Codeweavers Diwali Gift : Crossover Goes Free for Today Only

Focus of the post :- No,its not a diwali gift but a lost challenge where you get a  free license for Codeweaver Crossover Linux/Mac software(free engine inside)

Codeweavers CEO and Founder,Jeremy White just lost the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge to George Bush.Part of the Challenge  which CodeWeavers launched in July with a challenge deadline of January 20,2009, the company said it would provide free license under Bush's administration if any of the following things happened:-

• Return the stock market to it's 2008 high; 
• Reduce the average price of a gallon of milk to $3.50; 
• U.S. jobs exceed 138 million
• Return the median home price to its Jan. 1, 2008 level; 
• Capture Osama Bin-Laden 
• Bring the average gasoline prices in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) to $2.79 a gallon. 

Without any effort from the president the global crude oil prices fell below 100$.At the time of Lame challenge the prices were as high as $140 per barrel.CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White saw that gas was $2.79 a gallon during a recent fill-up, "I screamed, 'Woohoo!' Then I yelled, 'Oh, crap!' as I realized every American can now have my software for free - kind of upsets my fourth-quarter revenue projections," he said.So on Tuesday 28th October 2008, all of CodeWeavers products, which allow Mac and Linux users to run Windows applications, can be downloaded for free,instead of $40.[startribune.com]

More on the Software:-
At the time of writing the post,the codeweaver's site is half-down.It is accepting email addresses for free license so get your copy here. The tribune reports Crossover for $40 but Pro version costed $69.95 when i checked the codeweavers site in June 2008.

The official codeweaver product descriptions saved on June 05,2008 from my hdd are here:-
Software by CodeWeavers
The CrossOver Difference: Superior Integration
Crossover Linux Standard and Pro Comparison
Crossover Games

More on Oil:-

Opec agrees to cut oil output (Sep 10,2008) - "Opec oil ministers have agreed to curb their collective output by more than 500,000 barrels a day.An Opec spokesman said members had agreed to cut excess production and "strictly comply" with a quota target of 28.8 million barrels per day."Since the market is oversupplied the conference agreed to abide by September 2007 production allocations totalling 28.8 million barrels per day, levels with which member countries committed to strictly comply," an Opec statement said" [via Al-Jazeera]

Oil tops $140 a barrel (June 26,2008) -Oil prices have risen above $140 a barrel on the New York stock exchange for the first time amid new warnings of future price rises and a Libyan threat to cut production.
US crude oil rose $5.50 to $140.05 a barrel in New York on Thursday afternoon, passing the record of $139.89 a barrel reached on June 16. - [via Al-Jazeera]

More on the Story:-

Codeweavers says cheap gas = free software today (October 27,2008) - 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. [License details here]

'Lame Duck challenge' met, so software is free Credit dropping gas prices with a free software offer on Tuesday for Mac users. [startribune]

More on Codeweaver:-

"CodeWeavers is a company that sells a proprietary version of Wine called CrossOver, for running Windows applications on Mac OS X and Linux. The company was founded in 1996 as a consultancy, eventually moving entirely over to Wine development and support. The CrossOver version of Wine is regularly refreshed with the latest free Wine patches; likewise, patches from the company's employees are sent back to the project almost immediately. The Company's products include CrossOver Pro Linux, CrossOver Pro Mac, CrossOver Games for Linux, and CrossOver Games for Mac. CrossOver Server was discontinued in 2007 as CrossOver Pro replaced its functionality. The company's products have traditionally focused on making Microsoft software staples like Microsoft Office, MS Word, and MS Excel run on Linux. With the addition of CrossOver Pro Mac the company has also begun focusing on games and other applications not available natively on the Mac platform, such as MS Visio and MS Project. CrossOver Games was introduced in March 2008 and is intended to allow gaming-related patches from Wine to be incorporated into CrossOver much faster. The CrossOver Pro product line will focus on stability and in-depth testing with supported productivity software, such as Microsoft Office, and will have a slower release cycle.
CodeWeavers also provides implementation and consulting services around Wine and other open-source software projects. Google has paid CodeWeavers to improve support for Adobe Photoshop and add functionality to Wine." -- [via wikipedia]

Updates:- 

Email Received from codeweavers on 1st November,2008:-

The CodeWeavers Lame Duck Presidential Challenge

You are now registered to use the following serial number for CrossOver.
---------------------------------

MY 19 DIGIT SERIAL NUMBER
----------------------------------

To get your free software, simply enter the code above at the following URL:

http://register.codeweavers.com

Once you've done that, you will be able to log into your account on CodeWeavers' web site, and download your product.

You have until November 30th 2008 to register this code with us. After that date, the code will no longer be valid.

Limit 1 copy per customer.  Download only.

We apologize for the delay in getting this code to you. The load on our systems was far beyond our expectations.

Getting Help:
If you need further help on our software, please check the following links:

 * Online Video Help:
      http://www.codeweavers.com/products/videos/
 * Online Documentation :
      http://www.codeweavers.com/support/docs/
 * Support Wiki:
      http://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki/

We appreciate your interest, and we hope that you enjoy using CrossOver!

• If have already installed the demo version then you can convert your demo copy by registering with the codeweaver email-address and password.

• If you dont have an internet ready machine then you can download your Crossover Pro Linux/Mac/Game from the My Downloads Section after logging into your account.This way you dont have to activate it over the internet.