Surely you’re heard some of the hype over virtualization?

No?

Well the background story begins a few years ago with Intel adding special capabilities to their processors which enabled support for running multiple instances of your Windows OS on one machine, with each instance completely isolated from the other.

Fast forward a bit to Apple’s move to adopt Intel processors, and the doorway opened to a whole new world - one where you can have ONE computer serve most all of your software needs. With the release of the Intel architecture Macintosh systems, both Parallels and VMWare introduced their flagship virtualization solutions, VMWare Fusion, and Parallels Desktop, allowing you to run one copies of one OS inside the other.

Surely, you’re thinking, that’s great stuff for you techies, but what good does all of this do for ME?

Well, a few examples I can outline are:

• You have an old PC you’re keeping around just because you don’t want to (or can’t upgrade) the software on it, but you still need to use it regularly
• You’re a software or web developer and you want to have a replica environment of your production web server or customer server on your laptop so you can work while you’re at the Cafe or on the Beach
• You want to try out some new software, but are loathe that it will ruin something else you have installed
• You can pre-configure a VMI to send to someone else, with software, data, and everything pre-installed
• Typically, Open Source software has little or no limitation to running inside a VM (Virtual Machine)
• You’d like to access any of the HUGE number of ready-to-go VMIs (Virtual Machine Images) available for FREE on the Internet so you can try out new software without ruining your main computer’s setup

Now, with all those details laid out, here’s some of the tricky stuff:

• I *highly* recommend nothing less than one Intel Core 2 Duo for snappy performance (A Mac Pro or Xserve Xeon will be a serious workhorse!)
• You’ll need a gob of RAM for the best performance (typically 2x what the guest OS will use)
• You’ll need a gob of Hard Drive space if you get serious about running VMIs (typically 2x what guest OS will need)
• It will be even more important for you to backup, BACKUP, BACKUP!!! (Losing one or more critical VM images qualifies as a MAJOR disaster!)
• Most major software vendors have, or are changing their license agreements to cover (dis-qualify) you using the same license over and over again via VMIs (translation: check with the OS vendor for the VMs you run/create!)

Among the two major solutions, VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop, I’ve found that VMWare is probably better suited for you if you’re doing Software Development or Server Administration/Web Development. VMWare, specifically, makes easy work of moving their VMDK images for Enterprise or Server environments down to your Mac (although you need to check versions if moving Fusion VMware files back to VMWare Server). For other uses, like gaming and general home and business applications, Parallels is well-suited.

Of course, this mix would not be complete without mention of Apple’s Bootcamp, which *doesn’t* take advantage of multi-OS virtualization, but instead, allows you to use an alternate Windows XP or Windows Vista boot partition to run Windows applications on your Mac at native speed with full compatibility. The Boot Camp Assistant and application are *included* with Leopard, so that’s a freebie, but you’ll need to purchase a valid Windows License to make use of it. You also will not have the portability or dual-use functionality offered by popular virtualization solutions.

Just in, we have word of iEmulator, which works on PowerPC G3/G4/G5 Macs running OS X, enabling Windows on those older systems as well!

Additionally, there is also CrossOver Mac, from Codeweavers, which offers you the ability to run *selected* Windows application in OSX *without* installing Windows, thus no need for a Windows software license. Ok, so it’s *not* hardware virtualization (they are really trying to virtualize large chunks of the Windows API via Wine), but it is a valuable option for some users, although it is a very young product still in development.

Best of all, both VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac are available in trial download editions!

For a complete directory of ready-made “Virtual Appliances” you can download and try, check out Parallels VM Directory , and VMWare VM Directory.

If you haven’t yet made the switch to an Intel-based Mac, this is a GREAT time to plan for, or make your transition - they offer an excellent combination of reliability and value while still maintaining access to the world of Windows and Linux applications!

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