- By Richard Meagher
- Business & Technology
Print 
Apple released its latest operating system, publicly known as Leopard to much fanfare last Fall. Among the many new features that were shipped with the much ballyhooed release is the Boot Camp application which was offered as a free beta for users who purchased Mac computers with the Intel Duo Core. BootCamp is actually a partitioning application that separates the hard drive into one or more partitions thus allowing different operating systems like Windows and Linux to be installed and run on the same machine.
There is however one caveat - BootCamp requires that you shutdown and reboot your Mac to run Windows. If you want to return to your Mac, you must repeat the same process. For many users that need to switch back and forth between Mac and Windows or Linux, this can be time-consuming and unproductive.
A password program written for Windows (lower right) runs on the
Mac desktop along with Mac programs via a program called Crossover.
To the user it is seamless -- you can ever copy and paste your passwords
from the Windows program into your Mac browser. There is no need
to reboot or switch to a virtual machine -- and no need to buy Windows.
If you are that kind of user, running applications for both Mac and Windows, there is another alternative - virtualization. A virtualization application launches your other operating system inside a separate window or screen while still in your Mac OS session. It doesn't actually run from your hard drive, but rather from a disk image that represents your hard drive. As a result, Windows doesn't run natively in your Mac with direct access to the processor and video hardware like any Windows PC. Only running Windows using BootCamp will your Mac stack up against the best Windows PCs, in performance and features.
There are many applications that offer virtualization, but the two popular virtualization applications available for the Mac under $100 are Parallels Desktop for the Mac and VMWare Fusion. Both are very similar in how they work. They are easy to install and if you already have Windows installed in BootCamp, it will automatically create a disk image from the Windows partition.
I have tried both Parallels and VMWare Fusion and both are very good. Which one you choose depends on what kind of applications you need to run. For example, VMWare was the first to offer accelerated 3D graphics support like DirectX, something that I haven't found in the current version of Parallels - at least not yet. If you are a gamer or use graphic intensive applications like Photoshop for Windows, Fusion may be the better pick, but don't expect to be blown away.
Parallel on the other hand has some features like Coherence that make Windows applications like Office run natively in your Mac OS desktop. Rather than trying to scroll around and open Word inside another window that has your Windows system running, your Word for Windows will qppear on your Mac desktop. It also offers utilities like Transporter to migrate your Windows OS and files from a different virtualization application like Fusion or VirtualPC into Parallels.
Don't purchase Parallels or Fusion to replace BootCamp. If you have Windows applications that are not available in Mac versions or do not want to pay more to switch, they can be an invaluable asset to your Intel powered Mac and can help you be more productive if you like working in both Windows and Mac environments. BootCamp still does a better job running your high end 3D gaming or graphic applications in Windows like MS Flight Simulator X or Windows version of Photoshop.
You can try both virtualization applications for free, but if you do, beware. Each virtualization application you try or install normally requires a separate licensed copy of Windows. While you may have already installed Windows in BootCamp, Parallels and Fusion will reinstall Windows as a copy and will use up any reinstall allowances you have left. Be sure to click No when asked if you wish to Activate Windows and you will have 3 days before prompted to Activate. This also applies to other Microsoft applications like Office.
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