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Great Expectations for CrossOver Android
Uploaded By Jana Schmid on 2016-08-15 14:59:56

First of all, thank you to everyone that has written in asking to be part of the upcoming Technology Preview for CrossOver Android. Literally, thousands of people from around the globe have inquired about when this technology will be released and when they can start testing it for CodeWeavers. To that, I am very happy to announce that we have all intentions of releasing the Technology Preview of CrossOver Android before the end of August. While the actual release date is a surprise (to all of us), our developers have assured us that we’ll have *something* to give to our many Android enthusiasts before the end of this month. TO THAT POINT, I think I need to set some expectations for everyone that participates in our Technology Preview.

Ramey’s Rules for the Technology Preview:
1.) Be cool. First off, don’t be a jerk. Yes, this is harsh, but it is very true. It’s a Technology Preview, not a final product. It’s a utility for
running a very select number of Microsoft Windows applications (to start), not for running every Windows application. I know in this day and age of anonymous rage that it’s easy to be all hateful via e-mail and social media. Just remember, CrossOver Android is a Technology Preview that was provided to you for free. Keep this in mind when you test the software.

2.) Be realistic. Many users would like to run latest games and applications like Overwatch and/or Office 2016 on a Chromebook. But, let’s be realistic. First rule of thumb is that if the application is not supported in CrossOver Linux, it will not be supported (out of the box) on CrossOver Android. If you need to know what applications are supported in CrossOver Linux, you can find them here in our Compatibility Center.

3.) Be positive. This type of development is really, really, really hard. It’s taken us nearly three years to get to the point where we are today with CrossOver Android. I know that many users will be disappointed that our Technology Preview is not a finished product, but it takes time, effort, energy, and money to deliver a finished product. All the work you see in CrossOver Android has been self-funded by CodeWeavers. So, I would ask you to be positive about CrossOver Android and see the potential of where this technology *could* go in the future.

4.) Be patient. We may have several Technology Previews before the final product is released. To that point, we hope our testers will hang in there with us as we work to improve CrossOver Android. The product will continue to improve; and as it does, the end user experience (which is very important to us) will continue to get better and better and better. We also expect that more and more and more applications and games will be supported. Our goal is to get to a final product by the time ChromeOS fully supports Android applications on all Intel based Chromebooks.

5.) Be a tester. We expect your feedback on the product. Let us know what works. Let us know what isn't working. Let us know what you did to ‘break’ support for an application (so we can do the same thing and work to fix the problem). The more information you can provide the more we can go about fixing *your* application and/or game.

6.) Be social. If you like CrossOver Android, let the world know about it. Create YouTube videos, post Tweets, make Facebook posts, blog about it, show it to your friends, AND SHARE WITH US!!! You will have our total permission to share with the world. We absolutely want to know about any and all success you have with CrossOver Android. We also want to know the frustrations you feel when you test the Technology Preview. We’d prefer if you shared your frustrations only with us so as not to dampen the enthusiasm (remember, it’s just a Technology Preview); however, we will just ask you to be FAIR when reviewing and assessing CrossOver Android.

7.) Be rewarded. You want the software for free? You want some swag? The more you post on social media, and let our marketing department know, the better the chances are to earn to a bevy of rewards and prizes (including a free Lifetime license of CrossOver Android – for your personal use). We will also giving out work shirts and other swag ( you might even get you a ‘shout out’ from the entire CodeWeavers team posted to YouTube). And if you are good, like real good we will give you an exclusive invite to our Beta.

But wait, there is more. I also wanted to tease you with an ‘out of the box’ Windows games that just runs on CrossOver Android. This is a game that several people expressed an interest in running on their Chromebooks, and it’s a gem that nearly 40 million people play around the world. Best of all, it runs quite nicely on a Chromebook. We expect to find more games, like Wizard101, in the coming months that just work in CrossOver Android. And if these games run like Wizard101, the user experience will be incredible!
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Finally, we want to know a bit more about your expectations for CrossOver Android. Would you rather play Windows based games or run Windows based applications on your Chromebook? Cast your vote below! These types of surveys help us better understand our market and where we should put our development resources. SO PLEASE, take three seconds and let us know.Look for more information to come in the next couple of weeks. Thank you for your patience and your incredible response to our technology.

If you haven't already, sign up now to get an exclusive invite to the CrossOver Android technology preview.



About James B. Ramey
J
ames B. Ramey is the CEO of CodeWeavers. His life long love of video gaming started at the tender age of six with an Atari 2600 and evolved over time to include Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Apple Mac IIc, Windows PC, and MacBook Pro. When not fiddling with technology, James enjoys cooking, travel, debating politics in the office, and spending time with his wife, daughter, and their two rescue dogs. For the past 20 years, James has worked with clients around the world in best implementing technology to maximize a return on their investment. He is a graduate of Moorhead State University and earned his MBA from the University of Phoenix. You can find James on Twitter at @jbramey.

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Good Morning:

I am a user of ECCO PRO running under Crossover on my Macs. I have several MACs which use ECCO PRO depending upon where I am situated, at the time. It will be my intention to try the ANDROID Version of CROSSOVER using both a SAMSUNG Galazy 6 and a Blackberry PRIV to test compatibility. In addition, I will try to install the Compuserve version of ECCO PRO.

Given the presently listed TWO ANDROID devices (I have 2 more SAMSUNG devices - One is a NOTE version) will there be any restrictions on the number of installations? I am the sole user of ECCO PRO on each of my devices.

Thanks in advance for your response to this request.

F. G. E. Clarke

Finally, we would be able to run normal browser on android (normal for some operations)! KEmulator! 1080p Youtube (maybe)! Games! My device is Smarto 3GD52I, running android 4.2, and it is uncapable of doing some operation correctly as long as there is no such soft on Android. I was always representing Android tablets as fully functional, but very small PCs (Smartphones may be too small to work with stuff like charts). Running Windows applications would really fix that problem! We do not expect perfect compability with every software, but there is so many software for Windows so if the programm is not running, the huge amound of alternative for any sort of program would fix it. So would be capable of doing everything on my tablet!

P.S. really do not know about your future plans but there is a great lifehack to prevent piracy. After public releasing post new theme on 4PDA. If this theme would be your, you can set rules by yourself (as well as you are developer), and you can forbird posting something or force. This may also work on XDA, i dont know :)

If there is no developer on the 4pda (maybe xda) page, guys would post any cracked version here, or not public release, or etc

As a developer, I really appreciate and respect Rules 1 through 3. I hope everybody keeps those in mind while we are testing this amazing and important software.
You are addressing THE key obstacle in widespread Chromebook adoption. I am a huge fan of everything Google, but the truth is a few Windows programs are what keeps the masses from using a Chromebook as their primary device. I love that you are solving this real world problem. IMHO, if you are able to 100% support one large, popular Windows application that has no Chromebook app or Web app (example: Office, Visual Studio, Unity, or Steam), then you have an enormous WIN on your hands.
I'm sure you're planning to address this in a future blog post, but what method we will be using for bug submission? Bugzilla, Git, Mantis or something else? Do you prefer us to do jpg screen grabs or video? If you take time to lay out your ideal structure of a typical bug submission, then you'll get somewhat organized feedback. I can only imagine how overwhelming bug tracking on a project of this magnitude will be.

Thanks for all your hard and awesome work!

I think that these few rules are absolutely reasonable.
I plan to experiment CrossOver Andoroid over a few devices, including a Galaxy Note 10.1 2014, a Nexus 7, a Minix Neo Z64 and, not sure it will works since the OS is heavy customized, on a Remix Mini (Remix OS 2) and on a HP laptop running Remix OS 3. So I'll eventually have various Android versions covered, 4.4 to 6.
Basically, I'd like to find out what productivity stuff can be used and how smooth it can run ....
I've been using Crossover on Linux for years now, and I really appreciate it.

The one thing to keep in mind is that CrossOver Android will require a device with an Intel processor. That's critical. There is no 'work around' for that at this time. If we could have a solution for ARM based devices today, we would do so. We hope to have a solution for ARM based devices in the future, but it won't be until mid-2017 at the earliest. As for your application, that could work. It might not work on day one as we've limited the number of applications people can use with the Tech Preview (there will be a FAQ on how to install applications outside of Cross-Tie files, but it will be technical), but I would have every reason to believe that your application could work being that it works in CrossOver Mac today. Let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. Thank you for your comments. My very best regards.

James B. Ramey
President
CodeWeavers, Inc.
(D) +1 651 523 9302
(F) +1 651 523 9399
jramey@codeweavers.com
Skype: jamesbramey

Jason,

We agree that there just are a couple of Windows programs that prevent people from taking advantage of ChromeOS. We hope that we are able to solve that issue for a great number of people. We hope to use GIT for bug submission in the future. We're planning on using simple e-mail to start and then filtering out users to we get a core group of advocates that we will invite to a more formal Beta program. That may be in a month or more; however, that's our plan at this time. Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns. My very best regards.

James B. Ramey
President
CodeWeavers, Inc.
(D) +1 651 523 9302
(F) +1 651 523 9399
jramey@codeweavers.com
Skype: jamesbramey

g.p.,

Great comments. Remember, we require X86 architecture (you're covered on your RemixOS device). So that's the only possible limitation I see for you going forward. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. My very best regards.

James B. Ramey
President
CodeWeavers, Inc.
(D) +1 651 523 9302
(F) +1 651 523 9399
jramey@codeweavers.com
Skype: jamesbramey

Ivan,

Great comments. I'm not sure of our plan to prevent piracy, but your suggestion sounds solid to me. I'll forward that to our Product Manager. As for browser, yes, I think we can offer a browser that is more like a Windows browser than an Android browser. A browser with support for Java and Flash and ActiveX. I don't think that will be available on day one, but we have gotten it to work so I think that will be added to the Technology Preview of CrossOver Android quickly. Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns. My very best regards.

James B. Ramey
President
CodeWeavers, Inc.
(D) +1 651 523 9302
(F) +1 651 523 9399
jramey@codeweavers.com
Skype: jamesbramey

I am actively testing Remix OS PC, which I am hoping will ultimately allow me to replace Windows as my primary operating system and use the underlying Android x86 infrastructure to run Android equivalent software. I am running a Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series laptop with touch screen, making it ideally suited to run Android software via Remix. One Windowd program in particular I would like to use via Crossover Android would be the program "Write It Now", a very powerful program for producing manuscripts and screenplays. The Android platform lacks any serious writing applications for such purposes, and this would be a huge advantage.

Being able to install some older Windows games, such as Freelancer (an old favorite) and other games of that era would be great too.

Being able to back up and restore the Remix environment easily, gives me the peace of mind that, should something go terribly wrong, I can restore it, so I can certainly help test some of the more uncertain programs.

I look forward to the opportunity in helping you advance in this endeavor.

I'm really excited that we are finally nearing a beta! I too am a remix OS for PC user and have about 90% of my needs met on this platform. The other 10% are small MFC class applications I use for pre processing tv xml and m3u video playlists.

I hope to see a relationship between Jide and your company to create and promote a Consumer "Pro " version of Remix OS with windows support integrated. Something that could benefit both parties with revenue.

I have remix on several of my PC computers but use it on my converted Acer C710 chromebook the most. No chrome OS here! (Seaboot bios and Remix OS install on ext4 filesystem)

Great way to re-purpose an older chromebook that will not get the android support upgrade from Google.

Yes, we would like to test the preview version.

Please make ms money sunset edition a supported app. It's what keeps me in the windows environment. Thanks.

Jason.,
Right now I am running half life 2 through steam using crouton. Works great. I have an i3 4gb ram 128gb hardrive Acer 720.

Good to know ! You guys always doing a good work!
looking forward to use and test it, also DirectX11?

Our legacy office applications are Corel Graphics X6, WordPerfect X7, Quickbooks and MS Excel 2016. Just about everything else is web based, and all of our deliverables are on the web.

A Windows 10 Pro update to one machine the other day broke our networking and changed so many of the default programs, it took 5 hours to restore the machine to fit our work flow. With the exception of WordPerfect, I can do everything we need on my new Note7 (yep! replaced - and quickly too!), except that Note 7 is OK for road warrior stuff - just not daily-grind-at-the-desk kind of work.

Simply, I am hoping to be able to concoct a software cocktail that will boot Windows - boot it right out the door!

My first installation of Phoenix OS is on a netbook and looks very promising. If CrossOver for Android runs smoothly, I will be delighted!!!

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