Crossover is a commercialized version of Wine, a re-implementation of the Win32 API, which allows to run Windows software naively on the operating system. Crossover Mac Pro is therefor capable of running Windows software in Mac OS X while Crossover Linux Pro can do the same under Linux.

The benefits of this solution are obvious. Crossover (or Wine for that matter) provide the means to run Windows software directly in another operating system. This is a difference to dual boot systems where the user has to switch between the systems and virtual machines which also need time to boot and do not provide the same levels of performance.

It should be mentioned that it is not possible to run all Windows applications with Crossover. Codeweavers have created a table with compatibility ratings for windows applications.

The benefits of Crossover over Wine are noteworthy as well. Crossover, being a commercialized version of Wine, comes with several functions not found in Wine. This includes graphical and one-click installer for Windows applications among other things.

Codeweavers officially supports several applications and games in both versions of Crossover.

Applications:

• Microsoft Office 2007, 2003, XP, 2000 and 97
• Microsoft Visio
• Microsoft Project
• Quicken
• and others

Games:

• World of Warcraft
• Team Fortress 2
• Civilization IV
• Half-Life 2
• and others

You can win one of ten licenses for Crossover Mac Pro or Crossover Linux Pro. Please mention your operating system in the comment so that I know which version you need.