Xtreme on a Mac

[jens g.r. benthien]

Long time, no post. After my electronic equipment had been stolen last year - including the external backup drives, a camera, etc - I decided to switch to a Mac after I had conducted some research.

So there is Parallels and VMWare Fusion2, which enable the Mac users to install Windoze with all needed software to run them seamlessly on the Mac.

However, as much as I like Xara I don't like having to install a lousy OS on a nice OS.

So the search went on, because Illustrator is of no use for me. I stumbled across 'Crossover for Mac'. This nice software doesn't require that Windoze is installed - it just lets you install many Windoze apps directly on your Mac.

Sounded excellent. I installed CrossOver for Mac, installed several programs (among others a software RIP for my large format printer) and conducted some test runs. Everything worked fine.

Then I wanted to install Xara Xtreme 3.x. However, the installer quit with following message: Xara Xtreme requires at least Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 to continue the installation.

Hello? What the heck does Xara have to do with MS IE, and why does it need it?

Is there a slight chance to offer a modified installer so Mac users will be able to install Xara Xtreme based on CrossOver for Mac?

I mean it's hilarious to install the buggiest software on earth just to install and run a graphics app, isn't it?

After the development of a Xara version for the Mac is dead as it appears, wouldn't it make sense to offer at least a clean installation script for Mac users?

I have tried many vector apps for the Mac, but none even comes close to Xara.

Now that even McNeel software develops a Mac version of the famous Rhino it would be fantastic if we would see a Xara Mac version at the horizon...

Just a thought, and believe me, I would appreciate anything that would help to install Xara on CrossOver - I have too many *.xar files which I can't convert...

[Luke.Hart]

You can fake the installation of IE6 by applying the attached .reg file. This is achieved by running regedit (you'd run command 'wine regedit' for wine, the FOSS version of CrossOver. I'm not sure how to do it for CrossOver) and then importing the file ("File\Import..." menu item). All the reg file does is set a registry entry that specifies the version of IE that is installed.

CrossOver provides it's own implementation of IE which is based on Mozilla rendering which should be able to everything Xtreme needs of it. The reason that the check is present in the first place is that it makes far more sense for Xtreme to make use of the existing IE web browsing functionality than ship it's own reimplementation and to do that it needs to make sure it's present.

[jens g.r. benthien]

Luke, thanks a lot, I will give it a try!

[minimiro]

If this work in that way will be extremally usefull

Sounds promising

[abligh]

Luke, does that mean Xtreme 4.0 works under (a) Wine, (b) Crossover Office? That would be staggeringly useful. Well, not as useful as it running natively (obviously) but still staggeringly useful.

[gnurf]

...and my follow-up question: if it runs under wine, does it run on Linux (for example latest Ubuntu?). Anyway, if you get Xara Xtreme Pro to run on Mac or Linux then my Windows is out the windows!

and BTW, nice hearing from you again Jens!

[jens g.r. benthien]

Paul,

well, it installs but it does have flaws. I've got error messages I've never seen on my PC, the handle bars are almost invisible, the cursor movements are sometimes weird... in short words: Crossover is like a walking stick, you won't be able to make a 100 m run with it.

So I'll stick to original Mac apps and see what I can do. Maybe some day in the future we will see a native Mac version.

Oh, btw, I used Xtreme 3.x for the installation because someone else posted in a forum that Xtreme 4.x doesn't run.

Anyway, heads and thumbs up - the future will tell if Magix will do some magic

[Spinny]

What if we were okay with installing a buggy OS over a nice one? Has anyone had success running Xtreme on a Mac either with VMWare or Boot Camp? Certainly less than an ideal situation, but is it possible?

[Soquili]

Spinny an old post by Charles Moir may provide some insight to using Xtreme on a Mac.
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showpost...81&postcount=4

VMWare showed improvement over Parallels using Xtreme on a Mac. Not sure about Bootcamp.

[remi]

Isn't VirtualBox much more popular (since it's free)?

Remi