Linspire's CNR Technology to Deliver CrossOver Linux 6.0

SAN DIEGO, March 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Linspire, Inc. developer of the Linspire commercial and Freespire community desktop Linux operating systems and developer of CNR, a one-click digital software delivery service for desktop Linux applications, libraries and packages, and CodeWeavers, Inc., the leading Windows-to-Linux software developer, today announced the release and support of CrossOver Linux 6.0 for CNR. This marks the latest CodeWeavers upgrade for the market leading product that allows the running of native Windows application within a desktop Linux operating system. Incorporating substantially improved support for many popular games, including World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2 and Counterstrike, CrossOver Linux 6.0 now offers CNR users more flexibility than ever to run the Windows applications they need. CrossOver Linux 6.0 is immediately available via digital download using CNR one-click download and installation software delivery system at: http://www.linspire.com/crossoveroffice

"CodeWeavers continues to offer quality Linux migration products," stated Kevin Carmony CEO of Linspire. "Delivering CrossOver Linux 6.0 with CNR technology to Linspire and Freespire users provides an economical environment to use legacy Windows software applications on a secure stable desktop Linux operating system."

CrossOver Linux has become an essential productivity utility for millions of Linux users around the world by supporting the seamless, dependable installation and operation of scores of top-name Windows applications natively within Linux. Microsoft Office, Outlook, Visio, and Internet Explorer, as well as Adobe's Photoshop, Macromedia's Dreamweaver, Intuit's Quicken and QuickBooks, and Lotus Notes, are just some of the many popular business and productivity applications that can be used on Linux desktops via CrossOver Linux. Now, with 6.0, CodeWeavers intends to bring that same reliability to the gaming market.

"With CrossOver Linux 6.0, it is a major step forward for the Windows-to-Linux movement as we have now entered the gaming space," said Jeremy White CEO of CodeWeavers. "Leveraging the good work from both CodeWeavers developers and the open-source Wine community, we are now able to offer users a more compatible and complete experience than ever before."

World of Warcraft, the most popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) is a cornerstone of this effort.

"World of Warcraft is an immensely popular title, with millions of players around the world, including many in our core markets," White noted. "We feel that it's important to provide quality support for game titles such as this, and we've labored to provide a very high-quality level of playability under our product for World of Warcraft."

In addition, CodeWeavers has also worked hard to increase CrossOver Linux general support for such popular productivity applications such as Office 2003, including support for native connections to Exchange Servers via MS Outlook, as well as products such as MS Project(R) 2003 and MS Visio(R) 2003.

CodeWeavers' flagship Linux compatibility tool had heretofore been known as CrossOver Office. However, with the simultaneous release of CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac product at MacWorld in San Francisco, the company has clarified the naming of its products to indicate the specific platform supported; hence the retirement of the CrossOver Office name and the creation of CrossOver Linux and CrossOver Mac.

CrossOver Linux 6.0 Standard is now available for $39.95 and $34.95 for CNR Gold members. To download CrossOver Linux, or to learn more, visit http://www.linspire.com/crossoveroffice

About Linspire & Freespire

Linspire, Inc. (http://www.linspire.com) was founded in 2001 to bring choice into the operating system market. The company's flagship product, the Linspire operating system, is an affordable, easy-to-use Linux-based operating system distributed primarily pre-installed on PCs for home, school, and business users. Linspire pioneered CNR Technology, which allows Linspire users access to thousands of software programs, each of which can be downloaded and installed with just one mouse click. The thousands of software titles available in the CNR Warehouse (http://www.linspire.com/cnr) include full office and productivity suites, games, multimedia players, photo management software, accounting tools, and more. Freespire (http://www.freespire.org) is a community-driven, Linux-based operating system that combines the best that free, open source software has to offer (community driven, freely distributed, open source code, etc.), but also provides users the choice of including proprietary codecs, drivers and applications as they see fit. With Freespire, the choice is yours as to what software is installed on your computer, with no limitations or restrictions placed on that choice. How you choose to maximize the performance of your computer is entirely up to you.

About CNR

CNR is a one-click digital software delivery service for desktop Linux applications, libraries and packages developed by Linspire, Inc. CNR allows desktop Linux users to find, install, uninstall, manage, and keep updated, thousands of free open source, as well as commercial software programs, on their desktop Linux computer, all with just one click. CNR is so easy to use, literally anyone can use it, of any age or computer skill level.

About CodeWeavers, Inc.:

Founded in 1996 as a general software consultancy, CodeWeavers today focuses on the development of Wine and other Linux programming solutions. The company's goal is to bring expanded market opportunities for Windows software developers by making it easier, faster, and more painless to port Windows software to Linux. CodeWeavers is recognized as a leader in open-source Windows porting technology, and maintains development offices in Minnesota, California, the Netherlands, and Germany. The company is privately held. For more information about CodeWeavers, log on to http://www.codeweavers.com.

For more information and interview requests: Linspire, Inc.

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