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