For today, October 28 only, CodeWeavers is giving away free, fully licensed copies of their Windows virtualization software for Mac and Linux. Download the software, and enter your email address to receive a license (very important).
From the website:
CodeWeavers’ mission is to make Linux and Mac OS X fully Windows compatible operating systems. We do this through the power of Wine, which powers all of our CrossOver products. The CrossOver products make it possible to run Windows programs on Mac OS X and Linux without needing a copy or license for Windows itself.
Wine is an open-source reimplementation of the Win32 API for Unix-based operating systems. Wine allows Windows applications to be run without a Windows operating system license. CodeWeavers is the largest corporate sponsor of the Wine Project, and contributes all of its work to free Wine.
You can read about the reasons for the giveaway (quite humorous!) here.
I already own VMware Fusion, which I consider a better product. However, CrossOver is free today, and the software has been given a 4-star rating over at VersionTracker.com.
Michael, does this mean that I wouldn’t need Parallels on my Mac? Not sure I understand what this software does…
It does essentially the same thing as Parallels. With Parallels, however, you install a guest operating system (Windows, for example), in which you can run applications. The idea behind CodeWeavers, on the other hand, is that you can run Windows applications without Windows.
Parallels is a higher-quality application, from what I’ve heard. However, it is also more expensive and requires a legal Windows license if you want to run Windows. CodeWeavers is cheaper (in this case, free), and does not use the Windows operating system, so no license is needed.
From what I’ve heard, there are some limitations on what software will work with CodeWeavers. However, most of the concern is related to games and other applications that do sophisticated things with graphics, sounds, or special drivers. I am under the impression that most business and general purpose software would run fine.
I have only downloaded CodeWeavers at this point. I have not tested it, so cannot say anything accept that apparently many people are quite happy with it.