Mac only: Wine has always been popular among Linux users for running Windows programs, but Wine is available for Mac, too and now, free utility WineBottler can "bottle" Windows programs into separate application bundles that run as standalone Mac apps.

To use WineBottler, just download a Windows EXE, then drag and drop it onto the WineBottler app. You can install them in a fake C: drive located by default in your home folder, just as you would on Linux, and run them from there easily. However, if you want to create a standalone application bundle (so that you can give a Windows program to a fellow Mac user, for example), WineBottler will create a separate bundle with Wine included inside, so your friend doesn't have to have Wine installed the app acts just like any other OS X app.

I thought I'd start the year fresh with a road map of what we hope to accomplish in 2010.

Early in the year, we plan to bring out 'Snow Mallard', our new platform for CrossOver 9. This is going to be an exciting release for us for a variety of reasons.

Our Linux users will be excited to see the first ever revamp of the GUI; folks that are weary of the TK look should enjoy the fresh new GTK interface. We also think the user interface as a whole is going to be substantially better, both for Mac and Linux users.  It should feel faster and cleaner.

Next, we're going to make a major shift in the way we approach applications. CrossOver 9 is going to include the concept of 'Application Profiles'; a way to describe a given Windows application and all of its dependencies and quirks. This is going to allow us to expand the user interface to take advantage of all of the great work that has been done in the community areas of our compatibility center. This way, if one person discovers how best to run an application with CrossOver, they can easily share that information with all other users.

Over the past few years, there has been a common question on the Linux vs. Windows desktop front: does the Linux desktop have the ability to play various major release games, and if so what is the performance difference between the two? Linux is commonly overlooked as a viable gaming platform in most communities. Our intention today is to shed some light on what does and does not work inside Linux, as well as give solid performance data for those looking for another option in the gaming world. Each OS has areas where it shows superiority over the other, but for the sake of staying true to the purpose of this article we will only be focusing on the game performance/functionality differences.

Unfortunately there are very few game releases that support running inside Linux natively. To combat this issue there are a few Linux projects that will allow Linux users to run Windows applications - note that we did not say "emulate Windows". We have selected three Linux projects in order to complete our initial round of testing. Our open source project selection "Wine" is a free, easily downloadable project that is created to support both Windows games and applications. The second selection, "Cedega", is a closed source implementation of Wine focused on gaming. The final selection is Crossover Games which like Cedega is a closed source implementation of Wine allowing for enhanced usability and gameplay over Wine.

Sound in Wine has been a big issue.  From a user’s perspective, it didn’t work well.  From a technical user’s perspective, there were 3 different drivers to choose from and none of them worked well.  From a developer’s perspective, no sound driver would ever work well.

Wine was a victim of the proliferation of sound drivers on Linux.

Internet browsing is a huge part our daily lives. No matter where we are we are bound to have contact with the internet in one form or another, and thus when we need it we want/need it to be as fast and as responsive as possible.

Before I get into how to find the fastest DNS for you, you need to know what a DNS is. DNS stands for Domain Naming Service. It’s been around for a while. It is why you are able to type in www.wine-reviews.net or www.google.com instead of an IP address such as 74.52.50.226 It is much easier to remember a name right? Than trying to remember (one of) Googles IP addresses such as: 74.125.43.104. Not only that, DNS allows you to have multiple sites and servers under one name (ie: adwords.google.com, images.google.com, ect…).