TerryMcK Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 I have a lot of Windows applications that up to now I couldn't run on the Mac unless I install a copy of Windoze running under Parallels Desktop or My Boot Camp. This was fine but there is always a degree of latency with sound generating programs and sometimes hiccups in the sound output. One of the other things I do is help out in a theatre with the technical stuff like lights and sound. I use a professional program called SCS (Show Cue Systems for Theatre) to run the sound effects and music. Essentially it is a programmable application to call up sound cues at the right time. The output of this is passed through to the MAC internally using Parallels. But there are odd clicks and drop outs. There is no Mac version of this program. Good news though I have just found Codeweavers Crossover that allows you to install and run a Windows application natively on the Mac. No emulators, no virtual machines, no copy of Windows all you need is the setup program and it does the rest. I can now run SCS as if it was a Mac application. There are a lot of supported programs (MIcrosoft Office, Quicken, etc etc.) that have been proven to work and Codeweavers will give support to make them run. All you Mac users are probably aware of Crossover but if not download a trial and run those elusive Windy's programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 I believe Crossover is a commercially developed version of Wine for Linux. I know it available for Linux as well. I run several Windoze applications under Wine, including Sketchup. Crossover should be a good solution. As an alternative to Parallels, I suggest Virtualbox. I use it heavily with Linux hosts, and have never noticed any latency issues with sound playback in the guest OS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted December 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Great I'll have a look at that too. Otherwise I'll be carrying a Windoze laptop and a Mac laptop around with me. I was really surprised how easy it was to get Crossover going on the Mac. I've used older versions of Wine in Linux before and as you know it can be unwieldy with its command line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted December 4, 2014 Report Share Posted December 4, 2014 No kidding. I spent a couple hours trying to get Sketchup 15 running under wine today. No joy thus far. It starts, but has some weird graphics driver issue, and crashes when I draw a shape or two, which I can't even see because of the graphics problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted December 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2014 Good news is I tried it at the theatre last night. No latency, no hiccups, no blips and no dropouts in the sound. Going to buy it I think. Relatively cheap - certainly cheaper that Parallels and a Windows license. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Good news is I tried it at the theatre last night. No latency, no hiccups, no blips and no dropouts in the sound. Going to buy it I think. Relatively cheap - certainly cheaper that Parallels and a Windows license. Buy Virtualbox? About a year ago, I asked Oracle to provide pricing to license it for an application where I work. I was told that "they hadn't figured that out yet, just go ahead and use it." As software hypervisors go, I think VBox rocks. The remote access ability is very good. USB support is very good. Network functions are awesome. It even supports PCI passthrough for letting VMs access special hardware on the host, though I haven't tried that yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 I'll certainly will have a look at VirtualBox. I did actually buy Crossover yesterday, very simple process where it connects to their servers and validates your purchase. Also found the Wine control panel hidden in the GUI. It has a task manager too that looks just like the Windoze one. You can stop processes as per Windows task manager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Sounds like Crossover is much more refined than Wine, for sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisphr Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 I don't know wtf you'all are talking about, but it sounds awesome. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted December 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 It's true it can all sound like gobbledegook. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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