April 07, 2006
Windows Virtualisation on Mac OSX on Intel
I have been wanting to run windows applications within OSX for quite some time. Up until now the only option has been Virtual PC, which runs really slowly. With the introduction of macs using the intel processor the realisation of windows on macs became a little closer as windows only runs on x86 based processors. Then came the dual booting programs that allowed intel macs to boot both windows and OSX but this is not really what you want because it means rebooting to move back and forth between the operating systems and lets face it, windows sucks and OSX is just gorgeous to use. So what we really need is either a virtualisation layer within OSX to install windows into, similar to Virtual PC but for intel. A company called Parallels has created a product called Parallels Workstation which is now available as a beta for 30 day trial. Unfortunately I do not have an intel mac to test this out just yet but watch this space.
Although Parallels Workstation is still not the optimal situation as you still need to run a full copy of windows within the virtualisation environment within OSX. What I would prefer to see is a software abstraction layer that allows windows applications to run from directly within OSX and think that they are running within the windows environment, similar to Wine on the Linux operating system. You never know we may see this also in the near future, until then Parallels Workstation seems like a very promising product.
Links
Parallels Workstation Beta Download Page
Wine Home Page
