“If you think running Windows XP on an Apple Macintosh sounds like hot stuff, wait until something called virtualization takes off. Then you’ll be able to run Windows, the Mac operating system and Linux at the same time, toggling between them as easily as you now click between applications running in different windows,” Kevin Maney reports for USA Today. “And that’s not long in coming. Virtualization is already running on at least 4 million PCs, says Diane Greene, who runs the leading virtualization software company, VMware. The company’s products won’t run on Macs yet, and they’re not ready for the mass market. VMware is used, for instance, by people who run Linux on Windows machines.”
“But virtualization is a fast-growing business for VMware and its parent, EMC. ‘We’d like to let anybody run any operating system (OS) on any machine,’ Greene says. ‘You’ll be able to buy any application you want and not worry what OS it runs on.’ Apple’s Boot Camp only takes that so far. It makes it easier to run Windows XP on a Mac, but you’d have to restart your computer to get from one to the other. There is software on the Web that can make a Mac run another OS, but it’s difficult to use. Virtualization software tricks the computer into thinking each OS is the only one on the machine – so multiple operating systems can run simultaneously but not get in each others’ way. VMware has plans to roll out virtualization for consumers over coming years. ‘We can run it on the Mac OS in our labs already,’ Greene says,” Maney reports.
Full article here.
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>I guess I don’t quite get what virtualization actually is.
>1.) Does it mean you can run several COMPLETE OSes concurrently?
>2.) Does it mean that you can run a specific application from any OS alone, WITHOUT the need to run the entire OS?
>For me, the ideal would be to run a Windows app without having to load ANY amount of Windows on my Mac.
VMWare uses the underling features of x86 to virtualize the machine. The VMWare application hosts the guest operating system in such a way that the guest os thinks it’s running on it’s own x86 machine. This means there’s NO translation of code so speeds are fast enough that you don’t really notice it. But since it’s wrapped in a native OS application you can copy and paste/dnd between the guest os and your hosting os.
So. 1. Yes… You can run as many VM’s that you have RAM for.
2. No
But each guest OS lives on a disk image. SO you can start a gust os in such a way that any changes are NOT commited to the disk image.
This sort of thing is VERY useful. I used to run a linux box as my dev workstation. Used VMware to host different versions of windows w/ known configurations. Then could try out installers and test things in those vms. Next test? Just restart the vm and you’re right back to a known state.
Other cool things:
– The network is virtualized too. So all your vms can be on their own subnet which is completely contained in your host machine.
– network shares are automatically configured so you can move data back and forth quite easily.
– Standard VMImages can be stored in central repositories… You need a copy of win 98 w/ sp1? Go grab it out of the repos.
slackerdave…
Thanks for the illumination. it does sound like it has massive potential.
I’d guess that nobody’s grandma will be give a damn about it, either.
>Thanks for the illumination. it does sound like it has massive potential.
VMWare has been around for years… I paid for it myself back in
2000 so I could run a few windows apps on my dell laptop w/ linux.
>I’d guess that nobody’s grandma will be give a damn about it, either.
No of course not. That’s not who it’s for. It’s perfect for developers and it’s perfect for business types who need a critical app that is windows only. I personally know an accountant who wanted to move to a mac years ago. but the performance of VPC was just too bad for the accounting app she uses.
Her firm is a perfect example of a true small business who would be much better off with a bunch of macs but they just couldn’t operate without that accounting application. They spend thousands per year on antivirus, outlook problems, windows problems etc. Linux was too much of a jump for them…. but OSX with VMware… that’s a LOT closer to something they would jump for.
We use VMware for a boatload of our test/dev servers. It’s great. I can’t wait for the Mac version, which should let you run WXP or Vista, and separate OS X session virtually as well. Moneys.