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Codeweavers offer their software free today

60 points by mark_ellul 18y ago

iamdave 18y ago
I'm still on the fence about CodeWeavers. A few great points have been made about the software which makes Windows emulation much, much easier but at the same time, their original code base came entirely from Wine; there's no GPL requirement to make it free, I kinda take the idea of using free code for profit as kind of a tightwad move. But, they're free to do what they want with it, and this was not a bad move to at least give back to those who really jumped on the chance.
- Zev 18y ago
  Codeweavers contributes a lot of code back to the community (ie: Wine's git tree) - and a few of the main Wine hackers are employed by Codeweavers (Alexandre and Jeremy at least).
mechanical_fish 18y ago
Main site has melted down due to traffic. Here's an article talking about what's going on: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/27/codeweavers-says-cheap-gas-free-software-tomorrow/ http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/27/codeweavers-says-cheap-gas-fr...
- nocivus 18y ago
  Seems to be up. Just downloaded both and requested a serial number.
mdasen 18y ago
Since the site is down, can anyone explain the differences between the "Games" and "Pro" editions?
- qqq 18y ago
  games is 2 megabytes larger. it must be better! just get both, their fault for bad UI.
- sdfx 18y ago
  according to TUAW: "Word from CodeWeavers execs is that the free license will be for a download-only flavor of the Pro version (!), including the Games optimized build and the option to share a Windows 'bottle' among multiple users on the same machine."
- bouncingsoul 18y ago
  Games came out later. If I remember correctly it was released as more of a stop-gap version to get games-specific fixes out sooner than the regular release cycle. From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossOver http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossOver): * The difference with regular CrossOver is that CrossOver Games will have a shorter release cycle in order to update faster to the latest work on Wine than with regular CrossOver, which targets stability and reliability. * Crossover Mac was divided into Standard and Pro versions like Crossover Linux. The standard version includes 6 months of support and upgrades, while the Pro version includes 1 year of support and upgrades and a free copy of Crossover Games.
nostrademons 18y ago
Entrepreneurs, take note: here's how to promote a product. I'd never heard of Codeweavers before this. Imagine all the Digg & newsmedia coverage they're getting.
- dustineichler 18y ago
  Good point, I've never heard of them before either but will likely use if not try what they're offering. The benefits of this community are awesome btw... is love.
- henning 18y ago
  How much revenue will it ultimately translate into?
  - nostrademons 18y ago
    I have no idea. But say they get 1,000,000 visitors from this stunt, none of whom had ever heard of CodeWeavers before and none of whom will ever pay for another CodeWeavers product again (the folks who read Digg/Reddit/blogs tend not to pay for software ;-)). Then say that each of them tells 5 other people - that seems reasonable based on who I've told, and amounts to 5M people who know about CodeWeavers and didn't before. Then assume a 1% conversion rate. That's 50,000 new customers, and at $40/copy, $2M in additional revenue. Not bad for a publicity stunt.
    - henning 18y ago
      The problem with Digg traffic is it's garbage. The conversion rate is almost zero. It's not high-quality views. It's like showing ads to college students on Facebook: you're getting tons of eyeballs but the eyeballs spend what little money they have on ring tones and beer. But, I've never done any real Internet marketing stuff so I don't speak from firsthand experience.
      - nostrademons 18y ago
        Right, you don't count on Digg to generate conversions or repeat views or anything like that, because almost by definition, they're the sort of people that flit from news story to news story and never go deep into anything. However, they're also the type of people that like to tell people about their great discoveries on Digg. The Mavens, on Gladwell's Tipping Point adoption curve. They don't spend money, and promptly lose interest a day later, but one of the people they tell may start using your product or telling people. When we first launched Diffle, we put a game up on Digg to gauge response. We got about 1200 visits off that. Of those, 6 came back later. But one of those 6 must've told their friends, because 6 months later, we were back up at about 1200 visits/month with no additional publicity. (And there it stayed because the site sucked, but that's another issue.)
LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
I have a favorite game which has very poor support under Wine. The CodeWeavers product may very well do a better job with it. If so, I can switch my personal box full-time to Linux. That would make me very happy.

60 points by mark_ellul 18y ago

I'm still on the fence about CodeWeavers. A few great points have been made about the software which makes Windows emulation much, much easier but at the same time, their original code base came entirely from Wine; there's no GPL requirement to make it free, I kinda take the idea of using free code for profit as kind of a tightwad move. But, they're free to do what they want with it, and this was not a bad move to at least give back to those who really jumped on the chance.

Zev 18y ago
Codeweavers contributes a lot of code back to the community (ie: Wine's git tree) - and a few of the main Wine hackers are employed by Codeweavers (Alexandre and Jeremy at least).

mechanical_fish 18y ago

Main site has melted down due to traffic. Here's an article talking about what's going on: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/27/codeweavers-says-cheap-gas-free-software-tomorrow/ http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/27/codeweavers-says-cheap-gas-fr...

nocivus 18y ago
Seems to be up. Just downloaded both and requested a serial number.

mdasen 18y ago

Since the site is down, can anyone explain the differences between the "Games" and "Pro" editions?

qqq 18y ago
games is 2 megabytes larger. it must be better! just get both, their fault for bad UI.
sdfx 18y ago
according to TUAW: "Word from CodeWeavers execs is that the free license will be for a download-only flavor of the Pro version (!), including the Games optimized build and the option to share a Windows 'bottle' among multiple users on the same machine."
bouncingsoul 18y ago
Games came out later. If I remember correctly it was released as more of a stop-gap version to get games-specific fixes out sooner than the regular release cycle. From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossOver http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossOver): * The difference with regular CrossOver is that CrossOver Games will have a shorter release cycle in order to update faster to the latest work on Wine than with regular CrossOver, which targets stability and reliability. * Crossover Mac was divided into Standard and Pro versions like Crossover Linux. The standard version includes 6 months of support and upgrades, while the Pro version includes 1 year of support and upgrades and a free copy of Crossover Games.

nostrademons 18y ago

Entrepreneurs, take note: here's how to promote a product. I'd never heard of Codeweavers before this. Imagine all the Digg & newsmedia coverage they're getting.

dustineichler 18y ago
Good point, I've never heard of them before either but will likely use if not try what they're offering. The benefits of this community are awesome btw... is love.
henning 18y ago
How much revenue will it ultimately translate into?
- nostrademons 18y ago
  I have no idea. But say they get 1,000,000 visitors from this stunt, none of whom had ever heard of CodeWeavers before and none of whom will ever pay for another CodeWeavers product again (the folks who read Digg/Reddit/blogs tend not to pay for software ;-)). Then say that each of them tells 5 other people - that seems reasonable based on who I've told, and amounts to 5M people who know about CodeWeavers and didn't before. Then assume a 1% conversion rate. That's 50,000 new customers, and at $40/copy, $2M in additional revenue. Not bad for a publicity stunt.
  - henning 18y ago
    The problem with Digg traffic is it's garbage. The conversion rate is almost zero. It's not high-quality views. It's like showing ads to college students on Facebook: you're getting tons of eyeballs but the eyeballs spend what little money they have on ring tones and beer. But, I've never done any real Internet marketing stuff so I don't speak from firsthand experience.
    - nostrademons 18y ago
      Right, you don't count on Digg to generate conversions or repeat views or anything like that, because almost by definition, they're the sort of people that flit from news story to news story and never go deep into anything. However, they're also the type of people that like to tell people about their great discoveries on Digg. The Mavens, on Gladwell's Tipping Point adoption curve. They don't spend money, and promptly lose interest a day later, but one of the people they tell may start using your product or telling people. When we first launched Diffle, we put a game up on Digg to gauge response. We got about 1200 visits off that. Of those, 6 came back later. But one of those 6 must've told their friends, because 6 months later, we were back up at about 1200 visits/month with no additional publicity. (And there it stayed because the site sucked, but that's another issue.)

LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago

I have a favorite game which has very poor support under Wine. The CodeWeavers product may very well do a better job with it. If so, I can switch my personal box full-time to Linux. That would make me very happy.