URGENT: Want to run any PC brewing software on your Mac? Today you can, for FREE

Anbrew · 10-28-2008, 06:16 PM

Crossover for Mac is FREE today since gas prices went down!

CodeWeavers

The games version will also allow you to install PC games. I just installed Promash on my Mac (it's not officially supported) and it works! Haven't tested anything else yet...

Beerrific · 10-28-2008, 06:26 PM

I tried the free version of this a while back. Yeah, promash worked, but most other things did not. I abandoned the idea and bought a copy of BeerAlchemy (which is great BTW).

But, since it is free, I will give it another shot.

Anbrew · 10-28-2008, 08:43 PM

I'm just happy I got Promash working because the majority of my recipes are in it. I did the free trial of Beertools and I liked it, but...I'm used to Promash's incredibly crappy interface, haha!

I haven't tried BeerAlchemy, do they do a free trial? I've also never tried the PC-only program most people on HBT recommend: Beersmith. I wonder if it will run through Crossover?

**Chriso** · 10-28-2008, 09:00 PM

I downloaded my copy this AM ... up until now, I've used Parallels 3.0 + Win XP + BeerSmith and been happy with it.... my primary @ home is a PC, so it makes sense to use BeerSmith everywhere I'm at.

Last time I tried a Crossover demo, I thought it was well-polished... I just haven't installed the newest build yet. I will post back as soon as I'm done installing it.

(Crossover Pro edition, Mac Pro tower, 2x2.66, 5gb, 10.5.5)

Beerrific · 10-28-2008, 09:01 PM

Yeah, BeerAlchemy does a free trial. If you have a recipe in ProMash and can export it as a a BeerXML or .rec file, BA has a nice import tool. It will let you go ingredient by ingredient and choose the correct BA name and match up the process information. It might take a little time if you have a lot of recipes, but in the end I think it is nice to be able to use a program that runs on OSX natively and is just as good, IMO.

Anbrew · 10-28-2008, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chriso

I downloaded my copy this AM ... up until now, I've used Parallels 3.0 + Win XP + BeerSmith and been happy with it.... my primary @ home is a PC, so it makes sense to use BeerSmith everywhere I'm at.

Last time I tried a Crossover demo, I thought it was well-polished... I just haven't installed the newest build yet. I will post back as soon as I'm done installing it.

(Crossover Pro edition, Mac Pro tower, 2x2.66, 5gb, 10.5.5)

Excellent, let me know if you can run Beersmith through Crossover!

**Chriso** · 10-28-2008, 09:37 PM

Did not work first try.

Created a new bottle, installed BeerSmith to it. Installer proceeded correctly.

After install, could not figure out how to launch. Had to .. 1st: in finder under Users\(myname)\ create an Applications folder.
2nd: In Crossover, go to preferences, and set the programs folder to (myname)\Applications
3rd: Go to Programs menu -> "Run Command" and navigate to C:\Program Files\Beersmith\Beersmith.exe
4th: after it ran successfully, click the "Save Command In Menu" (sic) button.

Now... It booted correctly, it OKed off of the trial screen correctly ......... but the first couple times I tried it, it would not work! The screen was loaded correctly, but I couldn't click any menus or buttons or recipes.

I figured "Well, maybe it's because it's a trial version???" so I dug through my email and put in my serial number. Same problem.

Quit Crossover, restarted it, ran the bottle again - same problem. This has me WTF'ing. But then, I realize that.... as soon as the BeerSmith splash screen goes away, and immediately before refreshing the screen with the full BeerSmith interface .... there was a dialog box that flashed open. I don't even know what the dialog box was for, as I couldn't alt-tab to it. But I just pressed "Enter" once, and after that, BeerSmith began working correctly.

The big thing I've noticed, in my limited 3 min. of testing, is that printing functionality doesn't work in Crossover. Seems to throw up a script error in the background.

But it seems to work correctly as far as recipe creation goes! And the data file stores correctly in between closing and re-opening Crossover.

**eddie** · 10-28-2008, 10:24 PM

Can you export your recipes to a text file and print that instead?

Loup · 11-14-2008, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chriso

The big thing I've noticed, in my limited 3 min. of testing, is that printing functionality doesn't work in Crossover. Seems to throw up a script error in the background.

You can print if you go back to the recipe list, look at it in the preview pane, right click and hit print, then it prints correctly.

Bopper · 11-14-2008, 05:47 PM

I know its a PITA, but wouldn't bootcamp be a beter bet if you want to run windows only software on a mac?