CrossOver Support - Community Forums

I have a question concerning what the real difference is between using Parallels and Crossover for Mac. I have Parallels and it work fairly well but not everything seems to work well. Some programs don't work well or at all under Parallels. With CrossOver for Mac could I expect them to possible work? I mean will they work faster as well perhaps? Also, does anyone know if there would be a conflict or problem having them both installed?

Thanks!

I have Fusion which is similar to Parallels loaded on my MacBook Pro along with Crossover and Crossover Games and there's no problem with having them both installed. On my MacPro I also have an old version of Parallels installed that I rarely use with Fusion and Crossover.

If it doesn't work at all in Parallels then I'd suspect it'd be equally difficult if not more so to get it going in Crossover. The apps that don't run well may run better under Crossover or Crossover Games without the overhead of Parallels, etc.

To add some further clarification to what abeta said:
-Anything that doesn't run under Parallels or Fusion has a high probability of not working under Crossover.

You can check the application compatibility database, but a virtualized Windows IS windows, just running in a virtual environment. Crossover is NOT Windows, but a partial implementation of the Windows application programming interface (API) as to allow applications to run on other operating systems. With this said, it's partial and in some cases not a 100% match, so it will typically have a lower compatibility rate than a virtual machine.
[i]
-If a app is listed as running under Crossover in the compatibility database, or runs under Parallels, albeit slowly, it is definitely worth trying under crossover, since Crossover's performance cost/overhead on your system is significantly less than a real virtual machine.[/i]

Even if a application is not listed in the compatibility database it's worth the 15-30 minutes to try and install it under Crossover to see if it works, even more so if you need better performance than Parallels provides. I run office apps all day on my Mac, and CX has saved me from constantly eating significant machine performance all day for a handful of apps that I need to do my job.

With all this said, I still maintain a copy of Parallels for those situations where I need to run specific apps that are not CX compatible (luckily that is rare for me), or I need to use a app once or twice only, since sometimes installing apps and getting them running under CX can be quite the process.

The great thing I love about CrossOver over Parallels is the fact you don't have to have a whole other operating system running just to run one program. With my lower powered MacBook (Late '06) running Parallels stops me from doing much else esp. if I'm running something bigger than just a text editor. I love the fact you don't have to spend the time installing Windows or even need a windows licence with Crossover!

I do, however, keep a version of Parallels installed for the VERY few things that CrossOver can't handle and I can't live without. Parallels to me is a machine within a machine and CrossOver turns my Mac into a multi-systemed machine all in a sexier environment; admittedly the windows look bad compared with Windows (when full graphics settings are on) but I'd rather save the stupid amount of memory that something like Visa or 7 takes up and then all the processor time and thinking!

ditto here...running cxo v8.x and fusion v3.x...i don't use fusion unless absolutely necessary. too much overhead and horsepower required to be truly productive. if i ever migrate my ms access databases to filemaker, i'll be able to dump both cxo and fusion.