CrossOver Now Lets You Run Windows Apps On Chrome OS

[phoronix]

Phoronix: CrossOver Now Lets You Run Windows Apps On Chrome OS

CodeWeavers has now announced the availability of their Wine-powered CrossOver software for Chrome OS...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=CrossOver-Chrome-OS

[schmidtbag]

Does this also work on ARM Chromebooks? If so, does it allow you to run x86 programs? I can't seem to find any info on this.

[My8th]

Does this also work on ARM Chromebooks? If so, does it allow you to run x86 programs? I can't seem to find any info on this.

It says it's only for Intel Chromebooks.

[Guest]

Does this also work on ARM Chromebooks? If so, does it allow you to run x86 programs? I can't seem to find any info on this.

It's not emulator, neither virtualization. It just runs windows x86 binaries, to which it provides custom libraries implementing windows APIs.

[andyprough]

Back in the early 2000's I used to pay the $25 or $50 to buy the Codeweavers CD and got some good use out of it. But recently I downloaded the 30 day trial and found that it was only able to run the same older office programs as PlayOnLinux or vanilla wine. Might be good for gamers, but I don't see the value for an office computer.

[srkelley5]

Its' value for office computers would likely come from the professional support provided by Codeweavers combined with their bottles system for quickly sharing and troubleshooting software compatibility for multiple machines.

[Danniello]

Back in the early 2000's I used to pay the $25 or $50 to buy the Codeweavers CD and got some good use out of it. But recently I downloaded the 30 day trial and found that it was only able to run the same older office programs as PlayOnLinux or vanilla wine. Might be good for gamers, but I don't see the value for an office computer.

Guess which company is mainly responsible for Wine developing?
Hint: it is not PlayOnLinux.

If you really like Wine - please consider buy again CodeWeavers CrossOver Linux or donate them by https://www.winehq.org/donate

[rene]

It says it's only for Intel Chromebooks.

wondering out loud: did someone already jailbreak the old ARM Windows RT Surface's to run a proper Linux on them? ;-)

[sloth77]

Looking at the reviews on the Play Store, the title of the article should probably be:

"CrossOver lets you run *select* Windows apps on Chrome OS"

[schmidtbag]

It's not emulator, neither virtualization.

I'm aware; that doesn't answer my question.

It just runs windows x86 binaries, to which it provides custom libraries implementing windows APIs.

Except the ARM version of Wine doesn't run x86 binaries, for the reason you just mentioned - it's not an emulator, and therefore does not emulate x86:

https://wiki.winehq.org/ARM

But CrossOver is more than just a repackaged Wine, and I am unaware of any applications in ChromeOS that are architecture-specific. It wouldn't surprise me if ChromeOS itself is actually within an emulator, much like how Android is. So, depending how the OS and CrossOver are set up, it's still unclear if all ChromeOS-based devices will support x86 applications; it is possible none of them will, too.