More on CrossOver

        David Passell submits some comments, "I just got this eMail and was reminded of John's recent remarks on Crossover. I too bought Crossover and have yet to find anything that i want to run will do so. It mostly seems to be directed toward games. The lack of a coherent manual for it doesn't help.

        "John's remarks remind me of my take on 'insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.' Mine is 'insanity is caused by doing the same thing over and over and getting a different result each time' :).

        And David winds up with, "I haven't yet installed the update. I've never used Quicken." 

CrossOver for Your Windows App. Again?

        "CrossOver has been a little disappointing for me in the past," relates John Carter.  He goes on to explain,  "It installs. The Windows app I want to run installs. The Windows app works one or two times. Then it just stopped working. Uninstalling CrossOver isn’t an easy task, and that’s what I’ve tried in the past to try to get the Windows app to work again, which it would, but only for a little while. 

        "I think that every time Apple comes out with an OS update it breaks CrossOver, but there hasn’t been a corresponding update from CrossOver to fix the problem.

        John continues, "CodeWeavers just announced a new release of CrossOver (13.1.0). This release claims to make Quicken 2014 run on your Mac. And for what it’s worth, it just might make all my other Windows apps run better, if only for a little while.

        "As in the past, if it works for the one Windows app you want to run on your Mac, then it’s a lot cheaper than having to purchase a Windows OS, purchase a Virtual Machine like VMWare or Parallels, and then also deal with the many other updates of the Virtual Machine software just to run your favorite Windows app."

Dual Boot, VMWare, Parallels, or Crossover?

        Here's more about applications for Lion sent from John Carter.  He explains, "I’ve heard people say that they will have to have two versions of OS X in order to run some applications that are no longer supported in OS X 10.7 (Lion). Any dual boot configuration really hampers your quality up-time and turns it into down-time while waiting for your system to reboot into the other OS. Enter VMWare. Reports have it that VMWare is better than Parallels for installing multiple versions of Mac OS X. I can’t say. But this solution should only apply for those PowerPC applications that no longer run in Lion such as MS Office for Mac and Quicken.
       "I’ve gotten around the need for a dual boot configuration. One method is by installing Crossover. With Crossover, I can install a number of Windows applications without having to install the complete Windows OS. For now, I have Framemaker 6, Quicken 2010, eFax Messenger 4.4, and LibreOffice 3.4 installed under Crossover - and will most likely be installing other apps in the near future, specifically MS Office 2010.
        "Similarly, Parallels  for Mac 6.0 will install the complete Windows OS  whatever version you like - on a Mac. All the Windows applications that you install will run on a Mac without a dual boot configuration. I am currently running Windows XP and Windows 7 as guest operating systems on my Mac without any problems of compatibility that sometimes beleaguer Crossover."
        Here's John's conclusion for the dilemma:  "So, for any of those Windows apps that people like to have, either Parallels or Crossover should be considered as opposed to any dual boot configuration. But if you're a gamer and want things to run native, then I guess you have to dual boot."