Brief: CrossOver is a premium tool that enables you to run several Windows applications on Linux and macOS. With the latest release of CrossOver, you can now install Microsoft Office 2016 on Linux.
CrossOver team announced the release of its latest version today. CrossOver 17 has been released after almost a year after CrossOver 16 release in December’16.
As always, the biggest highlight of the release is the support for Microsoft Office on Linux. The latest version brings Microsoft Office 2016 support.
I am delighted to announce that CodeWeavers has just released CrossOver 17.0.0 for both macOS and Linux.
CrossOver 17 supports Microsoft Office 2016: the latest and greatest Microsoft Office suite. You can install Office 2016 Home and Office 2016 Business from your Office 365 account and use the full featured versions of these products.
What is CrossOver, again?
CrossOver is basically a software that provides a compatibility layer that makes it possible to run some Windows software on Mac or Linux computers. Think of it as a premium version of open-source program WINE that enables Linux users to run Windows application on Linux.
While WINE is a free and open source software, CrossOver is a proprietary software and it has an annual license fee. However, CrossOver is the biggest development contributor to the WINE project.
What’s new in CrossOver 17?
As per the official blog post, here are the main features of CrossOver 17:
- Support for Microsoft Office 2016 (You’ll still need Microsoft Office license)
- Functional improvements to Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office 2013 and a number of other Windows applications
- Support for games like League of Legends, Everquest and Everquest II
- Support for finance software Quicken 2017
- WebSite-Watcher
- Bug fixes
Pricing and subscriptions
As I wrote earlier, CrossOver Linux is a paid product and the pricing starts at a beginner price of $59 USD that includes one year of email support and upgrades. You also get one free phone support incident. You can also get a free 30-day trial to check if it suits your need or not.
I know that not everyone will be ok with the idea of paying for Linux software. But keep in mind that CrossOver contributes to WINE heavily. Apart from contributing to the development of WINE, CrossOver also supports its server hosting.
By buying a copy of CrossOver you are, in effect, helping the development of Wine.
Personally, I use Open Source office products so I am not going to pay for Microsoft Office and other such products but I know some people would love to do that. Are you one of those people?