News & Views

Software of the Month: Parallels Desktop for Mac
It has been almost three months since the last newsletter - and three months of real time is an eternity in Internet time. In the last newsletter I mentioned that my software company PT Jawasoft had helped sponsor a competition to allow a new Intel based Apple Macintosh boot Windows XP and the prize had been won.

Literally days after sending that newsletter out, Apple relented and announced Bootcamp - firmware and support and hardware drivers to allow an Intel Mac to dual boot into OS X or Windows XP (you have to provide your own copy of Windows). This was exactly my dream come true, yet it paled into insignificance days later when Parallels Inc announced the first beta of their new virtualisation product for Mac.

To cut a long story short, I have since bought a shiny new Core Duo (dual Intel) 17" iMac (for my web designer you understand :-) and installed the Parallels Desktop. It installed Windows and runs all my software without a hitch (yes even the stuff we wrote!). Not only does it work but unlike previous 'virtual' solutions, it runs Windows faster than my AMD powered notebook, in a window while still running Mac stuff at a decent speed alongside.

Obviously while running XP needs a bunch of RAM (I give it 512Mb out of an installed 1.5Gb) but the simulated hard disk is just a file on your normal hard disk, and only occupies the space actually used so you don't have to partition away half your hard disk like Bootcamp.

Networking works flawlessly - if I run two Parallels virtual PCs on the Mac see screenshot then they think they are separate PC's on the network and I can test complete client-server software systems, virtually (shown here is R-WEB. I can also witch between full screen and windows in-a-window with a keystroke (or run XP full screen on a second monitor).

But wait - there is more! They also have products for Linux and Windows - and the best part is that the virtual hard disk and settings are completely portable, meaning that my admin can setup a virtual PC, install all sorts of software and then give it to me (or all our staff) to use, Windows or Mac. Things I plan to do with this software:

1. Keep an experimental copy of Windows handy to test software downloaded from the net etc, so my regular registry doesn't get polluted etc.

2. Move my developers onto virtual PC's so that when they change hardware they just copy their whole environment onto the new machine.

3. Use virtual PC's to simulate Linux servers, Windows Server edition and other environments, in a window.

4. Use for training schools - students will work on virtual PC's and after the school I just delete the images to clean up.

I realise that most of the above is not of interest to most of you, but if you were wondering whether you could justify a new Mac and concerned that you could not run the Windows software you need, this will probably answer your question. Dual boot is good, but Windows running in a window alongside OS X is infinitely cooler. If you preorder, cost is just $39.

Rgds
Ewan Makepeace
info@brothersreunited.com
http://www.brothersreunited.com