VirtualBox may be free, but you still have to own a copy of Windows. If you’re not willing to shell out a few hundred dollars to Microsoft but still want to run Windows on your Intel-based Mac, there is one more alternative: CrossOver from CodeWeavers costs $40 and runs Windows applications on Mac OS X — without Windows.

The open-source Wine project is less a solution and more a workaround when it comes to the issue of running Windows applications on Linux.

The open-source Wine project is less a solution and more a workaround when it comes to the issue of running Windows applications on Linux.

We are very proud to announce that a new project will soon see the light of day!

Introducing: PlayOnWindows!
Why?

There are many options for running Windows programs on the Mac. Boot Camp, for instance is included with OS X for installing Windows on a separate partition. Parallels VMware and Sun offer virtualization software that let you run your Windows programs without logging out of OS X. And then there's Wine.

Canonical's leader Mark Shuttleworth has recently chimed in on an important aspect of desktop computing when it comes to Linux. Going over the role that Linux plays on the desktop and where its future lies, Shuttleworth specifically commented on a question issued about Wine – which as many of you may know, is the most popular way of running Windows-based programs on Linux.

By itself Wine is very usable but you need a fair amount of expertise or lots of time to get your favourite Windows application running correctly. This is why we have companies like Bordeaux Group and CodeWeavers who sell commercially supported Wine version or management tools that make our lives a little easier.

Applications running with Wine don’t have to look so appalling!

There's no doubt that Linux—particularly Ubuntu—is a killer operating system full of excellent apps, but for about a million reasons, you're stuck running Windows as your main operating system. We understand, these things happen. But what about all those killer Linux apps you've left behind when you decided to live the Windows life?