Update 10/28: Welcome, Digg fans. CodeWeavers' site is getting crunched under the massive demand for the free versions of CrossOver, so there is now a minimal site at down.codeweavers.com that will accept your email address; you will be mailed your registration code in the next couple of days.

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Three months ago, CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White offered a challenge to another CEO -- the nation's chief executive, George W. Bush. If the president achieved one of White's six "Lame Duck" goals during the twilight of his 2nd term, White would make Windows-API enabler & WINE GUI CrossOver free to customers for one day. Some considered White's proposal a great motivational tool for GWB; others found it smug, partisan and kind of a goofy way to promote the company's products, but in any event none of his six challenges seemed to be on the path to achievement, so that's where the story should have ended. CrossOver is a fine way to run Windows apps on your Mac, but as a force for political change, not so much.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to January 20th: due to global economic conditions and through no fault of the president, the price of crude oil dropped precipitously and the cost of gasoline moved in parallel... bringing the average price per gallon in Minneapolis down to the target $2.79 level called for in White's goal #1. Can anyone say "Taco?"

The Star-Tribune is reporting that White is planning to follow through on his pledge: on Tuesday 10/28, all CodeWeavers products (CrossOver Mac, Linux & Games) will be freely downloadable. One license per customer, and we assume that the free licenses will be for the standard versions of the apps. Update: Word from CodeWeavers execs is that the free license will be for a download-only flavor of the Pro version (!), including the Games optimized build and the option to share a Windows 'bottle' among multiple users on the same machine. You will have to choose either the Mac or Linux product for your free copy (and I'm looking forward to the stats on that split once the dust settles). Pro licenses are eligible for support/update renewals after one year for $35.

You might argue with White's politics or his promotional instincts, but you can't argue with free software. CrossOver Mac normally retails for $40 and requires an Intel machine running either Tiger or Leopard.

Update 2: A number of commenters have pointed out that the original challenge rules said the giveaway day would be on the first of the month following the goal, meaning Nov. 1 instead of Oct. 28. CodeWeavers' press release confirms that the giveaway day will be 10/28 and not 11/1. The giveaway runs from midnight to midnight CST.

Thanks Austin!

Reader Greg Taylor advises that Codeweavers' WINE-based Win32 application runtime Crossover is due for release during Macworld. The release version should be downloadable for registered users sometime this week.

It remains to be seen how well Crossover will do up against more traditional virtualization approaches like Parallels and VMWare. It's true that Crossover lets you run Windows apps without the overhead (or licensing cost) of Windows, with varying degrees of compatibility; but with Parallels' new Coherence mode allowing mix-and-match Windows applications 'floating' in the Mac UI, and enough RAM, it may not be an easy sell.

We missed this a few days ago, but Crossover Mac, CodeWeaver's WINE environment that allows you to run Windows applications along side OS X applications, with no need for virtualization, has been updated to Beta 2. What's new in b2? Lots, apparently. There are "dramatic" performance improvements and bug fixes for full screen mode, case-sensitive file systems, CPU detection, and the registration process, to name a few. Now I haven't personally used Crossover yet, since I'm supremely satisfied with Parallels, so I can't confirm that those updates are actually there, but I'm willing to give the developer the benefit of the doubt on this one. If you're using it, please chime in with your thoughts.

Thanks, Mike!

CodeWeavers has just released the beta of Crossover for the Mac. What the heck is Crossover for the Mac? It is a WINE environment that allows you to run Windows applications along side OS X applications, without the need for virtualization. This product will be a boon for those folks that only need one Windows application from time to time.

I had a chance to install this on my MacBook Pro (this works on Intel Macs only, folks), and it is obviously still a beta. I was able to install Office 2003, but Outlook refused to connect to my Exchange server, which pretty would be the only reason I would be using Crossover. However, it is still a beta so these things will happen (it also froze up a few times). You can check out more pics of Crossover in action over at Engadget.