Virtualization Software for Intel-Based Macs


Yesterday I went on a bit about Apple's Boot Camp software that enables booting into Windows, and said I'd prefer running Windows in a virtual machine (VM) when it became available. Turns out that such software is available today for beta testing from Parallels; here's the press release. And according to this, it's very, very fast, too --- if the video isn't faked, it's darn impressive...


It'd be nice not to have to reboot to get from OS X to Windows, clumsily transferring data between the two through a shared volume. Virtualization also has the advantages of putting Windows behind OS X's firewall, and keeping the whole Windows disk image in a single file within the OS X file system --- making it a cinch to back up or reinstall a Windows virtual machine.

I'm still holding out to see a little more choice in the Intel-based Mac laptops, and maybe give Apple a little time to shake out any lingering first generation bugs... but I have no doubt that Apple will be getting some more business from me later this year. And unless something better comes along by then, so will Parallels.

Posted: Thu - April 6, 2006 at 11:54 PM          

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