Windows, Mac OS to run side-by-side
Parallels, a start-up whose software enables Macs to run Microsoft Windows and the Mac OS at the same time, says it is ready with a final version of its product. — Apple Computer made headlines back in April when it said it would offer its own software …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Mac-Windows question has been building all year. In January, Microsoft was reportedly working with Apple on the future of Virtual PC, the long-standing way to run Windows on PowerPC Macs. Then in April 2006, Apple said it would offer its own software for booting Windows on Intel Macs.
Parallels, a start-up, is now shipping a final version of its virtualization product before Apple's own offering has landed — and unlike dual-boot, it runs both operating systems at once. The race is over who defines how Windows reaches the new Intel Mac installed base.
First-order effects
- Mac owners buying Intel machines gain a shipping product today that runs Windows applications alongside Mac OS without rebooting, undercutting the restart-every-time workflow of Apple's April-announced approach.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft's Virtual PC franchise, already in flux per the January talks with Apple, faces a fast-moving competitor that shipped first on Intel Macs — pressuring Redmond to decide whether virtualization on the Mac remains its product at all.
Third-order effects
- If side-by-side virtualization becomes the default way to get Windows on a Mac, Windows application compatibility stops being a barrier to Mac purchases, reshaping the hardware choice into a preference decision rather than a software-lock-in one.
The trend: The Intel transition is turning the Mac into a dual-OS machine, with third-party virtualization racing Apple's own tools to define how Windows fits alongside Mac OS.