Although most Mac users probably haven't even heard the "bombshell" news about Apple's Boot Camp beta software, which enables Microsoft Windows XP to run on Intel-based Macs, it's already obsolete. Boot Camp enables you to dual-boot into either Mac OS X 10.4 or Windows, and while that's welcome, it's an idea that got tedious a decade ago. There's a far better option, which is to run two or more operating systems at the same, and that's what the Parallels Workstation 2.1 software -- beta now available -- promises.
This approach is already well known in the Windows and Linux/Unix markets, where it is used mainly on servers, but is likely to get a boost now that Microsoft is offering Virtual Server 2005 free, to match VMWare's free virtual server. Of course, Apple won't let you run OS X that way -- not legally -- but it's a good way to run multiple operating systems on one machine. And with multi-threading multi-core processors, and lots of cheap RAM, there should be little if any reduction in performance.
It might be assumed that Boot Camp was just Apple's first step into the Windows market and that it's also developing virtual server software. But according to Wired News, Apple says not:
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.
If you apply the standard transformations that are necessary with any Apple quotation, this translates as follows: there's a very good chance that we are working on virtualisation but it's not an announced product so we wouldn't talk about it even if we knew.
The main drawback with Parallels Workstation 2.1 -- always assuming it works -- is the $50 price. Boot Camp will be free, and will become part of the operating system, so it seems likely that most Mac users will use that.
