Access Windows Programs on x86 Android Devices and Chromebooks with CrossOver
Before telling more about CrossOver introduced by CodeWeavers, I would like to remind you about Wine. For those who don’t know about Wine, it is the software that was developed as open source software. Wine would allow you to run Windows programs on non-Windows devices. The same will work with CrossOver from CodeWeavers. CrossOver allows you to have Windows programs on Chromebooks as well as on x86 Android devices. The CodeWeavers achieved something which many believed impossible.
Compatible Devices
All Intel based devices are compatible with CrossOver. Also Chromebooks with Play Store app is also compatible to CrossOver App. But the ARM devices are not compatible. CrossOver development team is confident of providing ARM Android compatible app by next year.
CrossOver Working
CodeWeavers has already admitted the fact that CrossOver won’t work as efficient as Wine. Three years was spent by the team in developing CrossOver and now they have launched only the Preview Version. Due to this they have also committed that there will be crashes and enough number of bugs. But they have promised to launch much refined version in future. CrossOver due to limitations cannot open many windows in one go. Instead it will launch these windows in a virtual space. In the initial stages, CrossOver supports only limited number of applications. This is because Android is devoid of certain essential components for smooth running of CrossOver.
Future of CrossOver
Already Wine is available with much evolved capabilities than CrossOver. So inorder to survive in arena, it required to be free from bugs and crashes. So the back-end team of CrossOver is expected to clear all the bugs and attend to the crashes. CrossOver will be an added advantage for Chromebooks. Since, it will help them to access Windows applications without installing Windows.
You can this link to get connected to CrossOver. You may have to provide your email id and name inorder to get the link for downloading CrossOver. You have to be careful in giving the same email-id as given for registering in Play Store.