St Paul, Minnesota-based CodeWeavers claims its implementation of the open source Wine project is a more efficient way of running applications designed for Windows on other platforms, beating dual boot or virtualization.
The company already offers CrossOver Linux, which enables popular Windows applications, including Microsoft Office, to run on the open source operating system.
Microsoft committed in January to a five-year development plan for Office on the Mac, but in order to run other applications Mac users will have to look at other options such as dual-boot and virtualization, or CrossOver.
Apple's forthcoming Boot Camp technology will enable its Mac's to dual boot Mac OS X and Windows, while virtualization start-up Parallels Inc has introduced its Parallels Desktop for Mac.
According to CodeWeavers, CrossOver has a number of advantages such as the fact that it does not require a Windows license to run the applications, it can start Windows applications directly from the Mac operating system, native email application, or file browser.
The company admits, however, that it cannot offer the full portfolio of Windows applications enabled by dual boot, and that while applications run as if natively, "minor performance penalties may occur."
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