half empty... The picky combativeness is seriously disturbing.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    wolftalamasca
    30th Jul 2010
  • I still think that Google should buy Code Weavers, and use it to create a
    Win32 store. Using WinLib, they can be recompiled and even run on Arm. Would be a great transition strategy.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DonnieBoy
    31st Jul 2010
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