CrossOver is a Microsoft Windows

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 so ...

available for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

, and

ChromeOS ChromeOS, sometimes stylized as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interfa ...

. This compatibility layer enables many

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

-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 c ...

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

CodeWeavers CodeWeavers is a company that sells a proprietary version of Wine called CrossOver for running Windows applications on macOS, ChromeOS and Linux. The company was founded in 1996 as a consultancy, eventually moving entirely over to Wine developmen ...

and based on

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

, an open-source Windows compatibility layer. CodeWeavers modifies the Wine

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...

, applies compatibility patches, adds configuration 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 soft ...

, automated installation scripts, and provides

technical support Technical support (abbreviated as tech support) is a call centre type customer service provided by companies to advise and assist registered users with issues concerning their technical products. Traditionally done on the phone, technical suppor ...

. All changes made to the Wine source code are covered by the LGPL 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 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 allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...

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 graphica ...

s so that Windows applications will run seamlessly on Linux distributions. Prior to 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 single machine. CrossOver Linux Professional provided enhanced deployment and management features for corporate users, as well as multiple user accounts per machine. With the release of CrossOver Linux 11 in 2012 these different editions have all merged into a single CrossOver Linux product.

CrossOver Mac

In 2005

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

announced a transition from PowerPC to

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

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 operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

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 free 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 went 64-bit only and eliminated 32-bit compatible 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.

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 In computer networking, a thin client is a simple (low-performance) computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. They are sometimes known as ''network computers'', or in th ...

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 CodeWeavers is a company that sells a proprietary version of Wine called CrossOver for running Windows applications on macOS, ChromeOS and Linux. The company was founded in 1996 as a consultancy, eventually moving entirely over to Wine developmen ...

gave all of their products away for free. 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 bid to encourage activism. 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 Software derived from or incorporating Wine Unix emulation software macOS emulation software Wine (software) Python (programming language) software