[Swordmaker]

You'd think that Microsoft doesn't want to sell Vista to more users... strange. They don't sell hardware.

[Swordmaker]

Microsoft imposes a Mac Tax? PING

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Spktyr]

This also means that you can't (legally) use it with WINE or the other Windows-On-Linux/BSD virtualization tools.

[AZLiberty]

This is stupid. The Intel Macs don't emulate PCs. They are PCs, but just come with a different OS.

[HAL9000]

I'd never encourage anyone to violate Microsoft's license agreement - but how would MS know if someone was running the less expensive versions in a virtual environment?

Also, it's not clear whether Microsoft's restrictions on the less expensive versions constitute a violation of their antitrust agreement. They agreed to cease their anti-competitive restrictions on boot-loaders as part of the settlement. This sounds like a similar anti-competitive tactic.

[Turbopilot]

What's Apple charge for a copy of OSX licensed to run on a PC?

[MSM Hater]

You'd think that Microsoft doesn't want to sell Vista to more users... strange. They don't sell hardware.

I smell collusion between Micros**t and Dell on this one. Dell probably agreed to stop shipping PC's without Microsh**t in exchange for Microsh**t punishing Apple.

[TheBattman]

I'm not sure that EULA would stand up in court. A Mac, particularly now that it is powered by Intel processors (the same processor base that Windows Vista is designed to run on).

I would like to see MS try to get a decision in their favor if, say I had an Intel mac, went and bought the "regular" version of Vista and installed it under Parallels. First - because the EULA is contained within the package - thus requiring the opening of the package (thus making it unreturnable to retail sources) to read.

Further - this is absolutely no different than if MS restricted the cheaper version of Vista to use on Intel processors only - requiring the expensive version to run it on an AMD processor. I could understand if there were some sort of code difference that REQUIRED a different version with the appropriate code.

This is a direct reaction to the Apple ad campaign... You would think they would be happy to make sales to Mac users. Heck - if Vista were so great and grand, they would be looking at prospective future Windows PC users... Because if it were SOOOO great, then Mac users would use it in "virtual machine" or by using Boot Camp (which, by the way is a legitimate way of making your Intel mac into a "real" PC - as it is not running as a virtual machine) and be convinced that Vista was superior to OS X.

So what is MS so afraid of?

[George W. Bush]

I'm posting this on several of these MacPing threads for those who haven't seen it. It has to do with virtualization and the upcoming release of VMware Fusion on Mac. Parallels is working on and will probably deliver the same feature set.

The first link is to the blog for the lead developer of VMware Fusion for Mac. He is thanking the person who leaked the video of Fusion's latest beta build. Obviously, he's very proud of what the company is doing.

VMware blog: Double Dragon

And this page at YouTube is the exciting part, showing DirectX games running on the Mac desktop in windowed mode.

YouTube: 3D Graphics in VMware Fusion for Mac OS X

Not only are we going to be able to run Windows apps, we'll be able to run the DirectX games in XP and Vista. And the multimedia apps like Adobe Premiere and others will also work. VMware plans to support DirectX 9 features fully for both Vista and XP.

BTW, this is also good news for the Linux folk.

Of course, the upcoming games with DirectX 10 support are not supported. But then, Vista doesn't support the nVidia 8800 card, the only full DirectX 10 card on the market.

What excites me about this is that so many people who have held back on Mac because they don't want to reboot to Windows to play games (or run a few productivity apps) will no longer have to worry. It will "just work".

Reducing all of Microsoft's consumer and server products to just a set of virtualization clients is the killer app for these new multicore CPUs. And it will bring 99% of Windows apps straight to the Mac desktop. That includes all the Windows programs and games you already own.

No wonder Microsoft slapped a "virtualization tax" on Apple and Linux (and their own users). Yeah, like we're going to let that stop us!

[FreedomGuru]

And OSX is only "legally" able to run on "Apple" computers. So what is the big deal?

[for-q-clinton]

I don't think microsoft is worried about that 30% of MAC users that run windows on their MAC. And since MAC at best makes up about 2% of the user bases worldwide that's not much money to M$.

[goldstategop]

Its quite simple - Microsoft is not in business to aid a competitor. And it views Apple as a competitor. You can either have Vista or Mac OSX but not both.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus