CrossOver Support - Community Forums

Hello Codeweavers,

Suppose I am a developer of my freeware or cheap commercial application that runs on windows. And I wish a simple and easy solution for the end user to use it under Mac and Linux. Actually I have to advertise CrossOver Mac hoping that my freeware application is interesting enough for the end user to buy a license of CrossOver Mac (a 30 day trial is no longer a freeware). A end user spend $37 to use my freeware application, and not all users with a Mac will do this, so I didn't solved my problem. Isn't this trivial? If I have a cheap commerical application, like $37 then the situation is somewhat better because I sell the license but still for the end user the cost is doubled ($37 for CrossOver and $37 for me), so I am out of market, there exist maybe better native alternatives at that cost.

To solve this problem I suggest this sale opportunity:

1) a classic affilate program, so when I advertise CrossOver Mac to run my freeware/shareware at least I have a (small) income.

2) a CrossOver Mac version linked to my specific program. I pay a one time fee or annual subscription (not too much please) to CodeWeavers allowing me to create a special bundled setup containing my application and CrossOver Mac that is limited to run only my freeware/cheap commercial application. For to run all windows programs the end user must buy a regular license from CodeWeavers.

With this solution:
a) I am sure that everyone can use/try my software, I am distributing it crossplatform, my problem is solved.
b) CodeWeavers makes a sale (at a reduced cost x end-user but this is limited to only one windows application).
c) CodeWeavers is constantly advertising it's product, because it is running on the end user platform. The user may buy a full license to run other Windows applications.
d) CodeWeavers increase it's base of beta testers and user feedback from all the experienced (paying) developers who want to give full support to their programs, making changes to they own programs to be sure to be fully compatible with CrossOver Mac.
e) CodeWeavers benefit from a first level support to the end-user handled directly by the developer.

Of course all this apply for CrossOver Linux too, but under Linux it's just easier for the end user to install wine :)

What do you think about?

just the 2 cents of a creative thinker :)

byee
Andrea

Of course this has sense only for cheap/free software. Expensive products like MS Office should be excluded, in other words, the user should pay the full CrossOver Mac license. Selling my product at $250 or $250+$37 makes no great difference.
And the affiliate program is for the developers not having the possibility to pay a subscription fee.

Actually the only other workaround seems to offer a prebuild ready-easy-to-install binary of Wine for Mac. It should be not too complicated for me to prepare this, but I think that everyone (end-user,developper,Codeweavers) will benefit from using CrossOver.

Also this solution offer the possibility create a wider list of compatible software by linking my application to specific CodeWeavers DLLs solving some problems that else are hard to workaround.

Hi Andrea,

We typically deal with this sort of situation in one of the following ways - Codeweavers can work with your company to develop a "ported" version for Mac or Linux of your software using our Wine capabilities. You would then have Mac and/or Linux versions of your software, and the name Codeweavers would only appear in fine print, if at all. We can also work with your company to tool Crossover to make sure that the software is supported. The cost for each of these varies, depending on the complexity of the software, and how well it works with wine from the get-go. In both of these cases there is of course a cost for developer time, but I cannot quote you on even rough specifics, as this is a public forum, and I am not the sales department.

If you'd like to learn more about these options, you can contact sales@codeweavers.com. James Ramey, our VP of sales, is the man to talk to about any sort of collaboration with Codeweavers and your program.