>>Hell, once Rhapsody comes out (won't be long) you can install Windows 95 on your Mac (and I mean ON your Mac) and run any software you want. <<
Mark, I don't see how Rhapsody will suddenly allow us to run Win95 and PC applications on Macs.
Scenario 1) If either VirtualPC, RealPC, or SoftWindows comes out for Rhapsody we will be able to run X86 applications in emulation, perhaps with some performance benefits from Rhapsody but not significantly different than the way it is done today.
Scenario 2) Apple makes Rhapsody for Intel and eventually switch its entire product line over to Intel chips. We will run X86 codes native, run Win95/98 native but will either loose all current Mac applications or have to run them in emulation. I hate to think that Apple will abandon PPC for Intel's inferior chip.
Scenario 3) In the unlikely event that MSFT makes Win95/98 PowerPC native and modify it to run on top of Rhapsody, PC applications compiled for X86 will still have to run in emulation mode like today.
I think Scenario 1. is most likely of the three. But Scenario 3 could be the best possible outcome for Mac users. Here's why...
Currently when we run a X86 program on a Mac using either VirtualPC, SoftWindows...etc it's fairly slow. And understandably so. Think about all the process that's going on. The X86 application is running on top of Win95. Win95 is running on top of VirtualPC. VirtualPC is running on top of MacOS. So at any given point in time there are four levels of softwares running. The top two are none PowerPC native. It's amazing who they manage to get the thing to run at all!
The alternative offered by Scenario 3 would be much more efficient. If MSFT makes Win95/98 PowerPC native and add emulator for X86 code directly into Win95 we'll get a system that works much like how the MacOS emulates 68K codes on PowerMacs today. Under this efficient setup, PC X86 code would run on top of PPC native Win95, and Win95 becomes a component(box) of Rhapsody. Only the X86 application would be in emulation and Rhapsody would have very little overhead. The performance of this system on a PowerPC may be comparable to mid-range PCs today?! MSFT wouldn't even have to port all the Win95 API to PowerPC right away because the built-in emulator can take care of any none native code much like how MacOS today still has some none native 68K components.
This will be ideal for Mac users because we get to keep PowerPC, current Mac applications, run Rhapsody, run MacOS, run Win95 native, and run X86 codes in emulation but much more efficiently than today. But is it going to happen? I haven't heard anyone mention this, so I highly doubt it.
Eric |
