M1 Macs can now run Windows apps and games through CrossOver 20

Topic

New Reply

[Alex5723]

We already know that the new Macs with M1 chip can run both Intel and ARM apps made for macOS and iOS, but Mac users who rely on Windows for some specific software have lost Boot Camp support. However, CodeWeavers announced that CrossOver 20 now works on Apple Silicon Macs, which means that the new M1 Macs can run Windows software right on macOS….

More on CodeWeavers blog.

I can’t tell you how cool that is; there is so much emulation going on under the covers. Imagine – a 32-bit Windows Intel binary, running in a 32-to-64 bridge in Wine / CrossOver on top of macOS, on an ARM CPU that is emulating x86 – and it works! This is just so cool.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Alex5723.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Alex5723.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker, doriel

Reply | Quote

Replies

CrossOver is a commercial version of WINE. CodeWeavers is a major contributor to WINE, and they are the provider of the WineHQ hosting servers.

While WINE is best known for its Linux version, it has existed for a while on Mac and even Windows (which is meant to allow the use software that no longer runs on current Windows). If the x86 emulation on the M1 works well, then it would be expected that the Mac versions of WINE or CrossOver would run well on it too, since those are Mac x86 applications.

All of the same caveats that apply when Linux people mention that you can run Windows stuff on Linux apply here also. It expands the reach of the new Mac into the Windows software world, but it’s not a complete replacement for BootCamp for those who would otherwise use it. WINE is a fantastic tool (including Steam’s fork, Proton), and it has been instrumental in making possible my move to Linux full-time, but if your application is one of those must-have Windows programs that do not work in WINE on Linux, it’s almost certainly not going to work on the Mac WINE either. It might work on a virtual machine running Windows, though, running on top of the Rosetta emulator, just as it might work in a VM running Windows and hosted by Linux.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/16GB & GTX1660ti, KDE Neon
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, KDE Neon (and Win 11 for maintenance)

2 users thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker, Alex5723

Reply | Quote