Windows on the Mac changes everything

Fortune Magazine (excerpt) ^ | January 23, 2007 | David Kirkpatrick

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

The lines between the Mac OS and Windows are starting to blur. And that portends major changes going forward in the world of PCs. At MacWorld, a little company called Parallels won awards for the latest version of its hit product, which enables you to run both operating systems at the same time on a Macintosh. It's a major breakthrough.

While the last version of Parallels allowed you to run both operating systems at once, it still required you to switch back and forth between the two. Now, however, Parallels' Coherence product, which the company says will ship by mid-February, lets you keep multiple windows open on your desktop, just as you normally would, running a variety of applications. Except now you can switch between windows running Windows and Mac applications just as if they were all Mac. (Parallels costs $79, though Mac owners also have to buy a copy of Windows to use it.)

This is the fruit of recent major advances on x86-based computers in the technique called virtualization, a technique for isolating aspects of computing performance - sometimes hardware and sometimes software - so multiple functions can be underway simultaneously, while reducing the risk they will interfere with one another.

The tectonics of virtualization are shifting. It turns out that Parallels is not such a little company after all. About three years ago it was quietly purchased by an enterprise-focused virtualization company called SWsoft, a fact that has never been publicly disclosed until now.

SWsoft and its Parallels subsidiary are both Russian-American operations. SWsoft CEO Serguei Beloussov, based in Virginia, calls the shots for programmers who are based in Moscow. Parallels employed only seven when SWsoft bought it, but today has 100 people...

~ snip ~

[FreedomGuru]

Gee whiz.... If you believe the Mac-slappies here on FR, Windows is evil. So why would any self respecting Mac user, install Windows? /S

Yes indeed if Windows is evil, why is Bootcamp and Parralles so popular in the Mac world?
Lets hear todays talking points from the Mac camp. :-)

[HAL9000]

I advise not installing Windows at all, unless absolutely necessary. Basic activities like web surfing, e-mail, word processing, digital music, digital photography, video chat, etc. tend to work better when using Mac OS X instead of Windows.

Bootcamp and Parallels can be used to run other operating systems on Macs besides Windows, such as Linux or Solaris.

[Dick Vomer]

Yes indeed if Windows is evil, why is Bootcamp and Parralles so popular in the Mac world? Lets hear todays talking points from the Mac camp. :-)

....well for instance in order for me to set up a VPN and review charts at the hospital, my mac needs a Cisco program and network program added in order to access the DOS system the hospital has..... a windows machine with IE can be set up through the "network" connection in the control panel.

i just bought my first MacBook Pro about 4 months ago.

I plugged my HP scanner/printer/fax machine and it worked.=..no drivers downloaded or problem with system crashes/incompatible hardware

. Palm Pilot-same.

Canon camera- same.

Olympus camera=same

wireless keyboard/mouse=same

photos from Hotter-N-Hell bike ride made into slide show with Music "I just want to be a Cosmic Cowboy"....10 minutes=no problems

Burning into DVD= 3 copies, 12 minutes with labes=no problems

I finally got sick of my Win machine's blue screen, and just hassles with all my devices. I originally had an Apple IIGS and quit apple cause of no excel, or word for work, that was 13 years and about 5 windows machines ago. Also games were made for the win machines...... If I can now play games with my kids on my Apple it's just icing on the cake.

It' not as expensive as you think with the memory and hard drive options compared with the Dell machine I'd need and programs.......and the time I save is pretty impressive. That's what's great about America......choices..

[stainlessbanner]

SWSoft won't close the gap on VMWare's hypervisor.

[Mr. Blonde]

I don't think MS is evil, but they do have an inferior product. However, some people do have need for Windows specific programs. Anything that allows them to move to Mac I am in favor of.