Run Windows apps on the Mac using WineBottler

I recently stumbled upon an interesting application called the WineBottler that emulates Windows apps on the Mac. It’s similar in the behavior to Codeweavers Crossover, but it’s free and open source.

The operation is pretty simple, after starting up the WineBottler you have a list of Windows programs you can install, and you might be happy to know that the list includes all the most popular Interent Explorers – 6, 7 and 8. The interface is pretty slick and trivial.

I tried IE 6 and it installed and started up smoothly, though you might wanna do a silent install, otherwise it will keep asking you to accept several different EULAs. This old Explorer started up good, using the Unix X windows (but so does Crossover), and it rendered pages in its own crappy way as it should :)

So, if you wanna try out some typical Windows apps, without the need to bootcamp, WineBottler might be a solution for you. It’s not good for games yet, but it should be a handy tool for a web developer.

PS. Happy New Year !