A few months ago, I complained on this very blog about the support I was receiving from Codeweavers, the makers of CrossOver Office. The owner of the company, Jeremy White, responded in a comment on this blog, and apologized & explained what had happened. That took guts on the part of Jeremy, and my respect for him & his company went way up after that. I kept on using CrossOver, and I've been happy that I did. Now there's a new version out of CrossOver - version 5 - and it's the best one yet. There's a ton of bugs fixed, and some new apps supported, but the thing I've noticed the most is that it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay faster than version 4 was. Much much much much faster. Really, guys - if you have to run Windows apps under Linux, CrossOver is the cheapest, easiest, best way to do it. The price (only $40!) is entirely reasonable, and there are no stupid DRM or activation requirements. Do these guys right, & get CrossOver Office. (Check out all of our posts on CrossOver Office.) ...

So yesterday afternoon I posted some glowing info about the new CrossOver Office, and some folks wanted further clarification, especially vis a vis Win4Lin. Let me just say that I've had GREAT experiences with CrossOver. Earlier this year I finished a book for O'Reilly (Don't Click on the Blue E!: Switching to Firefox) that forced me to use Word (since their template is a VBA-laden beast), and XOver handled everything with aplomb, even a VBA-laden template. I just finished a forthcoming book on Knoppix (Hacking Knoppix) for Wiley, and the same thing happened, with a totally new VBA-encrusted Word template. Yet XOver handled it with aplomb. And now I'm doing it again, for a upcoming book on the Linux command line (more on that down the road!). New VBA-besmeared template; same story. I've used Dreamweaver, Excel, various Windows browser plugins (incl. Shockwave, QuickTime, & even WiMP), & even Photoshop (just a little) - everything has worked just great. The XOver install is a piece of ...

I'm sad to report this, but I figured my readers should know. I've been paying for and using CrossOver Office, made by Codeweavers, for several years now, basically since they first came out with the product. I've generally been happy with it up until now, but my attitude is rapidly changing. On 27 April, I left a trouble ticket asking how to get Office 2000 Service Pack 1 installed. Office 2000 installs just fine, but I can't get SP1 to install, even though it supposedly works. I read through the forums, and tried some of the tips there, but it didn't work. Since I'm a paying customer, I left a trouble ticket. And then … nothing. No word from Codeweavers. It's been assigned to a "Steven Edwards", but he hasn't replied at all. Finally, on 4 May, I left a note asking for help again, and wondering why I hadn't heard anything. I checked today, and still nothing. This is not good. It has now been NINE days, and I've heard nothing from a company that I've been ...

So Apple is moving to Intel. Cool (although I wish they'd used the technically superior AMD, but hey … I'll take what I can get). One of the many ramifications is discussed in eWeek's "CodeWeavers to Bring Windows Applications to 'Mactels'". I've been using CrossOver for years, and generally I'm pretty happy with it. Heck, I wrote a whole book using a highly customized Word template chock full of VBA macros in MSFT Word running on Linux thanks to CrossOver. Now Codeweavers, the company that makes CrossOver, will be able to port CrossOver from Linux to Mac OS, enabling Mac users to run Windows apps inside Mac OS without having to install Windows, or Virtual PC, or anything like that. Mac users, let me tell you: this is really, really good news! (Check out all of my posts on Mac OS or CrossOver.) ...

No big shocker here, but MSFT publisher ONLY works on Windows. I've tried installing it on Linux using CrossOver Office, but it doesn't work, through no fault of CrossOver. Even better, the ONLY program that can read a Publisher file is … you guessed it! Publisher! So what do we Linux (& Mac OS X) users do when we get a Publisher file? If it's one we have to edit, we're hosed. No workee. If, however, we just need to view the damn thing, we can use this web site at http://convert.neevia.com/ to convert a Publisher document - and one heck of a whole lot of files in a host of other formats - into a PDF file. One limitation: the file you're converting can't be more than 1 MB in size. That may be a dealbreaker, but hey, it's better than nothing … & it's free. Now ya know! (Check out all of our posts on Publisher, Scribus, & PDF.) ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 80 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find lots more links after the jump. Enjoy! Engadget's J.D. Lasica interviews Orb Network CEO Jim Behrens, offers a how-to on accessing iTunes from a cellphone, and reveals that Japan has plans for a Robot Moon Base, while Barb Dybwad solicits readers' Motorola RAZR wishlists. Autoblog's Eric Bryant predicts what's next in the parade of recalls and opines that the big three maintain truck supremacy. John Neff spies a BMW crossover coupe. Walter Keegan Jr. treats us to an illustrated tour of Saturn Vue 2006 updates. ...