Codeweavers sees Mactel move as an opportunity

On the heels of Apple’s decision to move to Intel microprocessors by 2006, open source software developer CodeWeavers announced it is expanding its developer program to offer Windows to Mac porting capabilities. A Windows to Mac version of Crossover end user software is also in the works.CodeWeavers began in 1996 as a software consultancy but ended up building open source software that allows users of Linux and other Unix-like operating systems to run Windows applications. The software, called Crossover, is based on Wine, which is an open source implementation of the Windows API.

With Crossover and its sister product, Crossover Office, Linux users can natively run popular Windows software such as Microsoft Office, Macromedia Dreamweaver, and Adobe Photoshop.

Developers also are making use of Crossover technology in porting Windows applications to Linux. Now that Apple has decided to move to Intel architecture, CodeWeavers’ CEO Jeremy White says that means a boon for developers who want to make their Windows software available to Mac users because the porting process will be much simpler. Under the current PowerPC architecture, a developer would have to start from scratch in order to create a Macintosh port.

“What will be interesting to find out is whether CrossOver will be useful to the average Mac user, particularly since Mac users have a very high quality body of native software available. I’m hoping it will be invaluable, but that is predicated on us making some very major strides with Wine over the next year,” says White.

CodeWeavers is actively seeking to increase licensing of its technology to developers. White says it averages about 15% of revenues, but he hopes to “grow it substantially.” White foresees that eventually about 50% of CodeWeavers’ business will be to software developers, and the other half to end users of Crossover.