CodeWeavers is giving away a free subscription to it's CrossOver software this Wednesday
CodeWeavers, Inc., developer of CrossOver software which enables Mac and Linux users to run Windows software on their computers without the need of a Microsoft license, announced today that it will give away CrossOver for free on October 31, 2012 to everyone on earth with a computer.
How to Get the Free Software
On Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, beginning at 00:00 Central Time (+6 GMT), anyone visiting CodeWeavers’ Flock The Vote promotional web site (flock.codeweavers.com) will be able to download a free, fully functional copy of either CrossOver Mac or CrossOver Linux. Each copy comes complete with 12 months of support and product upgrades. The offer will continue for 24 hours, from 00:00 to 23:59, Oct. 31, 2012.
This announcement came as a shock to insiders. The company had recently launched its “Flock the Vote” challenge – a voter turnout initiative in which CodeWeavers promised free software for 24 hours if 100,000 people pledged to vote in the 2012 Presidential election at www.codeweavers.com/flockthevote. However, the numbers of pledges was still far below 100,000 as of today. Observing lower-than-anticipated numbers, CEO Jeremy White began poking around in the web site’s code base.
“Apparently still harboring ill-will from our 2008 give-away, our IT man, Jeremy Newman, had been diverting pledges into an old Hotmail account,” said White. “This promotion was a big deal to me,” continued White, ”such a big deal, in fact, that I’ve recently taken to wearing a duck costume as my normal working attire. When I discovered Newman’s agenda, I was forced to trigger the giveaway immediately and to suspend his Diablo 3 privileges through the fourth quarter. Take that, Newman!”
Employees, including Newman, have serious concerns about the giveaway’s effect on the company’s financial stability and point to the utter chaos following the company’s previous “Lame Duck Presidential Challenge” in 2008 (summarized below). Upon hearing the 2012 giveaway announcement, employees exploded into an angry riot – the event was captured on video and can be seen at ().
Codeweavers 2008 Lame Duck Presidential Challenge
The company’s previous initiative to stimulate voter participation was 2008’s “CodeWeavers Lame Duck Presidential Challenge”. On October 28th of that year, gas dropped below $2.80 per gallon, thereby triggering one of the five goals CodeWeavers presented earlier in the year to then outgoing president George W. Bush. The promotion culminated in a mind-blowing 650,000 online registrations to receive a free-license for its flagship product CrossOver. One million people visited the company website in the following month.
The firm’s servers melted under the intense in-bound web traffic, and fear of eroded sales haunted the company from top to bottom. Oh, and their IT guy was really pissed. After the dust had settled, though, CodeWeavers survived, enjoying a healthy uptick in brand awareness, and eventually sales. “For his sake,” a feather-covered Jeremy Newman muttered darkly, “He’d better hope the same thing happens here.”
About CodeWeavers
Founded in 1996 as a general software consultancy, CodeWeavers focuses on the development of Wine –the core technology found in all of its CrossOver products. 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, the United Kingdom and elsewhere around the world. The company is privately held. For more information about CodeWeavers, log on to www.codeweavers.com.
