Running Windows only on a macbook, my experience

its very true that Crossover is not super simple, and many programs (mainly games) do not work by default with just an install and launch. For games you have to do some research mainly in Codeweavers compatibility database and find what things need to be installed or changed in the bottle to make the software work.... Looking at Wine's app database helps too.

since most games do not work just by default, if you just want point and click run without a more manual setup, then its probably not for you. For those who don't mind having to look up how to get something to work, and try it out, its very nice to not have to run Windows. Wine does not emulate anything, it has full direct access to your hardware, with just basically an added translation layer, so depending on the software and how well it works with Wine it can run close to normal native speed it would run in Windows.

Transgaming makes officially sold Mac ports of games using Cider. Cider is based off a fork off Wine many years ago, and is basically the same tech, just not in a do-it-yourself variety... but these type of things do work well for making cheap ports of Windows software to Macs (and Linux)

 

Oh I know. Wine uses OpenGL to translate directx calls and so forth. The main problem I personally have is, crossover is based on wine (and not always kept as up-to-date as wine I believe), where wine is a free open-sourced program, you have to pay for crossover and it's less compatible than wine. Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Still, if you can get a program you need to run on it, it's definitely much more convenient than going through a windows install (either through bootcamp or a virtual environment).

 

on Macs.. yes and no... Crossover is updated less frequently, so its Wine versions are often behind. Current Crossover Games 7.2.2 is quite old. I've been testing nightly builds of Crossover Games 8, and its much better.. but it'll get old over time as well, if they ever get it released.

on Macs Crossover is not exactly the same as normal Wine. The biggest difference besides the GUI control and tools is the X11 server. Codeweavers have their own X11 server built in and do not use the normal X11.app on OSX. Xquartz used in X11.app is very limited in many ways, mainly its xrandr support is horrid and it cant run full screen well, or change resolutions at all, whereas Crossover's custom built one can, and works much better. I'd rather someone get native Quartz working in Wine instead of having to use a X server, but I don't see that working good anytime soon, the test versions are horrid.

 

What games do you play, if any? How well do they run?

 

I totally mixed up Crossover with Fusion/Parallels there...
It seems like the best way for me to get winamp working.
Thanks for all the help in this Doh123, now i'll get to keep my favorite media plaqyer thru the switch, and thats really invaluable to me.
Cheers!

 

Windows games? without Windows? I'll leave out the oldies DOS games I still play

lets see all the ones I currently have running... some are Wine, and some are Cider..
lets see I have... (I like RPGs if you don't pick up on it)
Baldurs Gate 1 and 2
Icewind Dale 1 and 2
Might and Magic 6 through 9
Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 with all expansions
Morrowind
Oblivion
Jedi Academy
Knights of the old Republic 1 and 2


those are all the ones I currently have installed (and they all work very well) but there are many more that work, but I don't keep up on FPSes and stuff like that. Usually the newer the game is the less likely it'll work completely though, and DX10 still has a major way to go in Wine, so really can only stick with titles that can run in DX9c or older.

If you want to find what games work and what doesn't best to check databases
Crossover has an application database you can search at http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/
and
Wine has one at http://appdb.winehq.org/

the Databases will tell the general working level and have information on what you can try to get it to work. I say try because although it usually will work the way most people get it to work, sometimes there is differences between Linux tests and OSX tests.. and Tiger and leopard and video cards and stuff, so its never a guarantee it'll work.

One good way to get a game to work is use a wrapper someone else has already made and tested, you can just put your game inside the wrapper and it then runs usually without you needing to do any special work or troubleshooting

 

Interesting read, thanks.

 

So you have the white Macbook with a 50w battery. The design is minimalist no doubt. I used to own one and it didn't strike me as being that thin.
I'm not sure if you're still doing this experiment.
Posting up some temps using HWMonitor after say at least half an hour of use would have been interesting. Also, if you do this please state what power plan you used and if you did any undervolting.

 

I could probably do that Rachel. My experiment has been put on hold pending Real Life, but when I can get back to it I will. I'll look at posting some temperatures.

 

I got the Eject key working! I'll be updating the original post shortly.

 

is it possible to use the latest nvidia, realtek and possibly broadcom drivers (the win7 x64 downloaded off the manufacturer's website)?

 

I cant think of a reason why you couldnt, its just using the hardware of the mac so as long as youre getting the right drivers it should be ok

you're talking about Bootcamp right? Or Parallels?

 

Ok so i have a 13" MBP and i have to admit, XP on bootcamp runs better than ive ever seen XP run on PCs so its very impressive. Havent tried any games but the system feels capable.

Right, so PARALLELS right, excellent! It wasnt excellent from the start though, i almost uninstalled it because it was a bit sluggish (just 2GB of RAM). But luckily i took another look at the preferences and found that:

1. Parallels can access the Bootcamp partition, which is perfect because then you have 2 options for getting into Windows. So you can shut down and access full-power Windows, or you can just run Parallels and access the same Windows but under emulation.

2. Full screen mode is gold. All you have to do is set up the Parallels application to always run fullscreen and always run in a separate Space. So you are literally a couple of clicks aways from switching between Windows and OSX.

Another tip is setting up a hot corner for spaces so that when you have to switch between the two its really smooth, just move the mouse cursor and click.