“Amidst pressure from several avenues, Microsoft was forced to cut features from its new Windows emulation software in order to deliver G5 compatibility without further delays,’ Kasper Jade reports for AppleInsider. “Many of the feature enhancements originally planned for Virtual PC 7.0 did not make it into the version of software that will begin shipping this month, multiple sources tell AppleInsider.”
“According to reports, the emerging presence of Apple’s G5 processor played a major role in Microsoft’s decision to trim a significant number of features from the emulation software late in its development cycle. As a result, sources said that the software may not run as fast as some users may have come to expect,” Jade reports. “Several additional features have also been delayed until future revisions of software, such as an increase in the software’s PC memory from 512MB to 4GB and a new option to use Virtual PC’s virtual PC hard drive as a RAM disk for faster virtual disk performance. Microsoft has also decided to hold off on some refinements to Virtual PC’s multiprocessing support, which will eventually allow audio emulation, networking, IDE I/O, and USB functions to be offloaded from the primary processor.”
“Future versions of Virtual PC are expected to reacquire most, if not all of the features cut from the development of Virtual PC 7.0. Unfortunately, sources were unable to provide target release dates, stating only that some features may not mature until next summer,” Jade reports.
More details in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Surprised? We’re not. In our MacDailyNews Opinion section on February 19, 2003, the day it was announced that Microsoft had acquired Virtual PC from Connectix, SteveJack wrote, “Virtual PC for Macintosh is dead.” Full article: Bill Gates to Steve Jobs regarding Virtual PC: Checkmate – February 19, 2003
in the words of Ben Stein… wow
Wow, this comes as a total shock!
With all the slow downs and delays at Microsoft one has to wonder if they are not having internal personnel problems; such as the software writing guys purposely slowing down the development of products because of:
-they are not getting bonuses like in the good old days,
-their stock options are going no where,
-threats of losing their jobs to India
and of course
– Steve Ballmer is a total dweeb,
– Bill Gates has lost touch with the market and computer software product development.
Pathetic. After all the good will they built with Office 2004 for the Mac, they go and pull this.
Even assuming competency, this is unacceptable. They better come clean with a road map for this product and when we can expect revisions.
This is just like the limited file names in the old office. Annoying and petty.
Hey MDN.. seriously.. screw off with the pessimism about VPC7 …
Yeah MS slows progress.. but they’re releasing software.. it’s not like they’re shutting down the division..
I’m not going to jump down MSFT’s throat on this one. Their product is late getting to market. Shock.
Still, the Mac BU could be a lot worse.
Why Microsoft continues to support a dead, inferior platform is beyond me. Hey, I here Virtual PC for Amiga is coming soon!
heres a thought ….
You run VPC and WinDoze….. youre just as vunerable to all the problems and hassles PeeCeers have to deal with….
I once won a copy of VPC in a CompUSA Mac promotional drawing …
The dozens of people present seemed aghast when I traded it to the guy who won the Macintosh T-Shirt !!
VPC and WinDoze ?? …. No thanx….
You know, I have a copy of Virtual PC 6. I think I’ve used it about 10 times altogether. (“I think I’ve used it about 10 times.”)* Since I got my G5 and wasn’t able to use VPC, I discovered that I actually don’t NEED VPC at all. I am also proud to say that my G5 doesn’t have a single bit of Micro***t software on it.
*see “Airplane!”
Keep drinking the Kool Aid, my sweet lemmings. This is Reverand Jim saying “Go to sleep, my lttle Mac-ies.”
Seems that Jon E Wunnut is experiencing significant OS-envy since his favorite bovine has been emasculated (that is, has no nuts for you Windows users) and Tiger (that is, 64-bit OS among other features) will be commercially available in 2005.
Connectix were very clever, innovative programmers. Remember, Sony had to buyout and bury Virtual Game Station because it was so good and was shown to use none of Sony’s code.
I keep reading M$ has some very clever people, I don’t see any evidence for this. Their software has always been mediocre at best. They can’t keep up with Apple (see Shorthorn) and they don’t have the skills to do VPC.
Isn’t Bill the chief software architect?
“Isn’t Bill the chief software architect?”
Exactly, and that’s one of the root causes for MS’s bad software. Gates has been quoted as saying that he doesn’t need documentation for his code — the code itself is its own best documentation. That’s total nonsense of course, but that principle was also the practice at MS (until maybe 2001 — I can’t speak beyond then).
MS’s actual code, the stuff developers used to get, is a horrible C hack, a kludge of conditional compilations, ad hoc solutions, and almost no documentation. This was particularly true for WINCE code I had to read.
Marketing drives development at MS. Gates insisted that MS’s software engineers produce Word for Windows (version 1) — “develop the best word processor ever” — preferably within a year. So the engineers came up with an estimate of — guess what — 365 days. It actually shipped in 1887 days. Only one of the 15 estimates made during the project was any longer than 365 days, yet for 10 of those estimates the actual shipping time was more than a year. Many estimates were off by a factor of THREE or more. This is called estimation by wishful thinking.
When a company drives code like this, with forced coding marches, the results are usually disastrous. Gates was never able to get past the hacker’s mentality that we can force ourselves to do any project in a short time. This thinking actually accomplishes two things: (1) it makes the project late and (2) it makes the quality of the project poor. These are the very opposite of Gates’s original goals.
MS took its lead from a man who scorned the oft-proved principles of software construction (“Who’s the billionaire? Me, or those academicians?”). No wonder just about everything he has touched has turned to crap. His most successful products, DOS, Excel, etc., were developed elsewhere initially. Even Windows 3 was enhanced by Apple’s actual OS code (seen under license and later subject to lawsuit).
Gates is a software cowboy and too many of suffer from his quick shooter.
“….Gates is a software cowboy and too many of suffer from his quick shooter..”
And Bill Gates’ wife exclaimed on her wedding night ….
“….Oh ! … so THATS why you call it ..”Micro-soft !”
Who needs VPC now that there is that emulation software for any platform?
<h1>Please visit some helpful info dedicated to phenterminecom | phenterminecom | http://www.phenterminecom-top-deals.info/ | <br/> the founder of texas holdem poker | the founder of texas holdem poker | http://www.the-founder-of-texas-holdem-poker-game.info/ | <br/> buy phentermine on line without rx | buy phentermine on line without rx | http://www.buy-phentermine-on-line-without-rx-pharmacy-2003.info/ | <br/> texas holdem play poker free | texas holdem play poker free | http://www.texas-holdem-play-poker-free-win.info/ | <br/> lowest price for phentermine overnight | lowest price for phentermine overnight | http://www.lowest-price-for-phentermine-overnight-leading-pharmacy.info/ | <br/> holdem history | holdem history | http://www.holdem-history-win.info/ | <br/> phentermine and sibutramine be combined | phentermine and sibutramine be combined | http://www.phentermine-and-sibutramine-be-combined-leading-pharmacy.info/ | <br/> free holdempoker | free holdempoker | http://www.free-holdempoker-game.info/ | <br/> texas holdem versus computer | texas holdem versus computer | http://www.texas-holdem-versus-computer-games.info/ | <br/>- Tons of interesdting stuff!!! </h1>
<h1>Please visit some helpful info dedicated to phenterminecom | phenterminecom | http://www.phenterminecom-top-deals.info/ | <br/> the founder of texas holdem poker | the founder of texas holdem poker | http://www.the-founder-of-texas-holdem-poker-game.info/ | <br/> buy phentermine on line without rx | buy phentermine on line without rx | http://www.buy-phentermine-on-line-without-rx-pharmacy-2003.info/ | <br/> texas holdem play poker free | texas holdem play poker free | http://www.texas-holdem-play-poker-free-win.info/ | <br/> lowest price for phentermine overnight | lowest price for phentermine overnight | http://www.lowest-price-for-phentermine-overnight-leading-pharmacy.info/ | <br/> holdem history | holdem history | http://www.holdem-history-win.info/ | <br/> phentermine and sibutramine be combined | phentermine and sibutramine be combined | http://www.phentermine-and-sibutramine-be-combined-leading-pharmacy.info/ | <br/> free holdempoker | free holdempoker | http://www.free-holdempoker-game.info/ | <br/> texas holdem versus computer | texas holdem versus computer | http://www.texas-holdem-versus-computer-games.info/ | <br/>- Tons of interesdting stuff!!! </h1>
you guys do realise that M$ didn’t buy vpc to sabotage it. they bought it because connetix started shipping it with redhat linux, if people run windows on a mac they still get money but if people do it with linux they don’t. they aren’t didn’t sabotage it, because then they’d just lose customers and money.