Subscribe
Mac users are seeing many different solutions for running Windows on their Intel Mac. Apple provides Boot Camp, a free download and will be included as part of OS X 10.5 Leopard, being previewed for the first time later today at the WWDC in San Francisco. Apple’s Boot Camp solution does require you to reboot your Mac to use Windows. VMware will join several other solutions that will allow users to run Windows (or Linux in some cases) simultaneously with OS X. VMware’s upcoming product is a lot like Parallels that will now see some competition in Mac virtualization.
VMware has just posted a pre-registration for their VMware client for Intel Macs. VMware has long been a big player in the Enterprise space and has several highly regarded “virtualization” products for desktops and servers. This new VMware solution for Intel Macs gives users the ability to simultaneously run any PC OS—Windows, Linux, NetWare and others—on Mac OS X. Switching between the operating systems by easily tabbing between applications and share data between the two operating systems by dragging and dropping files on the fly—all without needing to reboot. VMware will be holding demos at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
Other solutions that may fit Mac users needs are also coming later this month. CodeWeavers’ CrossOver Mac is a commercial product based on the open-source DarWine program uses no actual Windows code to run many Windows applications. That’s right you can run Windows applications (they will provide a list of compatible apps) without ever owning or installing Microsoft Windows. True North Technology’s Northstar is a Web-based service that employs X11 and Java. Northstar works with PowerPC-based as well as Intel-based Mac.
Let’s not forget TransGaming’s new Cider software technology that will allow Windows PC games to run on Intel Macs that I posted last week.
