OT***mac/pc
Diamond...reports are that running Virtual PC on a G3 Apple is faster pc platform than on the best DELL, etc. on pc applications....and the pc applications run better on the MAC! Does that make sense?
There was some discussion of using Virtual PC on a Mac for accessing an MLS
system geared to PCs. Here's an article that might be of interest.
Published - Friday, September 18, 1998
Virtual PC And The iMac
Earlier this week, my esteemed colleague Tim Hillman mentioned the virtues and
benefits of Connectix' Virtual PC in his column.
As someone who earns his money with systems administration for mostly
Wincentric corporations, I was slightly skeptic when I first heard of Virtual PC.
A sub-megabyte program that emulates the hardware of an entire Pentium PC?
Right. My experience with emulators on the PC platform led me to expect a flaky,
unstable "kinda looks like it" type of environment that wouldn't run half the apps
written for the platform it was emulating.
Well, it turns out that there are pieces of code out there that manage to make even
a tech-head like me look twice.
After the purchase of my new iMac, the first G3-based Mac ever to join the
household, I decided to give Virtual PC a try. I still own a stack of Windows 95
software and PC operating systems that I need at work frequently--every good
sysadmin has his or her own stack of frequently used software that never sees a
user's hand or a corporate CD pool.
While most of us agree that no PC operating system can hold a candle to the
MacOS, and software from companies that begin with "Micro.." should generally
be avoided, some people need to run certain software packages that are not
available for the Mac platform. Some developers need to check what their web
sites look like on a Windows web browser, and there are PC games that are just
too tempting to pass on.
I went to a local Mac shop and parted with $49.95 for Connectix Virtual PC with
PC-DOS. There's a $149 version that comes with Windows 95 or 98, but since I
have every Microsoft OS made since 1990 in my "Work Software" folder, I
figured I could skip another Windows CD.
To be fair, I had already seen Virtual PC in action on a 266 MHz G3, and I knew
before breaking the shrink wrap on my copy that these fifty bucks were probably
well worth it.
Back in the den, I installed VPC on my month-old iMac, opened the software case
with the warning label that contains the Windows installation CDs, and played
Wintel user for a while.
During the past month, I threw PC software at my VPC-equipped Mac that would
cause some factory-fresh PC systems to hiccup. I installed operating systems on
this emulator that would not install on some brand PC systems, both old and new.
My little test Macintosh has been running all of the following operating systems
gracefully:
Windows 95, first release through OSR 2.5
Windows 98, retail and developer versions
Windows NT 4.0 Server
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
MS-DOS 6.2 with Windows 3.1
IBM OS/2 Version 4
Caldera OpenLinux with X-Windows (XFree86)
PC-DOS 7
Windows NT 5.0 Beta 1
I am talking PC operating systems off the shelf here, not a specialized version of
Windows 95 like the one that comes with SoftWindows. The iMac has also been
running multiple-boot combinations of Windows 95 and NT, a well as OS/2.
( Before I get hate mail for contaminating a perfectly good Mac with Redmond
bloatware, I have to remind you that everything was done strictly in the name of
science. No iMacs were hurt or injured during the research for this article.)
On all those operating systems, I ran a multitude of business software and games.
While the emulation speed is not quite comparable with the speed of my late
Pentium II-300, it is more than enough to run all known business apps without
frustrating delays. Even games are playable--I ran Doom II and The Need for
Speed without screen stutter, and VPC enabled me to re-use all my PC strategy
games. Word 97 opened in less than five seconds, and the performance with
Windows 95 lets you almost forget that you sit in front of a Mac.
Virtual PC never crashed once on my iMac. It turned out to be more stable than
any of the physical PC systems I have used in the past, either on the job or at
home. It is also much better suited as a multiple-OS machine than any PC, since it
works with hard drive images that can be loaded with any PC OS and then be
mounted as needed. Create a bunch of HD images, load them with different
operating systems, and then switch between them merrily.
The emulation makes perfect use of existing Mac hardware, be it the modem or
the Ethernet card in the iMac. The operating system is duped into thinking that it
has actual PC hardware to work with, and the deception is performed in such a
slick manner that even Windows NT will load without problems--an operating
system that is notorious for its long list of incompatible hardware.
As Tim Hillman mentioned, you need to give the network card within the PC
environment a different IP address from the one of the host Macintosh, even
though they use the same physical network interface. The virtual machine will
show up as a separate system on the network, and you can even copy files from
the Mac to your Windows virtual machine over the LAN. The integration
between the Mac and Windows environment is tight--files can be dragged from
the Mac to the Windows desktop, VPC hard drive images can be mounted by the
MacOS finder, and Mac volumes can be mounted in the PC environment, showing
up complete with mapped drive letter.
The fact that the Mac can pull this off with ease is nothing short of astounding to
watch. When I found a G3 system at my local CompUSA loaded with Virtual PC,
I couldn't resist messing with the Wintel herd that was gawking at the Compaq
monstrosities not ten feet away. I switched VPC into full screen and began
clicking away in Windows 95. Soon I had an audience--fielding remarks like "I
thought that was a Mac," or "Is that a joke screen saver or something?".
None of them had ever heard about Virtual PC, or the fact that the Mac that I was
playing with could actually run more software than any of the Compaq systems
they were looking at earlier.
Granted, there are some things that Virtual PC is not too good at. The latest and
greatest high-end PC games require so much CPU horsepower, they will only
crawl under emulation. The Macintosh CPU has to translate x86 code into
PowerPC RISC code on the fly, and that will take a lot of juice out of any but the
fastest G3 chips. I run VPC on the G3-powered iMac, and the performance under
Windows 95 puts the lab Pentium 100 to shame. On a PowerPC 604/120,
Windows runs noticeably slower, comparable to what it would run like on a slow
486.
All things considered, though, Virtual PC is the shrink-wrapped answer to the old
"Macs are not compatible with Windows software" argument--and it is a lot more
than that. Any emulator that can fool Windows NT into thinking that it has a real
PC to run on is a fine piece of work. Mac loyalists at many companies can now
defend their trusty companions against the dreaded Mac purge. ("Why yes, I can
run Windows 95/98/NT, just like the company standard says.")
We Mac users can smugly look at the PC herd and ask them if the PC can emulate
a Mac yet. There's something that the PC won't do, and never will. (Neener,
neener, neener....!)
Heck, those things can't even run their own operating systems reliably--OSes that
were coded for PC hardware. Here comes the Mac, and not only does it run its
own OS, it also runs any Windows version right on top of that--more stable on
the Mac than it does on the PC. Why am I not surprised?
By Marko Cunningham ----------------------------------------- |
