As some people already found out, all CrossOver (CX) Ports are currently not working in Snow Leopard.

Typical behavior:

The app will launch, the Icon will bounce a few times in the Dock, then it quits. 

.

Responsible for this problem is Apple’s new X11 Window System implementation in Snow Leopard. A radical change on how the System talks with X11 is the problem, and there is currently no solution to that problem.
History proved that Apple likes to change Core System components without notifying developers and end users, so there is no surprise here. 

Read on for further info.

Now a bit on how X11 worked for the end user: 
(I’ll try to explain it for users who don’t know X11 very well, so i’ll reword some things a bit here to make it easier…)

(from wikipedia)

	Quote: The X Window System (commonly X or X11) is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for networked computers, and was initially developed as part of Project Athena. It implements the X display protocol and provides windowing on raster graphics (bitmap) computer displays and manages keyboard and pointing device control functions. In its standard distribution, it is a complete, albeit simple, display and human interface solution, but also delivers a standard toolkit and protocol stack for building graphical user interfaces on most Unix-like operating systems…

Now why is this software necessary?
The X11 Window System is necessary for Applications that were originally developed on another platform. 
WINE is the code translation software that CrossOver builds upon, and this software needs the X11 Window System to work. 

Why not use Apple’s native Carbon and Cocoa frameworks?
Software that originally came from another platform needs massive amounts of code-rewrite to work on another platform, and to make things easier for developers that code apps for different Operating Systems the X11 Window System was invented. No need to radically rewrite your app for native frameworks, just add some code to let it run in the universal X11 Window System; to make it possible to let it run on another platform.

Why do Games ported with Cider work?
Cider brings it’s own heavily modified and natively compiled frameworks into the Game, and doesn’t rely on System Software. 
In every Cider Wrapper there are hundreds of frameworks that mostly do what X11 does for the Games/Apps ported for CX. 

Why can’t we use Cider instead of CrossOver?
Cider mostly likes the type of Games with specific engines it was designed for, and it’s not useful for anything else. 
The CX Wrapper is basically a jack-of-all-trades, meaning it almost can do anything WINE can. 

Apple’s core X11 is somewhat old and primitive in a sense, so another Group wanted to make the X11 Window System more advanced for other applications and other uses. 
The XQuartz group which develops the modified X11 (that builds upon Apples own X11 version) is steadily releasing its own X11/XQuartz updates that improve and add new features and compatibility for Linux software like WINE 

The XQuartz Group already has a Roadmap for a Snow Leopard compatible X11, but the release date is unknown for now. 
http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/roadmap


Now what currently our options are:
-The CodeWeavers Team fixed this launcher bug in their recent build of CrossOver 8, but the CX Wrapper that you’ll find here doesn’t have this bug fixed. 
Fixing this Bug would require developer level knowledge of the CrossOver Software (which we don’t have), and this wouldn’t help all the already ported Games. (since every Game needs to be updated with the new Wrapper)
-The XQuartz Group releases a backwards compatible X11 update that addresses this Situation, and all Ports work with Snow Leopard again. 


So there is currently no solution for Snow Leopard users, either you want Apple’s new Cat or you’ll he happy with the ‘old’ Leopard and you’re able to run all Ported CX Games.
Alternatively, you can get CrossOver 8 (that works with SL) and install these Games and Applications yourself for the time being, until this situation is has a solution. 

But:
The development of new Software is usually fast, so there should be an answer to this problem after Snow Leopard officially arrives and more users have the option to check out what the fuss is all about. 

So, that’s it from me and i hope this explains the Snow Leopard situation; and naturally this is open for discussions. 

Forum Discussion Thread is here

.

stay sharp

zero