Mostly we code...sometimes we write. Every once in a while, we podcast.

Roadmap for 2008

I'd like to explain how we decide what to work on next and share our plans for 2008.

First, the big picture: the goal is to finish Wine so that it is a perfect reimplementation of the Windows API, thereby runing nearly all Windows applications flawlessly.

That is a huge challenge; it's going to take a while yet. And since I continue to miss the right Powerball numbers, we continue to bring out new releases of CrossOver to bring polished, if incomplete, versions of Wine to our customers. The idea is that we bring you joy with Wine as we work towards the ultimate goal, and that in gratitude, you buy CrossOver so we can buy food, mortgages, and more Powerball tickets.

Deciding how best to focus our efforts so as to both bring our customers the most joy and to keep Wine moving down that road is a hard challenge. I take as my primary input first the reports of problems from our active customers; I have a 'bugs pending tickets' report that is my primary priority list. Next, I use the list of top votes and pledges from our compatibility center. From there, I add in the estimates I get back from the developers on how hard something will be, and then mix in some intuition and go from there.

Normally, the intuition piece is a smaller role, but this year, we're going for a big leap. In the next few weeks we are going to launch a new product called 'CrossOver Games'. CrossOver Games is an entry level product that lets you play a broad range of games, particularly games with a lot of replayability such as MMOs like World of Warcraft and the range of games from Valve (e.g. Team Fortress 2, CSS, and so on). CrossOver Games will be available for free to any of our CrossOver Mac or Linux Professional customers. The idea is that we will rev CrossOver Games more quickly than regular CrossOver, so as to better take advantage of all of the great work being done on Wine with respect to games. The regular CrossOver will continue on a more stable and reliable pace. We're doing this in part to try to generate some buzz and interest; we feel like Rodney Dangerfield when it comes to games - we'd like to earn some respect. We feel strongly that CrossOver will be the finest way to run games on a Linux or Mac system, and we want to shout that from the rooftops!

Beyond the Games launch, we also have a lot of major improvements in store. We plan to launch CrossOver 7 for both Mac and Linux some time in April. The highlights of CrossOver 7 include support for Office 2007, as well as support for Photoshop CS/CS2 (and hopefully CS3) along with all versions of Dreamweaver, and a few other Adobe applications (thanks, Dan!). Of course, we have a lot of fixes our customers have requested. Office 2003, notably Outlook, should be much improved. Quicken 2007/8 should be able to connect properly with banks. There will be fixes across the board in other applications, notably Internet Explorer 6.

After CrossOver 7, we will turn our focus to several major areas where Wine is lacking. First and foremost is going to be better support for .NET based applications. We are hoping that will allow us to properly support modern versions of Quickbooks. We also hope to support modern versions of iTunes, and we're going to keep fighting to add support for things like the NetFlix player (if only so I can run them on my MythTV system). We'll also be implementing a DIB Engine - a tool we need to use to eliminate some performance bottlenecks in certain applications. This should help performance in Quicken, Visio, and Powerpoint for sure, and a range of other applications as well.

Essentially, our goal is to finish all of the basic building blocks that Wine needs. We hope to mark that event by releasing Wine 1.0. Of course, there will still be a lot of work to be done from there, but our hope is that increasingly applications will 'just work'.

Cheers,

Jeremy

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

I just want to say: Really really great job you guys are doing.
I will help as much as I can as an advocate.

I can't wait for Crossover Games. I think it's great that anyone that already has Crossover for Mac or Crossover Linux Pro has access to Crossover games! Great job!

Keep up your fantastic work guys... and thanks for sharing your roadmap.

I hope in a better mouse support in CrossOver 7 on Mac platform 😊

I am just hopeful that I will be able to install my Microsoft Zune software soon so I can sync my Zune hardware with my Linux box. Thanks for your hard work.

The odds just got a little bit better for getting AoC (www.ageofconan.com) to run on my Mac.

I already renewed my CrossOver membership for another year in advance, because I believe CrossOver Mac is a great initiative that needs our full support.

The point I want to raise is that a lot (maybe a disproportionate amount) of effort is being invested in making apps run on Linux, that are already available on the Mac.
(Personally, games are not my main interest, but they are great to advocate the Mac to potential switchers, e.g., all those young folks.
I myself am more focussed on such utilities as Kitchen design apps, CAD etc, tools and utilities, Win-only in-house developed business/educational stuff...).

What is sorely needed for the Mac is to get these OTHER apps running as well. Insofar as these also rely on M$ technologies and frameworks, the work you are doing is certainly very helpful. A slight shift in emphasis for better support of the "OTHERs" is what I propose. Please don't forget the "OTHERs" in your roadmap.

Some of our work on games has a direct effect on apps. The Steam GUI for example uses the IE control to display HTML content. Outlook also uses this control. Work on that control has improved both. That's just a single example, there are tons more that could be pointed out.

I am planning to buy crossover 7 linux to use for Office 2007 (Word and Excel, mainly). I have been delaying the purchase, and I do not know if I must just buy 6.2 version and then receive free of cost the update (in less than a year
;) ), or if I must wait.

Maybe you should inform you ...

I would like to use Word (2003 would be enough ...) as soon as possible

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