CrossOver 21: MS Office for Linux runs better, macOS Monterey doesn’t yet

By: MRT Desk

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CrossOver 21: MS Office for Linux runs better, macOS Monterey doesn't yet

With the latest version 21.0.0, CrossOver relies on Wine 6.0 for the first time. The commercial software from CodeWeavers can run Windows applications on macOS, Linux and Chrome OS. The basis for this is the free Wine project, a Windows-compatible runtime environment for those operating systems.

Wine 6.0 was released in January 2021. Among other things, the update included a Vulkan backend for WineD3D, expanded the implementation of the console and integrated the Media Foundation framework. The developers also continued their work on converting the libraries to the Windows binary format Portable Executable (PE).

The Vulkan backend for WineD3D is aimed in particular at games and is now used by default for 64-bit applications with Direct3D 10 or 11 under macOS, provided DXVK is not activated. The latter is a translation layer between Direct3D and Vulkan. DXVK is now included in version 1.7.

CrossOver is now included with Wine Mono, a free and cross-platform implementation of the .NET framework. As of macOS Big Sur 11.3, Xbox X / S and PlayStation 5 controllers also work with CrossOver 21.0.0 via Bluetooth. However, the package cannot be used with Monterey at all. The developers want to submit support later by the end of the year.

Microsoft Office 2016 and 365 should run better under Linux: Among other things, the developers have worked on supporting multiple monitors and fixed a bug when entering a password for logging in and activating. In general, CrossOver should now start faster on Linux and Chrome OS.

All details about the release 21.0.0 can be found in the announcement. The standard commercial software costs 59 euros with one year of support and an upgrade option. If the latter two restrictions are to be abolished indefinitely, a license costs 475 euros. A free version is also available for testing purposes.

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