Bigger, better CrossOver adds WoW to Linux

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Sep. 28, 2006

Would-be Windows-on-Linux gamers got a very early Christmas present today, with the release by CodeWeavers of the first public beta of CrossOver 6.0, with support for World of Warcraft and other "steam-based" games such as Half Life 2 and Counterstrike.

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CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White wants to make sure, though, that everyone understands that "this is still beta software, and there are many issues remaining; we still have a ways to go until we feel comfortable considering it ready for release. While we greatly appreciate feedback on this release, if you don't like bleeding edge experimental software, we'd really rather you waited for a proper production version."

CodeWeavers has also released a new public beta of CrossOver Mac. This new version, which enables Intel Mac users to run Windows programs on Mac OS X, includes fixes to Internet Explorer and fixes for many programs that would run but then crash, such as Microsoft Office 2000. It also includes Outlook 2003 fixes and other improvements.

For business Linux users, CrossOver Linux 6.0.0beta2 includes support for Outlook 2003, Flash Player 9, Visio 2003, and Microsoft Project 2003. The Version 6 beta also includes major improvement in the core of Wine since version 5 of CrossOver.

The new CrossOver did just fine at installing and then running
Internet Explorer 6 on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10
(Click image to enlarge)

The new beta also has greatly improved support for installing all versions of Quicken, except Quicken 2007. White noted, though, that "Quicken has a window positioning bug on startup we're still working on."

Additionally, "You may be pleasantly surprised as you try running unsupported applications," says White.

CrossOver is also better at creating program icons that work, and that have the correct icons. It also has a Windows XP "bottle" template for running programs in an XP-style environment.

Finally, White boasts that it has "Many, many other bug fixes and improvements; this represents a major step forward from 5.0.3."

If you do elect to give this beta a try, White strongly recommends that you "read the Forums on our beta center; we will be posting errata and troubleshooting tips there, as well as paying careful attention to your reports. There will be no support for this release through our normal ticket system, so please direct all questions and reports to our beta center."

Up for the challenge? Download the beta software from CrossOver's beta center, and take it for a spin.

-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

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