Posted on 03/24/2006 7:45:53 AM PST by Panerai
MacOSXRumors claims that according to "reliable sources", Apple is developing virtualization software to be incorporated into the next version of Mac OS X - Leopard.
According to the rumor site, the upcoming software is code named "Chameleon" and is being developed alongside both Intel and Microsoft.
Virtualization software would potentially allow users to run alternative operating systems alongside Mac OS X. There has been previous discussion about Virtualization Technology support in Intel's processors.
Microsoft has been reported as being committed to porting Virtual PC to the Intel Macs, but early claims indicated that Apple had "yet to provide developers with the deep hooks needed for such virtualization." This rumor would suggest that such support may not arrive until Mac OS X 10.5 , Leopard, which is expected to be first demoed at WWDC in August.
While Booting Windows on XP is now possible, many users look forward to using a virtual Windows XP environment alongside Mac OS X. This sort of side-by-side existence would prevent the need for rebooting to use a particular application.
Leopard ping
You can boot Windows on XP??? This is hugh!!
OS X.5 to include virtualization?
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I've been playing with it a lot here, and am incredibly impressed with the capabilities of some of this software.
We're going to be doing a lot of work here in my office with Zend, and set up a training class today for the developers to check out how the environment works. Rather than install a crapload of servers so each one could have their own little environment to play with, we created a vmware image that was configured exactly like we wanted it, copied the files to a CD along with a copy of VmWare player, and loaded it up where we were doing the class.
Saved us hours of work.
Yup. Virtualization rocks.
If Apple makes this work, Dell better get nervous. Apple could easily move up to 20% of the market.
You want to make me happy? Make working CSS a reality.
So - I assume X.5 will likely be the "Death-nell" of the PPC? Likely the last PPC-compatible OS version. I would say that means the PPC users have about 1-1.5 years of supported live left in their machines before they start to really be left out in the cold.
Although I truly hate that fact, I can understand it from a business p-o-v. Costs too much to continue to support what is basically two distinct platforms. I just hope I'm not OVER estimating the time remaining for PPC owners....
That's an interesting take on the issue. Apple is persuading third party suppliers to write "Universal" code... workable on both Intel and PowerPC architectures... so I don't think they will be so quick to drop PowerPC support. The installed base of MacIntels won't be that large yet... and Apple will want to sell OS X.5 to as many users as possible. I think you will see support for about 3 - 4 years yet.
I don't think this is accurate. I have 3.5 years left on the Support Agreement that I bought with my Mac PPC last October. Apple would have to buy me a new MacIntel machine to get out of it.
Apple does not do that. When they switched to PPC in the first place, they supported the old x86 chip for 5 or 6 years. In fact, they still do, to some extent.
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