Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

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Windows on Mac, Simultaneously


http://www.wired.com/news/technology/computers/0,70604-0.html?tw=rss.index


By Pete Mortensen| Also by this reporter

12:00 PM Apr, 06, 2006

Apple Computer's surprise software release allowing the company's newest Intel-based Macs to run Windows has put "virtualization" -- an alternative, and arguably superior, method of achieving the same result -- in the spotlight.

Released Wednesday, Apple's Boot Camp beta installs Microsoft's OS in a partition on the hard drive, thus offering Mac users the option of booting up either with OS X or Windows XP. Virtualization, by contrast, allows Macs to run Windows and Mac OS X not just on the same machine, but at the same time, with only a slight drop in performance.

Although Apple says it has no plans to create a virtualization product for the Mac, the advantages of this approach are strong enough that a number of rivals are rushing to market with Mac virtualization products even as Apple offers its dual-boot option.

On Thursday, Herndon, Virginia-based Parallels released a public beta of its virtualization software package, Parallels Workstation 2.1.

"What's the value of a dual-boot solution? Is there any value? I don't really think so," said Parallels marketing manager Benjamin Rudolph.

Virtualization is heating up in the corporate market, and it's likely only a matter of time before it becomes standard issue on most computers. In a sign of what's to come, VMWare this week announced it would give away a key specification for defining and formatting virtual machine environments. Microsoft fired back by offering up its Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition, also for free.

Virtualization for the Mac has been slower to market, but promises to explode. CodeWeavers, the primary corporate backers of the open-source Wine Project, which allows Windows applications to run in Linux, has said it will release a Mac OS X version of CrossOver Office, a shrink-wrapped version of the technology.

Alexandre Juilliard, who oversees Wine, said Mac users will get to try it themselves in the very near future. "No date is set, but it's probably a matter of a couple of months now," he said.

Microsoft is also evaluating an Intel-native (and presumably much faster) version of its Virtual PC product, although it has not yet committed to the project.

VMWare, the largest vendor of virtualization software, did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

Apple, for its part, has shown no interest in creating its own virtualization software. In the run-up to the release of Boot Camp, many speculated that Apple was working on its own virtualization software, but the company denies it.

"We are not providing a way to run Windows within OS X," Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

Virtualization makes it possible to install Windows XP, Linux, OS/2 Warp and other Intel-compatible operating systems on Intel-Mac hardware and run the alternate operating systems from the comfy confines of OS X.

The technique fools so-called guest operating systems into believing they are in charge of the computer's hardware. Though similar in appearance to emulators like Microsoft's VirtualPC, virtualization is an entirely different approach that is made possible because OS X, Windows and Linux are now all native to Intel hardware.

Emulators essentially re-create a foreign computer architecture in software, like an Intel machine on top of Apple's older PowerPC platform. Virtualization, by contrast, is like a window that lets the guest operating system burrow through to the underlying hardware. So a guest operating system like Windows, which runs natively on Intel chips, is still executed natively. There is no time-consuming code translation from one architecture to another.

In a virtual environment, Windows runs as a Mac OS X application inside its own window. Safari and iPhoto can happily co-exist with Microsoft Access running on Windows XP. The virtualization software even supports monitor spanning. On a two-monitor system, Mac OS X can be running on one screen, and Windows XP on the other.

The virtualization approach to running multiple operating systems simultaneously differs sharply from Apple's dual-booting Boot Camp software. Boot Camp requires users to reboot each time they wish to switch from Mac OS X to Windows.

Not everyone thinks virtualization trumps the dual-boot approach, however.

For one thing, dual-booting guarantees maximum possible performance. Using Boot Camp methods, a MacBook Pro functions as a native Windows XP laptop; there is no trickery involved.

For the moment, there is one area where dual-booting into Windows is indisputably superior: gaming. The current version of Parallels Workstation has limited support for 3-D graphics. Rudolph said better video will come in the next version. Dual-booting with Boot Camp yields native 3-D driver support under Windows XP.

Analyst Tim Bajarin, president of market research firm Creative Strategies, said he believes most users will prefer dual-booting to virtualization. Years of unsatisfactory experiences with slow emulation software -- though fundamentally different from virtualization -- could make some wary of trying the new technology, he said.

"I think Apple's approach, based on maximizing the role of the processor, is actually the cleanest way to do it," he said.

But Parallels' Rudolph said dual-booting systems are not in tune with the way people work. Having to shut down OS X to boot into Windows wastes time, he said, adding that a Mac running Parallels' virtualization software is almost as fast as a dedicated Windows box.

"If a native Windows machine runs at 100 out of 100 on speed, our version of virtualization runs at a 90 or 95," he said. "It's very fast and very stable."

That said, not all of the new Intel-Macs will handle virtualization equally. Parallels Workstation is expected to run better on the MacBook Pro and iMac than it will on the Mac mini, Rudolph said. That's because the two higher-end machines include chip-level hardware support, known as Intel virtualization technology, or VT, that improves performance to near-native levels, he said.

"We've noticed, between VT-powered machines versus non-VT-powered machines, up to a 150 percent performance increase," Rudolph said.

The initial public beta of Parallels Workstation is good for 30 days. The full release, expected in several weeks, will cost $50. Bring your own operating systems, of course.