DEVELOPER'S TOOLBOX
CodeWeavers Easing Windows Developers' Move to MacTel

For years, CodeWeavers has been greasing the way for Windows developers to run their software programs under Linux. Now it's turning its attention to the brave, new world of Macintosh computers based on Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) microprocessors (MacTel).

When Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) shook the computer world more than two weeks ago and announced it was deserting IBM's (NYSE: IBM) PowerPC chip for Intel processors, St. Paul, Minn., CodeWeavers saw an irresistible opportunity in the making.

"The switch to Intel makes the Mac market compelling to us," CEO Jeremy White told MacNewsWorld. "We are now presented with this great opportunity that in 12 months we'll have this brand new market of 15 million users that we've never had before."

More than Vaporware

According to CodeWeavers, its MacTel translation product, which will be based on its CrossOver Office software, will allow Windows applications, such as games, utilities and business applications, to operate seamlessly and reliably on the new Apple platform.

"I don't like vaporware announcements," White said. "Why tell someone about something they can't buy. But what's exciting to me is that because we're going to have that product in 12 months, it means today we can start working with people and start doing some of the prep work. We can get them to port over to the CrossOver platform so they can automatically slot into a Macintosh version as we start building it and going into beta test."

He said that CodeWeavers expects to have its hands on a MacTel machine in two weeks to begin developing CrossOver for the new platform.

Midtier Attraction

CrossOver can make the emerging MacTel market more attractive to midtier Windows developers, White maintained.

"Rather than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and several man-years to port their application to the Mac, a software maker can spend tens of thousands of dollars and a few months to do it," he contended.

Charles W. Stevenson, chief technical officer for Gupta Technologies in Redwood Shores, Calif., said that his company has been using CrossOver to enable its Windows applications to run under Linux.

Better than Emulator

He explained that the application is a good way for developers to get their feet wet in a market. "It's a viable solution to test your product out to see if there's a market for it," he noted. "But in the end you're going to want to write a native product."

He added that CrossOver, which uses an open-source instruction-mapping technology called Wine, is a better way to run Windows applications in alien operating systems than using software emulation. "You're going to get overall better performance by using Wine than using some other emulator box," he asserted.

Although Windows and Macintosh computers will be using the same chip when Apple's migration to Intel is complete, it won't make moving applications between the platforms any easier, which is why CrossOver's promise is music to developers' ears.

Chip Doesn't Trump Challenges

"Apple and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) have done their best to differentiate their products and in the process of doing that, they've made it difficult to share code between the two platforms because they tend to make changes that are fundamentally at odds with each other," Chris Meyer, vice president for software development for LQ Graphics in Dublin, Calif., said.

When LQ ported its Macintosh program, Photo to Movie, to Windows, new code had to be written for 60 percent of the Windows version, which consumed man-years of time, he noted.

In addition to fundamental differences between Windows and OS X, Apple's operating system, Meyer continued, applications for the platforms are written in different computer languages. Those challenges are chip-independent and aren't made any less challenging because the platforms are using the same processor, he explained.

Good News for MacTel Platform

Ross Rubin, director for industry analysis, for the NPD Group in Port Washington, N.Y., said that CrossOver by itself won't draw Windows developers into the Mac world.

"There's still a business case that needs to be addressed," he told MacNewsWorld. "Developing an application is only one part of it. You have to have a distribution strategy for your software, and you have to support it."

"There are costs inherent in software development and sales that go beyond writing a program," he continued.

He noted, however, that CrossOver could lower the development costs for some classes of programs, especially those where users aren't looking for a lot of tight integration with Mac OS functionality.

"The availability of the tool is good news for the platform," he said, "because it provides more options for developers."