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Windows on Mac: Boot Camp Not the Final Word

Apple's free Boot Camp software has put the company at the front in the race to run Windows on Intel-based Macs. Boot Camp beta software is easy to install and solves most of the performance and hardware support issues of other solutions. But Boot Camp will not be the final word for Mac users who need to use two operating systems.

Virtualization solutions that run Windows inside of Mac OS X have the potential of better integrating Windows with the Mac by giving users access to both operating systems at the same time.

Virtualization products, such as Microsoft's Virtual PC, enable users to switch between Mac OS X and Windows applications without rebooting. As eWEEK Labs reports, Boot Camp users can't access Mac files when the Mac is booted from Windows XP. Virtual PC not only gives users this ability, but also lets users copy and paste between Mac and Windows application documents.

In addition, Virtual PC lets users save files to the Mac side, then undo all of the changes made to Windows in a session, leaving the Windows disk image in pristine condition. Boot Camp doesn't provide any of these dual-OS features. Boot Camp enables Windows XP to boot the Mac as if it were a plain vanilla PC.

Right now, Intel Mac users won't find many of these features in any virtualization solution, either. Microsoft's Virtual PC is not available for Intel Macs. Microsoft has indicated that it is looking into a port to the Intel Mac platform but has not announced a ship date.

There are other virtualization efforts for the Intel Mac, such as the free Q, which lets users switch between Mac OS X and Windows without rebooting. Most of these efforts are based on the open-source QEMU virtualization engine. All are still in the early stages of development, with parts of the Mac hardware still emulated and limited support for peripherals, and without copy-and-paste-type integration features of Virtual PC.

An open-source project called Darwine is taking a different approach to virtualization. Still in early stages of development, Darwine aims to run Windows applications directly in Mac OS X, but without Windows. Darwine is a port of Wine, an open-source project that runs Windows applications directly in Linux, without running or virtualizing Windows at all. Google is using Wine code in its Linux version of Picasa.

Wine and Darwine add a compatibility layer that provides the equivalent of the Windows API. These means that Darwine doesn't have the overhead needed to support all of Windows XP's functions, as do standard virtualization solutions.

Unlike Boot Camp or Virtual PC, Darwine provides no Windows desktop, no Start menu, no task bar; just Windows applications in their own windows.

The current version of Darwine hosts Windows applications with X11, a Unix graphical windowing environment. Apple's X11 for Mac OS X is a free download. Like virtualization solutions, X11 for Mac OS X lets users cut and paste between X11 and aqua windows, which in Darwine's case is Windows XP and Mac OS X application documents. The Darwine project plans to move from X11 to direct support of Windows applications in aqua.

At this point, the easy-to-install Boot Camp beta is miles ahead of Darwine and the other virtualization efforts. The Darwine Web site refers to the current version as a "developer preview," warning that it is not ready for average users. Installation of Darwine is complex, and some functions, such as sound, do not yet work.

Boot Camp, on the other hand, will be integrated into the next version of Mac OS X, "Leopard," which is scheduled to ship at the end of the year.

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