“In the past week, three key products which enable Apple users to run Mac OS X and Windows on the same machine have received upgrades: VMWare Fusion, Parallels Desktop for the Mac, and Apple Boot Camp,” Michael Calore blogs for Wired.
“It’s no surprise that all three products got a boost just days before Steve Jobs’ keynote address at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference. The event is the biggest day of the year for Mac software developers. It’s also where the Apple CEO will announce the full set of features to be included in the new Mac OS X ‘Leopard’ 10.5 operating system,” Calore writes.
“While most of the developers and Mac devotees in attendance will no doubt be clapping and wailing with glee at every new feature debuted during Monday’s keynote address, a handful of people in the room will be quaking in their boots, praying that one thing in particular remains unspoken,” Calore writes. “As far as Parallels and VMWare are concerned, those dirty words are ‘Virtualization in Boot Camp.’ If they are uttered during the Stevenote, the companies’ young products are as good as dead.”
Calore writes, “Sure, Apple is playing nice right now — the company even endorses Parallels’ product on its website. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t getting ready to steamroller right over Parallels Desktop for Mac when Leopard’s October release date comes around.”
Calore writes, “Even though it would flatten the hopes of the competition, it would be a win for users. Boot Camp is on track to be a standard feature of Leopard. What reason could Apple possibly come up with to not give users what they want by building virtualization into every Mac out of the box?”
Full article here.