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Virtualization Options Expand

Joe Kissell <joe@tidbits.com>
From TidBITS 877:

For those interested in running Windows on an Intel-based Mac, this week brought two interesting announcements. First, in the ongoing battle of one-upmanship between Parallels and VMware, Parallels announced a new initiative http://ptn.parallels.com/en/news/id,11293 to help developers package and distribute virtual appliances - prepackaged virtual machines containing a full operating system and applications, configured to perform specific tasks and ready to run without any setup. The Parallels Technology Network http://ptn.parallels.com/ provides developer support and documentation; developers who submit virtual appliances that meet the requirements created by Parallels can be listed in the Parallels Virtual Appliances Directory, http://ptn.parallels.com/en/ptn/pva/home/ which is very much like VMware's Virtual Appliance Marketplace. http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/

Meanwhile, Parallels Desktop http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/ and VMware Fusion http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/fusion/ now have another competitor: Innotek's VirtualBox, http://www.virtualbox.org/ a free, open-source virtualization environment previously available only for Windows and Linux. Now available in its first public beta for Mac OS X, VirtualBox lets users of Intel-based Macs install and run numerous versions of Windows, DOS, and Linux, as well as other Unix-like operating systems. VirtualBox for OS X Hosts Beta 1 is a 16 MB download. http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

[GPSNavX]

Until the VMs support OS X I am not interested. I have to support the following configurations..

- OS X 10.3 PPC
- OS X 10.4 PPC
- OS X 10.4 Intel

So that means 3 Macs to test on. If a VM could support OS X I could do it all on one. I have no interest in running Windows or Linux.