Linux Tavern

CodeWeavers has announced the release of CrossOver Office Version 5.0, their commercial version of Wine which is used for running Windows applications natively within the Linux operating system.

New Features in This Version Include:

• Major Improvements in the Installer - Most applications should now install with CrossOver Office.
• Virtual Windows Environments - Support for multiple virtual windows environments running in either Windows 98 or Windows 2000/XP compatibility mode.
• Bottle Manager - Bottles and the Bottle Manager give CrossOver Office the ability to contain applications within a virtual Windows environment and they can be packaged for easy distribution and installation.
• Microsoft Office 2003 - Improved support for running Microsoft Office 2003 withing CrossOver Office but not Outlook 2003.

While I have long been an advocate for VMware and other virtual pc implementations for running Windows applications within Linux, it has been a long time since I have tried CrossOver Office (or Wine) and it sounds like this technology has matured to the point that it might be a better solution than virtual machines for running Windows applications under Linux. I can definitely see the possibility for memory and performance advantages over virtual machines (like VMware) and I am in the process of downloading and installing the trial version of CrossOver Office — look for a review later today.

Technorati Tags: Linux, Windows, CrossOver Office, WINE, VMware

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2005 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Linux Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.