Windows Applications On Mac, Without Windows [Updated]

CodeWeavers has announced that CrossOver Mac will be arriving this year in late July or early August 2006. Pricing will be at $59.95 for single-user licenses, with volume and educational discounts available. CrossOver Mac will support a number of Windows applications to run natively within Mac OS X using Wine, enabling the user to run Windows applications without having a copy of Windows installed on their system.

In an email exchange with MacRumors, CodeWeavers has claimed that the application is still in an alpha testing stage. Application compatability is claimed to equal and that of their Linux counterpart. In addition, the company is adding support for a limited number of games such as Half-Life 2.

Codeweaver's solution differs from solutions like Apple's Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop in that it does not require a copy of Windows to run the Windows applications. Also, applications will be able to run side by side with their Mac OS X counterparts, whereas virtualization solutions must be contained within a "Windows window" or the machine must be rebooted in the case of Boot Camp. On the flip side, only a limited number of applications will be supported, whereas dual booting can support any Windows application, and virtualization can support most non-3D intensive application.

News.com has posted two screenshots of the product running Microsoft Project.

Update: MacRumors has been able to confirm with CodeWeavers that the company is working to support DirectX as well as OpenGL. In addition, while the list of "officially" supported applications may be limited, CodeWeavers has a compatibility center where users have posted their experiences and workarounds with other additional applications. While the compatability center is geared toward their Linux product now, it will also be used for the Macintosh version when it is released.