CrossOver is a

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

compatibility layer In software engineering, a compatibility layer is an interface that allows binaries for a legacy or foreign system to run on a host system. This translates system calls for the foreign system into native system calls for the host system. With s ...

available for

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

, and

ChromeOS ChromeOS, sometimes styled as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is an operating system designed and developed by Google. It is derived from the open-source operating system and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user ...

. This compatibility layer enables many

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

-based

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

to run on Linux operating systems, macOS, or ChromeOS. CrossOver is developed by CodeWeavers and based on

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

, an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

Windows compatibility layer. CodeWeavers modifies the Wine

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

, applies compatibility patches, adds

configuration Configuration or configurations may refer to: Computing * Computer configuration or system configuration * Configuration file, a software file used to configure the initial settings for a computer program * Configurator, also known as choice board ...

tools that are more

user-friendly Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a softw ...

, automated installation scripts, and provides

technical support Technical support, commonly shortened as tech support, is a customer service provided to customers to resolve issues, commonly with consumer electronics. This is commonly provided via call centers, online chat and email. Many companies provid ...

. All changes made to the Wine source code are covered by the

LGPL The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...

and publicly available. CodeWeavers maintains an online database listing how well various Windows applications perform under CrossOver.

Versions

CrossOver Linux

CrossOver Linux is the original version of CrossOver. It aims to properly integrate with the

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

and

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that enable collaborative work on its projects. Its products include the KDE Plasma gra ...

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphi ...

s so that Windows applications will run seamlessly on Linux distributions. Before version 6, it was called CrossOver Office. CrossOver Linux was originally offered in Standard and Professional editions. CrossOver Linux Standard was designed for a single user account on a machine. CrossOver Linux Professional provided enhanced deployment and management features for corporate users and multiple user accounts per machine. With the release of CrossOver Linux 11 in 2012, these different editions merged into a single CrossOver Linux product.

CrossOver Mac

In 2005,

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

announced a transition from

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

processors in their computers, which allowed CodeWeavers to develop a

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

version of CrossOver Office called 'CrossOver Mac' CrossOver Mac was released on January 10, 2007. With the release of CrossOver Mac 7 on June 17, 2008, CrossOver Mac was divided into Standard and Pro editions like CrossOver Linux. The Standard version included six months of support and upgrades, while the Pro version included one year of support and upgrades, along with a bundled copy of CrossOver Games. With the release of CrossOver Mac 11 in 2012 these different editions were all merged into a single CrossOver Mac product. In 2019,

macOS Catalina macOS Catalina (version 10.15) is the sixteenth software versioning, major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. It is the successor to macOS Mojave and was announced at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019 and ...

went 64-bit only and eliminated support for 32-bit programs and libraries. In December 2019 Codeweavers released CrossOver 19, providing support for 32 bit Windows applications on an operating system with no 32 bit libraries solving this problem. The technique, known as "wine32on64", requires using modified

LLVM LLVM, also called LLVM Core, is a target-independent optimizer and code generator. It can be used to develop a Compiler#Front end, frontend for any programming language and a Compiler#Back end, backend for any instruction set architecture. LLVM i ...

to build additional

thunk In computer programming Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by- ...

code that allows running 32-bit programs in a 64-bit wine. In early June 2023, CodeWeavers announced early stages of DirectX 12 support on macOS would be available in CrossOver 23. At WWDC 2023, Apple announced the Game Porting Toolkit based on CrossOver to bring Windows games to macOS. Apple did not collaborate with CodeWeavers on this toolkit. In September 2023, CodeWeavers released version 23.5 of Crossover which supports D3DMetal from the Game Porting Toolkit as well as the

GStreamer GStreamer is a Pipeline (computing), pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows. For instance, GStreamer can be used to build a system that reads files in one f ...

media framework.

Component's versions details

As example of the complexity of the final package: * CrossOver v19.0.0 (2019): Wine v4.12 * CrossOver v20.0.0 (2020): Wine v5.0 * CrossOver v21.0.0 (2021): Wine v6.0, DXVK builtin (optional) v1.5, DXVK upstream (optional) v1.7 * CrossOver v21.1.0 (2021): Wine v6.3, DXVK builtin (optional) v1.5, DXVK upstream (optional) v1.7 * CrossOver v21.2.0 (2022): Wine v6.3, DXVK builtin (optional) v1.5, DXVK upstream (optional) v1.7 * CrossOver v22.0.0 (2022): Wine v7.0, VKD3D 1.3, DXVK builtin (optional) v1.5, DXVK upstream (optional) v1.8 * CrossOver v22.1.0 (2023): Wine v7.7, VKD3D 1.5, DXVK builtin (optional) v1.7, DXVK upstream (optional) v1.8 * CrossOver v23.0.0 (2023): Wine v8.0.1, Wine Mono 7.4.0, VKD3D 1.8, DXVK builtin (optional) v1.10.3, DXVK upstream (optional) v2.2, MoltenVK 1.2.3 * CrossOver v24.0.0 (2024): Wine v9.0, Wine Mono 8.1.0, VKD3D 1.10, DXVK builtin (optional) v?, DXVK upstream (optional) v2.2, MoltenVK 1.2.5. * CrossOver v25.0.0 (March 11, 2025): Wine v10.0, Wine Mono 9.4.0, VKD3D 1.14, MoltenVK 1.2.10, D3DMetal 2.1, DXMT (Metal-based implementation of D3D11 on macOS).

Discontinued products

A standard copy of CrossOver now includes the functionality of CrossOver Games, CrossOver Standard, and CrossOver Professional editions. These older individual versions of Crossover have since been retired. CrossOver Games, announced on 10 March 2008, was a product intended to let users play a broad range of games by providing current Wine patches. The expectation was that it would update on a weekly to monthly schedule in order to incorporate the latest

programming work being accepted. In contrast the general CrossOver Office product focused more on stability and productivity software, and had a much slower beta and release schedule. CrossOver Games wasn't able to release updates with enough frequency to justify its separate production track and was discontinued in 2012. It was merged back into a unified CrossOver product. CrossOver Server was a specialized version of CrossOver Linux which allowed Windows applications to run on thin-client systems. It was discontinued in 2007 as many of its features were present in the CrossOver Linux Pro edition.

Software giveaway

On October 28, 2008 as the result of the Lame Duck Challenge, Codeweavers gave all of their products away. Codeweavers' main page was temporarily replaced due to the day's unusually high traffic. According to CodeWeavers at least 750,000 product registrations were given away during October 28. On October 31, 2012, CodeWeavers had a second software giveaway, this one entitled "Flock the Vote". CodeWeavers promised to have such a giveaway if 100,000 American voters would promise to vote on election day, in a

nonpartisan Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognition ...

bid to encourage

activism Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from ...

. More than 100,000 people pledged, so CodeWeavers allowed any person in the world to download and register a copy of CrossOver Linux or CrossOver Mac.

References

External links

* {{Unix–Windows interoperability Compatibility layers Linux emulation software MacOS emulation software Python (programming language) software Software derived from or incorporating Wine Unix emulation software Wine (software)