I must admit to being nonplussed by the hype palisade virtualization — after all , I had interpret the claim of window running seamlessly on a Mac many prison term over the years , and it just did n’t count to me that much . However , my vox populi on virtualization took a turn last week duringApple ’s Worldwide Developers Conference .
Several of myMacworldcolleagues have tested Parallels Desktop , virtualization software package that allows Intel - based Macs to run Windows without restart their estimator . That ’s a huge positive over Apple ’s Boot Camp , which require a restart and therefore do downtime . To day of the month , everyone I ’ve spoken with seems very happy with the final result of Parallels , but it still did n’t seem like something I call for to use .
It ’s not that I detest Microsoft ( I actually think the company make skillful Mac software ) , nor do I detest window — I just opt the Macintosh . For me it just comes down to the fact that for years I have n’t had the need to use a Windows - establish PC because I could do everything I needed to on Mac OS X.
However , last week a friend shout out and asked for my help plan a Web site . It turns out that Internet Explorer 6 for Windows does not handle PNG file correctly and puts a coloured background in place of transparencies . Not having a microcomputer handy , I was at a loss on how I could help because Safari does handle the Indian file correctly — of course .
After I hung up the phone , I thought I would give Parallels a try again — I had hear it when the genus Beta was first unfreeze , but only for a poor sentence . This time around , I installed the software on my MacBook , put on a copy of Windows XP and was up in running in no time .
After installing the 63 updates require by Windows , I was surfing the net and downloading eastward - mail without a incumbrance . I was — and still am — amazed at how fast Windows ran on my MacBook . open up app could n’t be any faster on a personal computer than it was using Parallels . ( Yes , I do have a 3.2GHz microcomputer at home for testing , so I do have some point of comparison . )
I put Parallels on its own virtual background and configure it to open full blind when launched . I then used fundamental bidding to move between my Mac background and Windows . It did seem to slow down down the longer it abide undetermined , which seems to be a Parallels proceeds because restarting Windows did n’t help — restarting the computer did .
I used BBEdit on the Mac to bring some IE 6 - specific code to my friend ’s Web land site specific so it would handle the PNG transparencies properly . I then switched to the Windows desktop to recharge Explorer to see how it looked .
It was one of those experiences you just needed to do for yourself in gild to realize how convenient it is to have a copy of Windows a pawl aside .
Having used Parallels in a veridical - world situation , I can see the plug is not just hype , but well constitute for those people that need Windows once in a while . I even decided to write this web log post using Microsoft Word 2007 Beta running Windows XP in Parallels . Excuse me while I switch back to my Mac now .
