Windows on Macs: Three Paths for Integration
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Running Windows applications on a Mac has long been seen as the holy grail of acceptance in the workplace. These days there three ways of ways to make that integration happen. Between Crossover Mac to run individual applications, Parallels and VMWare Fusion to run Windows itself under emulation, and Boot Camp, which lets you dual-boot your Mac into OS X or Windows at need, there are fewer reasons than ever not to make the switch in your office or school.
Boot Camp
Boot Camp, Apple's dual-boot utility, became available under Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) at a time when many enthusiasts had been trying to shoehorn Windows onto the new Intel-based Macs. Officially supported, it wasn't especially easy to configure, and driver support was iffy at best. With the release of Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), Boot Camp emerged from beta and became an easy-to-use option, even providing drivers for Mac hardware on the Leopard installation CDs.
To say that Boot Camp was a resounding success is an understatement. PC Magazine ended 2007 by declaring the MacBook Pro to be the "fastest Windows laptop" that they had ever seen. For people who wanted to make the switch, but who didn't want to lose out on Windows-specific software (especially games), this was a surefire way to ease their transition
It is not, however, a panacea. Much like dual-booting with Linux (which, coincidentally, Boot Camp also allows), you can be in either OS X or in Windows, but not in both simultaneously. This makes Boot Camp a solution for gaming, and for some it allows them to live a double life, booting into Windows when they need their Windows-specific software, and then returning to OS X for everything else.
Virtualization
For people who need access to one or two Windows packages, but who don't want to give up the stability, efficiency, and power of OS X, VMWare, Parallels, and Sun offer products that run a complete instance of Windows in a window. This allows complete access to OS X while simultaneously running Internet Explorer, for example, to access an especially poorly designed website. Or perhaps to run a Windows-only accounting package or graphic design tool.
The benefits are many, of course. You don't ever have to leave OS X, and you can continue to use the mail, browser, and other applications that you are familiar with. If you're a recent convert to the Mac, you can slowly wean yourself off of Windows applications while you learn your way with the OS X equivalents.
The drawbacks, however, can be severe. Even with a dual-core processor and significant amounts of RAM, applications tend to run more slowly in Windows under emulation than they would running Windows in Boot Camp. This is less of an issue if you're only running Internet Explorer for cross platform testing, but no 3D application is going to run well on anything short of a souped up Mac Pro. Your mileage may vary, of course, but when tested on a 2.2 GHz MacBook with 2 GB of RAM, nothing ran especially quickly. I imagine the same would not necessarily be the case with a MacBook Pro.
A Third Option
The final option, and one that should provide a speedier experience, is to employ Wine (an acronym that stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator), or its commercial counterpart, Crossover Mac. Crossover and Wine, instead of emulating a PC on which to install Windows, provide a layer of programming that translates system calls (known as the Application Programming Interface or API) from Windows applications directly, converting them into calls that the hardware and operating system can understand, in much the same way that Rosetta allows PowerPC applications to run on an Intel Mac.
Without the overhead that running a full install of Windows entails, this solution is often faster than running the application under Windows in Boot Camp. The drawback is that while many applications are supported (see the Wine Application Database), not every Windows application is supported, and some applications are either too old or were designed too unconventionally to run well under Crossover.
Running Windows applications on a Mac is always going to require a
sacrifice of some sort, but given these three options, there are fewer
reasons to keep Macs out of business environments all the time. Given
their relatively easy support needs, the breadth of software available,
the move by many businesses towards more Web 2.0 models in their
applications, and now these venues for running Windows applications
when you must, the nay-sayers are going to need to come up with some
new excuses.
Further Reading
- Leopard Brings About a Few Changes for Boot Camp Users, Alan Zisman, Mac 2 Windows, 2007.11.30
- Parallels 3 Narrows the Gap between Virtualized Windows and Using Boot Camp, Alan Zisman, Mac 2 Windows, 2007.06.13
- VMware Fusion Beta 3 Adds New Features, Takes a Giant Step Toward Release, Alan Zisman, Mac 2 Windows, 2007.04.11
- VirtualBox: A Free, Open Source Way to Run Windows and Linux on Your Intel Mac, Alan Zisman, Mac 2 Windows, 2007.07.27
- CrossOver: Run Windows Apps on Intel Macs without Windows, Alan Zisman, Mac 2 Windows, 2007.02.28
- DOS Cards, x86 Emulation, Boot Camp, and the Future of Windows on Macs, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, 2006.04.07
Recent Macs in the Enterprise Columns
- Debunking Mac Myths Is Not the Way to Get Apple in the Enterprise, 08.06. There are other factors at work that keep those with vested interests on the Windows platform. Mythbusting won't change their minds.
- How to upgrade your eMac without cracking the case, 07.14. Some people like to replace the components inside their computers, but with FireWire and USB 2.0, Apple has made it easy to upgrade using external drives.
- Turn your old Mac into a web server with Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, 07.09. Step-by-step instructions for installing and configuring Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP on an older Mac.
- Turn your old Mac into a website server with free open source software, 07.02. By installing Linux without a GUI, your old Mac can dedicate all of its resources to running Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
- More in the Macs in the Enterprise index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: PowerBook 190cs, Aug. 1995 - The last 680x0-based PowerBook could take a PowerPC upgrade.
- List of the Day: The iPod List The iPod List is a forum to discuss the iPod, it's accessories, the iTunes Store, iTunes, and related topics.
- August 28 in LEM history: 95: PowerBook Duo 2300 - 00: Gaming on older Power Macs - 01: AppleShare on Linux - From Beebs and Acorns to Macs - 02: Sleep of Death, - Think smarter? - It's the software, stupid - 06: PowerBook 5300 reminiscence - You might be a Mac fanatic if... - Hiding complexity behind elegant simplicity
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