Virtualisation for the Mac! Not simply a dual boot!

[mr_coffee]

04 April 2006
Virtualisation for the Mac arrives

By Manek Dubash, Techworld
Virtualisation software company Parallels said it will announce a virtualisation product for Intel-powered Macs, with more details becoming available later this week.
http://adserver.adtech.de/?adserv|2.0|340|114476|1|171|KEY=top;grp=99273716; loc=200; (http://adserver.adtech.de/?adlink|2.0|340|114476|1|171|KEY=top;grp=99273716; loc=200;) http://adserver.adtech.de/?adserv|2.0|340|114476|1|171|KEY=top;grp=99273716; (http://adserver.adtech.de/?adlink|2.0|340|114476|1|171|KEY=top;grp=99273716; loc=300;) According to spokesman Ben Rudolph: "We will enable users to run multiple operating systems (like Linux and Windows) simultaneously with Mac OS X. This is not simply a "dual-boot" but instead gives our users the ability to use Windows or any other operating system at the same time as Mac OS X, enabling users to enjoy the comfort of their Mac OS X desktop while still being able to use critical applications from other OSes."
Parallels is a privately held, US-based software company that launched its first virtualisation tool, Parallels Workstation, last year (http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=4512). The Russian-developed software competes directly with VMware Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC, albeit -- at the time of launch - -at a lower price.
Since then. VMware has started giving away VMware Player.


http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsID=5712



I never owend a Mac. But If this works out i'll be for sure buying a mac for basic stuff. Then pressing F12 to go into windows to waste some life on video games on Windows. Then perhaps going into Linux for programming. O yes a dream come true!

[JustinB]

Almost anything that runs on linux runs on a mac - check out Fink (http://fink.sf.net) as a package manager.

GCC is built in, as is perl. KDevelop, eclipse, and many others run great on a mac.

However, xcode has its fans and once you get used to it also provides an excellent environment. About the only tool you'll really miss is valgrind, which as far as I'm aware isn't available for the mac.

As far as gaming, you are going to be sorely disappointed in virtualization performance, because it can't fully accelerate graphics. Running windows games on a mac without dual booting will cause unhappiness.

-- JB

[mr_coffee]

sad face,
I want a MAC, just because I know windows is slowly getting pwnt by MAC/Linux, and it looks pretty but really thats it. Maybe i don't need a MAC if i'm always going to be booting up into windows anyways to play games. And like you said, Linux can do everything a MAC can do. The MAC still looks prettier, but KDE 5 is looking pretty sexy as well.


Justin, if i dual boot with say,
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
Will i get full graphics acceleration? Also does Mac support nVidia or just ATI? I don't like ATI cards at all thats why i was wondering.

Thanks.

[JustinB]

Heh - I didn't say that linux can do everything a mac can do, I said it the other way around.

And it isn't EVERYTHING, it's just most things.

That being said, they still don't have full graphics acceleration available for windows on mac, but I expect them to shortly.

As for NVIDIA, the only intel macs right now are those that have no expansion capabilities - ie no swapping video cards. ATI is what they come with and what you get.

You won't be able to put nvidia in until they come out with the intel tower, and then it will probably be a while before they come out with an nvidia card.

-- JB

[mr_coffee]

f word! Thanks for the info.
Im curious what can a Mac do that Linux can't do?