Free download of CrossOver for Linux and Mac today

CodeWeavers has kept to its "election promise" and, from 05:00 GMT this morning, has been allowing anyone who wants to download a copy of the Windows compatibility system for Linux or Mac OS X to get the product free-of-charge. CrossOver is a company that sells a commercial version of the WINE Windows compatibility software; this allows many Windows applications, including Microsoft Office and games, to run on Linux and Mac OS X by redirecting calls to Windows operating system functions to the underlying operating system's equivalent. As well as organising giveaways of its software, CodeWeavers also employs a number of WINE developers.

The free download offer will run for 24 hours and allows users to download a version with 12 months of email support and upgrades that normally costs £38. US citizens affected by power cuts from Superstorm Sandy and unable to participate will find a special Sandy page running from 1 November.

The free downloads are a result of an August 2012 campaign, "Flock The Vote", designed to encourage voting in the US election. CodeWeavers had offered to give away the software free if it could gather 100,000 pledges to vote. Although the company failed to get the required number of pledges, humorously claiming insider sabotage was to blame, the company CEO, Jeremy White, triggered the giveaway program. This is the second CodeWeavers US election related giveaway. In 2008 a "Lame Duck Presidential Challenge", which set five triggers to activate a giveaway, ended up offering free downloads after one of the triggers, petrol falling below $2.80 a gallon, was tripped.

(djwm)