Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

Colonel Panic · 2022-05-21 20:37:43

Hi everyone. I sometimes want to use Windows software such as Textpad (which I think is one of the best text editors available), which because I don't have Windows installed on my machine means that I need to run Wine. However, I haven't found any of the implementations of it very user-friendly (and Crossover certainly isn't in my experience, although it purports to be, and I also think that at $48 it's not cheap).

Has anyone got any advice concerning how they got Wine to run on their system in the most user-friendly way possible? Did you use Crossover, PlayOnLinux or maybe something else?

Thanks in advance,

CP .

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2022-05-21 20:49:37)

Bearded_Blunder · 2022-05-21 22:19:04

When WINE plays nice it's pretty effortless, when it doesn't, it's a complete pain & you sometimes still don't get really satisfactory results no matter what config you do or add-ons you enable..

If the licence isn't a problem, then I suggest a Windows VM, either VMWare or VirtualBox both have nice seamless modes that integrate fairly well.. & there's very rarely an issue getting Windows software to run under Windows.

I've basically stopped fighting WINE into submission for each app, if it isn't right more or less straight after the software installer runs with minimal tweaking it goes in a Windows VM.

Between the shared clipboard, shared folders & drag & drop with all the extensions & additions I can use Windows software nearly as easily as native software VirtualBox VM or not.. it's a bit of a resource hog, & there's some delay starting a program when you have to boot virtual Windows first, but I find it less hassle all round than WINE.

For a text editor though? That's one thing Linux has scads of good options for, probably more & better than Windows has ... it's a shame it wasn't Notepad++, because notepadqq is a virtual clone of that if you ran Bookworm/Sid (or maybe it'd backport to Bullseye?). I like Scite as an alternative to Geany, which I recognise isn't everyone's cup of tea, mentioning tea, there's another Linux text editor with more features than notepad.. but less heavy than say Geany.. I could list potential candidates for it seems like half of forever.

johnraff · 2022-05-22 01:16:43

Bearded_Blunder wrote:

...Notepad++, because notepadqq is a virtual clone of that

I used to like notepad++ very much when I ran W98 - thanks for the news about notepadqq!

Colonel Panic · 2022-05-22 06:23:08

Bearded_Blunder wrote:

When WINE plays nice it's pretty effortless, when it doesn't, it's a complete pain & you sometimes still don't get really satisfactory results no matter what config you do or add-ons you enable..
If the licence isn't a problem, then I suggest a Windows VM, either VMWare or VirtualBox both have nice seamless modes that integrate fairly well.. & there's very rarely an issue getting Windows software to run under Windows.
I've basically stopped fighting WINE into submission for each app, if it isn't right more or less straight after the software installer runs with minimal tweaking it goes in a Windows VM.
Between the shared clipboard, shared folders & drag & drop with all the extensions & additions I can use Windows software nearly as easily as native software VirtualBox VM or not.. it's a bit of a resource hog, & there's some delay starting a program when you have to boot virtual Windows first, but I find it less hassle all round than WINE.
For a text editor though? That's one thing Linux has scads of good options for, probably more & better than Windows has ... it's a shame it wasn't Notepad++, because notepadqq is a virtual clone of that if you ran Bookworm/Sid (or maybe it'd backport to Bullseye?). I like Scite as an alternative to Geany, which I recognise isn't everyone's cup of tea, mentioning tea, there's another Linux text editor with more features than notepad.. but less heavy than say Geany.. I could list potential candidates for it seems like half of forever.

Thanks for the reply. The licence is a problem, unfortunately; I haven't had an installable copy of Windows since ME (and I was given that one). No longer have Windows on my computer at all.

My focus in this thread isn't so much on WINE itself, which I agree is flawed, as it is on the likes of CrossOver and PlayOnLinux which aim to make WINE easier to use.

I agree that the choice of text editors for Linux is very good if you're a programmer; I use them for writing notes and short documents, though, for which Textpad is still excellent. I use GVim a lot too (and Cream, which is a set of scripts that makes GVim more beginner-friendly).

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2022-05-22 06:28:23)

Bearded_Blunder · 2022-05-22 14:54:46

My focus in this thread ... is on the likes of CrossOver and PlayOnLinux ...

My experience with the likes of those has been most frustrating & has met with occasional limited or partial success only, maybe I pick the wrong apps. The major input to POL seems to be from the gaming community, & I'd imagine their main focus is therefore making games work, which they reportedly manage quite often.

Having both WINE and some extension to configure for a program is never going to be all that user-friendly, & when you hit issues you're consequently never quite sure which set of settings to tweak. It's back & forth at least half a dozen times till you guess right, if there's a right combination at all, in my experience.

Colonel Panic · 2022-05-22 15:02:03

Sadly I suspect you're right, but at least POL is free; you have to pay about $48 for Crossover.

Martin · 2022-05-22 18:34:08

On Wine and POL: POL is supposed to make Wine user friendly. My experience is that when it works it is easy to use but when things does not work out it is really hard to make it work. I have found that using plain Wine works better in those cases. Disclaimer: I use Wine and POL very sparingly.

On text editors for non-coding use: I started using emacs org-mode some years ago and like it a lot. I use it for note-taking, for ToDo-lists and creating LaTeX-formatted PDFs. I even use it as a kind of MathCAD replacement. If you are not already a emacs user there will be a bit of learning curve to climb though.

http://orgmode.org/

/Martin

Colonel Panic · 2022-05-22 20:34:26

Thanks for the reply Martin, but I've never really been a fan of EMacs. Whenever I've installed it I've used it about twice and never again.

I use GVim quite a lot when I want a Linux editor, or Gedit or Leafpad, or one of the KDE editors if I've got that desktop environment installed.

But I still like Textpad. I wish the company would do a Linux version; they've been asked before, but have so far refused.

[Edit: just seen the org mode pages of which I wasn't previously aware, maybe I should give it another chance;

https://orgmode.org/]

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2022-05-23 06:10:44)

AndrewSmart · 2022-05-23 14:32:21

Colonel Panic wrote:

Sadly I suspect you're right, but at least POL is free; you have to pay about $48 for Crossover.

With Crossover comes support and funding further development of Wine. They focus development accordingly. Up to you what you want in your use-case but I think it's a good deal.

They do offer the B2B service of patching Wine to support a business's software (e.g. Textpad), and packaging their Windows product to also run on Linux/Mac/others. Mentioning this might help the Textpad company consider getting a quote.

I use Wine a lot. Requires quite the skillset to develop/debug. I can't stand VMs, their resource & maintenance overhead, and encumbrance in tasks, so I stick with Wine.

Check WineHQ and Crossover's forum for any reports on the software you're considering.

Last edited by AndrewSmart (2022-05-23 16:11:58)

Colonel Panic · 2022-05-23 20:04:59

AndrewSmart wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
Sadly I suspect you're right, but at least POL is free; you have to pay about $48 for Crossover.
With Crossover comes support and funding further development of Wine. They focus development accordingly. Up to you what you want in your use-case but I think it's a good deal.
They do offer the B2B service of patching Wine to support a business's software (e.g. Textpad), and packaging their Windows product to also run on Linux/Mac/others. Mentioning this might help the Textpad company consider getting a quote.
I use Wine a lot. Requires quite the skillset to develop/debug. I can't stand VMs, their resource & maintenance overhead, and encumbrance in tasks, so I stick with Wine.
Check WineHQ and Crossover's forum for any reports on the software you're considering.

Thanks for replying. I found it confusing to use and navigate, and for that reason and the patchy performance of the software I run on it (some of the calculations come out wrong, for example), I don't feel it's a good deal.

If I could, I'd swallow my distaste for Microsoft and buy a old copy of, say, Windows XP for a low price and turn off the internet connection on it so that it doesn't attract viruses. That would be a better solution for me than Wine (and not far from what I used to do when I bought computers with Windows already installed), but Redmond doesn't want me to have that option.

Here's what I said in my introductory post when I came here three years ago, and it's still my view although the computer I now have is slightly more recent;

"I'm not anti-Microsoft on principle but I very much dislike the fact that Windows is installed by default on most new PCs and users aren't given a choice from the get-go when there are other options available such as Bunsen Linux (and let's not forget the BSDs). I have an old and ailing computer (a 2008 Acer Aspire M1610), and think it makes a lot more sense for me to use Linux than Windows.

I like the greater control and flexibility that Linux gives me over Windows, and also the fact that, unlike in Windows, I can update the distro from just one terminal in a workspace whilst still working on something else."

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2022-05-23 20:17:28)

Colonel Panic · 2022-06-02 20:17:14

Good article on Dedoimedo this week about how to install IrfanView in Linux (in Wine);

https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/irf … linux.html

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2022-06-02 20:47:44)

Colonel Panic · 2022-11-16 17:07:18

If anybody's interested in installing notepadqq, I've just found that the instructions here for Debian 8 (Jessie) work (in Beryllium Beta and CrunchBang++ anyway);

https://www.linuxbabe.com/it-knowledge/ … ve-notepad

(They work in LegacyOS and presumably in AntiX too.)

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2023-03-05 08:57:31)

Colonel Panic · 2025-03-07 11:34:34

Bumped; I've been looking into getting the trial version of Crossover again but they want £60 to register it after the trial period is over, which I think is a lot; Windows itself isn't a lot more than that if you buy the OEM version).

So how's this for a radical suggestion; why not charge for Wine itself? Then the project would have a guaranteed revenue stream that's bigger than what it gets now, it would still be cheaper than Redmond's offering, and Crossover would just be an additional charge on top rather than £60 from scratch (and they could be paid out of the same revenue stream for their contributions to Wine).

Seems fair to me, but what does everyone else think? I don't know about anyone else but I'd be happy to pay for Wine.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-07-06 09:03:58)

johnraff · 2025-03-09 07:17:33

^I'd be happy for you to pay for Wine.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2025-03-09 09:29:23

Colonel Panic wrote:

Windows itself isn't a lot more than that if you uy the OEM version

You don't have to buy Windows to use it — just download an official ISO image from here and install it without registering a product key. It will install just fine and keep itself properly updated indefinitely even if you decide not to purchase a product key and "activate" it. The only drawback is the nagging message to activate and a restriction on customising the desktop, which can be worked around by setting the wallpaper directly from the file manager image viewer.

EDIT: I use the Steam client to play WINE stuff, their Proton implementation is better than POL (IMO).

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2025-03-09 09:33:05)

Colonel Panic · 2025-03-11 23:47:59

johnraff wrote:

"I'd be happy for you to pay for Wine."

Well at the moment Wine is free and CrossOver is £60. Crossover doesn't sound like much of a bargain to me, bearing in mind that CrossOver goes to subsidise Wine's development. What I'm suggesting is to share the pain of paying for software between Wine and CrossOver, and also to provide more of a cash flow for Wine.

Head On A Stick; if that's true (and I don't doubt that you're right) then CrossOver's even worse value than I thought it was, because paying for it is compulsory after a set trial period.

Some of the Windows software I run though is old and probably won't run well (or at all) in recent versions of Windows, whereas it will run under Wine. If Redmond would sell me an old version of Windows with no internet access (to avoid the risk of viruses etc.) and which will install on a 2012 computer, and for a very good price, I'd definitely be interested.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-03-12 13:38:05)

Colonel Panic · 2025-03-17 20:23:37

Final point. Who then is CrossOver for? Since it costs £60 and the actual Windows can now be obtained for free, I think the only conclusion is that it's either for people who want to run Windows software but really can't stand the idea of running Windows itself, or for people who want to run Windows software that's too old to run under Windows 10 and 11 and don't mind spending the extra £60 over and above what it would cost to run plain Wine, for the extra convenience.

It might also work in situations where you want to run Windows software but your computer isn't powerful enough to run Windows itself.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-03-19 09:24:04)

Colonel Panic · 2025-07-06 09:11:18

A footnote to this: if people want to donate to Wine without paying for Crossover, they can do it now;

https://www.winehq.org/donate

Colonel Panic · 2025-09-30 14:18:19

Crossover is now promoting a version of their software that runs on Macs, which makes sense because Mac users
are used to paying for the operating system they use and so the £60 cost is less likely to be seen as a problem;

https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover#mac

A reminder too that Windows 10 reaches EOL status on October 14 this year.

https://www.howtogeek.com/737125/when-w … indows-10/

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-09-30 14:21:57)

#1 2022-05-21 20:37:43

Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#2 2022-05-21 22:19:04

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#3 2022-05-22 01:16:43

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#4 2022-05-22 06:23:08

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#5 2022-05-22 14:54:46

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#6 2022-05-22 15:02:03

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#7 2022-05-22 18:34:08

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#8 2022-05-22 20:34:26

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#9 2022-05-23 14:32:21

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#10 2022-05-23 20:04:59

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#11 2022-06-02 20:17:14

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#12 2022-11-16 17:07:18

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#13 2025-03-07 11:34:34

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#14 2025-03-09 07:17:33

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#15 2025-03-09 09:29:23

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#16 2025-03-11 23:47:59

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#17 2025-03-17 20:23:37

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#18 2025-07-06 09:11:18

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

#19 2025-09-30 14:18:19

Re: Codeweavers' Crossover for Linux and alternatives

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