Windows & Mac OS X

WINDOWS & MAC OS X The Best of Both Virtualization, API wrapping, native booting

THE VIRTUAL MACHINE Allows you to run your operating systems side-by-side

THE VIRTUAL MACHINE Actually a mix of virtualization, emulation, and dynamic recompilation Type-2 “Hypervisor” technology runs above the hardware and controls access from the virtual machine to the computer’s hardware

VMWARE FUSION: OVERVIEW Borrows technology from VMware’s non-Mac products and built on the company’s history of enterprise virutalization Started out focusing on higher performance rather than OS X/Windows integration, bells & whistles Latest version: 2.0 (build 116369) Price: $79.99 ($39.99 with student discount) http://vmware.com/products/fusion

VMWARE FUSION: FEATURES Unity view: seamless desktop mode layering Mac & Windows apps together DirectX 9 support for video games Supports installing both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems Snapshots: restore your system to an entirely previous state Extensive hardware support, including support for multiple CPUs or multicore CPUs Cross-compatibility with editions of VMware for other platforms

VMWARE FUSION: FEATURES (CONT.) Boot Camp partition access Multi-display support: up to 10 additional displays VM Converter: convert Parallels & Virtual PC virtual machines Application sharing: set default programs between Mac & Windows Mac OS X Leopard Server virtualization support 12-month subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus for Windows VMs

VMWARE FUSION: LIMITATIONS No OpenGL support, so apps that require it won’t run under VMware No FireWire support Performance not as good on slower Macs as Parallels

PARALLELS DESKTOP FOR MAC First to market with Mac virtualization Originally named “Parallels Workstation for Mac OS X”, but changed after the Mac community thought it sounded too much like a Windows product Latest version: 3.0 (Build 5608) (version 4.0 coming soon) Price: $79.99 (academic pricing available) http://parallels.com/products/desktop

PARALLELS DESKTOP: FEATURES Supports DirectX 8.1, OpenGL Coherence: more seamless desktop between Mac & Windows SmartSelect: open Windows ﬁles with Mac apps, vice versa Parallels Explorer: browse Windows system ﬁles in OS X without booting up virtual machine Boot Camp partition access Parallels Transporter: convert VMware or Virtual PC virtual machines or an existing PC to a Parallels VM

PARALLELS DESKTOP: LIMITATIONS Can’t run 64-bit operating systems (only 32-bit) No support for multiple CPUs or multicore CPUs within the virtual machine Some issues with Windows reactivation in Boot Camp Vista’s Aero (glass) UI not supported No DirectX 9 support, so some 3D applications won’t run Some Linux distros are limited to only 512MB RAM No FireWire support Can’t run Mac OS X Leopard Server in a virtual machine

SUN VIRTUALBOX Originally developed by German ﬁrm innotek Runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, OS/2 Warp, Linux Able to run numerous *nix and Windows operating systems Comparable to VMware and Parallels, but not quite as robust and lacking features like 3D support, portable snapshots, etc. Price: Free!

API WRAPPING The fancy term for a fully-seamless cross-platform solution

DARWINE Mac OS X port of the famous WINE (WINE Is Not an Emulator) project for Linux Provides substitute Windows DLL ﬁles and processes instead of the Windows NT kernel Windows API is implemented entirely in user-space Took 15 years to reach 1.0 status (in May of 2008) because the Windows APIs were poorly documented by Microsoft

CROSSOVER FOR MAC CodeWeavers: corporate sponsorship for the WINE project (many WINE developers work on the CrossOver team) Commercial, polished version of WINE (think of it as a WINE fundraiser with a much more friendly user interface) Install Windows applications on your Mac into “bottles,” or separate instances of Windows API ﬁles Improvements to CrossOver are forked back into the WINE project Cost: $39.95 for Standard, $69.95 for Pro (comes with Games build, too) Educational discounts available (roughly $10 o)

NATIVE BOOTING Apple’s Boot Camp technology enables EFI bootloader to start Windows partitions

BOOT CAMP Natively boot your Mac back & forth between Windows, Mac OS X Several Macs on campus use this technology (Glass Hall, for instance) Free, provided you legally have a full copy of Windows to use Requires your Mac to be running Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” Supports Windows XP with at least SP2, or Windows Vista (preferably SP1) Apple has full driver support on Leopard Install DVD Best for if you don’t want to compromise speed, or if you want to run more modern video games

OTHER THINGS TO NOTE Frequently Asked Questions, other software to note

SHARING FILES? Virtualization Most apps allow you to drag & drop files from Mac OS to Windows & Linux VMs (Parallels won’t allow it in Linux yet) API Wrapping No need for transferring of files; API-wrapped files will access your files normally Boot Camp Additional software needed (MacFUSE & NTFS-3G for Mac, or MacDrive for Windows)

VIRUSES? SPYWARE? IS MY MAC AT RISK? Short answer: no Long answer: if you’re not API wrapping, then INSTALL ANTI-VIRUS and ANTI-SPYWARE software Your Windows partition/virtual machine is running Microsoft code and thus susceptible to viruses and spyware like always Your Mac partition should be okay unless you have a virus that likes to delete ﬁles in Boot Camp (and has MacDrive installed) Virtual machines (with snapshots) can always be rolled back to a safe state

WOULDN’T API WRAPPING BE THE BEST WAY? Not necessarily Not all programs work; very popular ones are maintained and “tweaked” to work with WINE Some programs can’t be wrapped due to the way they access the APIs API wrapping does work best with some games, though; try it out yourself

SO WHAT IS THE BEST WAY? Use a combination and tailor it to your needs Boot Camp with virtualization API wrapping with Boot Camp Virtualization with API wrapping Or, drop a lot of money and use all three

Windows & Mac OS X

by Benjamin Kreeger on Apr 01, 2009

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Windows & Mac OS X — Presentation Transcript