The catastrophic cratering of the global economy, falling gas prices and President George W. Bush’s recent executive activities have indirectly prompted Saint Paul gadfly software developers CodeWeavers, Inc., to provide free software for every American on Oct. 28, company officials reluctantly announced today.
In July, CodeWeavers – whose software lets Mac OS X and Linux users run Windows programs without having to go to Microsoft for a Windows OS license – launched the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge to encourage President Bush to make the most of his remaining days in office by accomplishing a major economic or political goal by January 20, 2009.
The goals focused on President Bush making specific positive accomplishments in areas such as the economy, home values, the stock market, the war on terror and other key issues. Specifically, one goal called for President Bush to help down bring average gasoline prices in the Twin Cities to $2.79 a gallon.
On Monday, Oct. 14, gas prices in Minneapolis and St. Paul did just that.
“That morning, I was filling my tank at Big Steve’s Gas Palace in St. Paul,” said Jeremy White, president and CEO of CodeWeavers. “I had just finished my morning corn dog and 64-ounce Dr. Pepper when I looked at the pump and noticed gas was at $2.79. 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…”
White admits this is not how he foresaw the Challenge unfolding.
“I launched the campaign to inspire President Bush to make the most of his final days in office. Who knew that our Challenge would have this kind of impact on the country?” White said. “On the other hand, who knew that the economy would implode, causing oil demand to drop into the abyss and gas prices to plummet as well. Clearly, investigating Bear Stearns, AIG and those guys is misplaced – CodeWeavers is responsible for this mess. So it’s free software for all!”
How to Get the Free Software
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008, any one visiting the CodeWeavers’ Web site will be given a deal code that will entitle them to one free copy of CodeWeavers’ award-winning CrossOver software. Each copy comes complete with support.
“I realize that by giving away all my software, I’ve caused horrific damage to my company’s bottom line,” White said. “In fact, our vice president of sales wretched Starbucks all over his shirt when he learned the news. But, I figure, the way the economy is going, in a few months everyone might be out on the streets, wearing potato sacks and standing in line for squirrel soup, so why not?”
White also noted that if other Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge goals are met, CodeWeavers will once again provide free software. Goals include:
* Return the stock market to it’s 2008 high
* Reduce the average price of a gallon of milk to $3.50
* Create at least one net job in the U.S. this calendar year
* Return the median home price to its Jan. 1, 2008 level
* Bring Osama Bin-Laden to justice
About CodeWeavers
Founded in 1996 as a general software consultancy, CodeWeavers today 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 Mac OS X and Linux. CodeWeavers is recognized as a leader in open-source Windows porting technology, and maintains development offices in Minnesota, the UK and elsewhere around the world. The company is privately held. For more information about CodeWeavers, log on to www.codeweavers.com.
(Steve Borsch note: this entire post was verbatim from the Codeweavers press release…funny enough to just run as is).
UPDATE: CodeWeavers gave away 650,000 copies of CrossOver on Tuesday Oct. 28th, which equates to $45,000,000 of software. Yeah, their servers melted between 1-5AM, but they were able to recover nicely, thanks to their genius sysadmin. The team is currently in the process of mailing out serial numbers to folks and hope to have that done today. Also, their registration period will be extended to make sure everyone has a chance to register their product.
November 1st, 2008 at 9:09 am
This came in to Minnov8 on Friday the 31st:
CODEWEAVERS LAMEDUCK CHALLENGE SOFTWARE GIVEAWAY MASSIVE SUCCESS, ABRUPTLY SHUT DOWN
Because Gas Prices Fall in Bush’s Waning Days, CodeWeavers Gives Away 650,000 Copies of Software Valued at $45 Million
CEO: “Perfect Internet Hellstorm”
SAINT PAUL, Minn. (October 30, 2008) – Saint Paul software developers CodeWeavers, Inc., gave away 650,000 copies of its software Tuesday as it declared victory in its acclaimed Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge, in which it promised the giveaway if President Bush accomplished anything in his administration’s waning days. With its servers melted and its business plan in limbo, CodeWeavers also is shutting the Challenge down.
Post-giveaway, this guerilla marketing effort spearheaded by Minneapolis brand public relations firm Haberman and Associates yielded:
-650,000 downloads valued at $45 million dollars – expanding CodeWeavers’ existing customer base by 400 percent
-Arguably more software downloads in 24 hours than any other company of this size in history
-50,000 YouTube views in 24 hours of a video updating the public on the state of the phenomenon
-Intense blog and Web activity on sites such as Digg.com, Twitter.com, Slashdot.com and others
-25 terabytes of software uploaded
In July, CodeWeavers – whose software lets Mac OS X and Linux users run Windows programs without having to pay a penny to Microsoft – launched the challenge (lameduck.codeweavers.com) to encourage Bush to make the most of the remaining days of his office by accomplishing a major economic or political goal by January 20, 2009.
Goals focused on the economy, home values, the stock market, the War on Terror and other key issues. In particular, one challenge goal called for President Bush to help bring average gasoline prices in the Twin Cities to $2.79 a gallon. On Monday, Oct. 14, gas prices in Minneapolis and St. Paul did just that.
“Okay, so it was the cratering global economy that caused oil prices to fall,” said Jeremy White, chief executive officer of CodeWeavers. “But a goal met is a goal met, so we designated Oct. 28 as the day to give out the software, officially kicking off at 12:01 a.m. I can’t thank our systems administrator, Jeremy Newman, enough for his incredible work keeping our server in tact throughout the first twelve hours of the maelstrom. We were expecting a busy day giving away – oh, I don’t know – 10,000 copies, not 650,000.”
Soon thereafter, when individuals began uploading copies at 20 a second, White knew the giveaway was a success and an unmitigated disaster.
“The server rack was leaking smoke, our system administrator took the bowl of Halloween candy next to the front door and devoured more than 50 Kit Kats before our eyes,” White said. “I ran for our C.O.O. and V.P. of Sales to come and help calm him, but to my horror I found them snorting a mound of Alka-Seltzer in the conference room. Less than 18 hours later we had given away 650,000 copies of software.”
The Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge’s original rules called for more giveaways if President Bush met additional set goals by January 20, 2009.
“Upon further reflection, though, we decided to discontinue the Challenge,” White said. “We felt that we had done what we set out to do. We got noticed, we had a lot of fun with it and we made a lot of people happy – many more than we could have imagined. So, we feel like we’ve honored our commitments as far as honesty and generosity are concerned. That said, we need to get back to a for-profit business model again. And rapidly…”
For more information, visit lameduck.codeweavers.com.
About CodeWeavers
Founded in 1996 as a general software consultancy, CodeWeavers today 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 Mac OS X and Linux. CodeWeavers is recognized as a leader in open-source Windows porting technology, and maintains development offices in Minnesota, the UK and elsewhere around the world. The company is privately held. For more information about CodeWeavers, log on to http://www.codeweavers.com.