Despite my Linux leanings, I still missed the ability to use Photoshop and Swish on Windows. Let's face it, the GIMP doesn't hold a light to Photoshop, and Open Office Presentation is a poor substitute for Swish, F4l is even worse, and strangely for a Linux program, the support simply doesn't exist. I kept thinking that Wine may be the answer but it proved only useful for 'smaller' software. I was never quite able to use it to run 'heavy' software such as Photoshop. My solution as a result was to install VMware. That took up quite some space on my hard drive which to be honest I wasn't really willing to give up, but had to.
As per the regular everyday tasks such as writing documents and the occasional spreadsheet, I had no qualms at all with Open Office's Writer and Calc. They are both excellent software, and that ability to export direct to PDF is something that Microsoft is probably still aeons from implementing. There was however one small problem that made me install Microsoft's Office Basic (Word and Excel) in my emulation: Open Office's native formats are not popular (compatibility issues with the rest of the world is still Linux's main problem), so I had to save my documents in the native Microsoft formats. However this brings an issue with formatting and file sizes as I soon discovered when I began applying for jobs. My CV, done in Microsoft Word and saved in the *.doc format comes in at 56kB. The same CV done in Oo Writer, and then saved to the *.doc format is 113kB. This wasn't good as far as recruitment agencies were concerned, most of them required a CV that came in at less than 100kB, and it had to be in the *.doc format, not Oo's *.odt format (which to be fair has same CV come in at 43kB). Another problem with Oo which I discovered when I began my programming module a few months ago is that it chokes when a document is full of macros. Luckily, along came CrossOver, and my prayers have been answered. Not only could I run the Photoshop and Swish, but Microsoft Office on Linux as well. It is the best of both worlds.
Fig: Running Photoshop and Swish under Linux
Testing CrossOver Linux 6
I have installed CrossOver Linux which can be downloaded here, and I have been able to install it and run it and then install quite a lot of Windows software as if I was on a Windows host. My computer is an Acer Aspire 1640z with a Centrino processor (1.7GHz), 2GB of RAM, running Ubuntu Linux. Those specifications are fair, so I can try out almost any software that is perambulating out there. I downloaded the full version of the CrossOver 6, the *.deb package (since Ubuntu uses the deb package manager). It installed with great ease. This being my first exposure to the product, I selected the general defaults. Everything went smooth and without a single problem.
Now it was time to install Adobe Photoshop 7. After selecting the CrossOver setup, the associations were checked and installation of Photoshop was selected. I inserted the Photoshop CD (you wish! CrossOver gives you a chance to point to the *.exe file on your hard drive) and immediately the installer asked me what 'bottle' I wanted to use. I chose Windows XP.
Word 2003 and Excel 2003 worked well, and I was able to open documents full of macros which Oo tends to fumble through. The apps even seem to work a little faster on Linux than on Windows, on the same hardware. This is probably because Windows tends to accumulate all sorts of junk, while the Crossover Office bottle has nothing but the essentials required to run Microsoft Office. Still, it was rather surprising to see Microsoft software working better under Linux!
Office 2003 installed and worked quite well, with the exception of Outlook 2003. Outlook support in CrossOver apparently lags a version or two behind the latest version of Microsoft Office. Outlook 2000 and XP work to some extent, if not perfectly. That is one thing I really don't give a toss about though as I only use Outlook on my office desktop which is running Windows anyway.
Dreamweaver MX and Flash MX worked perfectly, but the more recent versions did not even install. Adobe Photoshop 7 works flawlessly (I didn't try the CS parade as I think they are all glorified versions of 7, just use up more memory), so does SwishMax. Sadly though, the best music player in the world, Jet Audio refused to install. It asked me to install DirectX before it can install, and that is something I would have to look into later on, meanwhile I wonder why COWON has simply refused to put out a Linux version. I am yet to try out Microsoft's Reader though, and somehow playing Football Manager doesn't motivate me anymore, so I'll more than likely pass on that.
The separate bottles approach leads to some interesting situations. For instance, if you are using a version of Internet Explorer in one bottle, and have Microsoft Office loaded in another bottle, you can't copy and paste text between them. It seems like it should work, but it doesn't. It was a bewildering few minutes before I figured out what was going on. As long as you remember that different bottles are essentially independent Windows machines, everything is fine. I think that web developers will appreciate the ability to have different versions of Internet Explorer installed independently, for testing purposes. The system then went out and and automatically loaded the requisite software from Microsoft's website! Once the process was complete, true to form, the system requested to be rebooted (Jeez Window$!). In Linux though, only CrossOver was reset. This was so much easier than a full system reboot, and far less of a nuisance.
Conclusion
Prior to installing CrossOver, I was forced to labour with VMware. Now don't get me wrong, VMware is an excellent product, but it has one major drawback: VGA issues. For example playing Football Manager under VMware meant that I was restricted to just the text mode, and that made me loose some of my passion for the game. In any event, everything I have tried (except Jet Audio) has worked seamlessly, as promised. Access to the Photoshop files is easy, access to the Linux file system is easy. Everything a user will need is here. CodeWeavers' CrossOver has most certainly become one of the tools in my arsenal for every day use.
As per the regular everyday tasks such as writing documents and the occasional spreadsheet, I had no qualms at all with Open Office's Writer and Calc. They are both excellent software, and that ability to export direct to PDF is something that Microsoft is probably still aeons from implementing. There was however one small problem that made me install Microsoft's Office Basic (Word and Excel) in my emulation: Open Office's native formats are not popular (compatibility issues with the rest of the world is still Linux's main problem), so I had to save my documents in the native Microsoft formats. However this brings an issue with formatting and file sizes as I soon discovered when I began applying for jobs. My CV, done in Microsoft Word and saved in the *.doc format comes in at 56kB. The same CV done in Oo Writer, and then saved to the *.doc format is 113kB. This wasn't good as far as recruitment agencies were concerned, most of them required a CV that came in at less than 100kB, and it had to be in the *.doc format, not Oo's *.odt format (which to be fair has same CV come in at 43kB). Another problem with Oo which I discovered when I began my programming module a few months ago is that it chokes when a document is full of macros. Luckily, along came CrossOver, and my prayers have been answered. Not only could I run the Photoshop and Swish, but Microsoft Office on Linux as well. It is the best of both worlds.
Fig: Running Photoshop and Swish under Linux
Testing CrossOver Linux 6
I have installed CrossOver Linux which can be downloaded here, and I have been able to install it and run it and then install quite a lot of Windows software as if I was on a Windows host. My computer is an Acer Aspire 1640z with a Centrino processor (1.7GHz), 2GB of RAM, running Ubuntu Linux. Those specifications are fair, so I can try out almost any software that is perambulating out there. I downloaded the full version of the CrossOver 6, the *.deb package (since Ubuntu uses the deb package manager). It installed with great ease. This being my first exposure to the product, I selected the general defaults. Everything went smooth and without a single problem.
Now it was time to install Adobe Photoshop 7. After selecting the CrossOver setup, the associations were checked and installation of Photoshop was selected. I inserted the Photoshop CD (you wish! CrossOver gives you a chance to point to the *.exe file on your hard drive) and immediately the installer asked me what 'bottle' I wanted to use. I chose Windows XP.
Word 2003 and Excel 2003 worked well, and I was able to open documents full of macros which Oo tends to fumble through. The apps even seem to work a little faster on Linux than on Windows, on the same hardware. This is probably because Windows tends to accumulate all sorts of junk, while the Crossover Office bottle has nothing but the essentials required to run Microsoft Office. Still, it was rather surprising to see Microsoft software working better under Linux!
Office 2003 installed and worked quite well, with the exception of Outlook 2003. Outlook support in CrossOver apparently lags a version or two behind the latest version of Microsoft Office. Outlook 2000 and XP work to some extent, if not perfectly. That is one thing I really don't give a toss about though as I only use Outlook on my office desktop which is running Windows anyway.
Dreamweaver MX and Flash MX worked perfectly, but the more recent versions did not even install. Adobe Photoshop 7 works flawlessly (I didn't try the CS parade as I think they are all glorified versions of 7, just use up more memory), so does SwishMax. Sadly though, the best music player in the world, Jet Audio refused to install. It asked me to install DirectX before it can install, and that is something I would have to look into later on, meanwhile I wonder why COWON has simply refused to put out a Linux version. I am yet to try out Microsoft's Reader though, and somehow playing Football Manager doesn't motivate me anymore, so I'll more than likely pass on that.
The separate bottles approach leads to some interesting situations. For instance, if you are using a version of Internet Explorer in one bottle, and have Microsoft Office loaded in another bottle, you can't copy and paste text between them. It seems like it should work, but it doesn't. It was a bewildering few minutes before I figured out what was going on. As long as you remember that different bottles are essentially independent Windows machines, everything is fine. I think that web developers will appreciate the ability to have different versions of Internet Explorer installed independently, for testing purposes. The system then went out and and automatically loaded the requisite software from Microsoft's website! Once the process was complete, true to form, the system requested to be rebooted (Jeez Window$!). In Linux though, only CrossOver was reset. This was so much easier than a full system reboot, and far less of a nuisance.
Conclusion
Prior to installing CrossOver, I was forced to labour with VMware. Now don't get me wrong, VMware is an excellent product, but it has one major drawback: VGA issues. For example playing Football Manager under VMware meant that I was restricted to just the text mode, and that made me loose some of my passion for the game. In any event, everything I have tried (except Jet Audio) has worked seamlessly, as promised. Access to the Photoshop files is easy, access to the Linux file system is easy. Everything a user will need is here. CodeWeavers' CrossOver has most certainly become one of the tools in my arsenal for every day use.
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