For Apple, moving to the Intel chip has been a huge success by helping to remove fears that many potential ‘switchers’ had. This was largely achieved by offering increased compatibility, stability and visibility with the new hardware, and by further utilizing their established presence to widen a path through an already crowded PC market. I see the wisdom in enabling the 80% of all personal computer consumers to keep their current software collection and still upgrade to a new Macintosh should they choose to do so.
While I’m a big fan of Macs, I acknowledge that some of the professional software packages out there are just not up to snuff when compared with their PC counterparts. There are a handful of project management software companies that offer Mac exclusive solutions but there’s only one Microsoft Project at the time of this writing, and that’s available only on Windows for PCs. If you work in an Exchange environment you might already be using Entourage to get your emails and manage some simple calendar tasks, but there’s nothing like using the real version of Outlook when managing delegates and scheduling resources. Walk into almost any software/electronics store today and you’re likely only to find a collection of PC titles.
A note on gaming on the Mac:
Sure, you can buy some gaming titles that run natively on your Mac but the selection is not nearly as large as what’s available for the PC. You don’t have miss out on all the fun as there are a few other options for playing PC games on your Mac. You can ride the smaller but growing wave of users that install a virtual machine with Windows XP or VISTA or you can use Apple’s BootCamp to partition your hard drive into a REAL and separate Windows volume. What about a third option. If you can’t beat them and you don’t want to join them- forget it and run their software anyway without the Windows software installation.
Introducing Codweaver’s CrossOver and CrossOver Games for Macintosh.
For many people hard drive space is almost a sacred thing and if you’re a portable computer user the option to use BootCamp may never be a reality for you with such limited storage capabilities. Using BootCamp requires a commitment of fixed hard drive space to be able to install a full working copy of Windows. It is also a commitment to support another OS install and deal with all the problems that come with such an install. Now I’m not opening the floor to a debate of which operating system is more secure than the other but I am stating that if you’re mainly interested in being productive or gaming then why introduce the added complexity of a second operating system to your bag of worries?
CrossOver Mac:
CrossOver for the Mac takes certain elements of a real Windows install and recreates the folder structures needed to replicate a pseudo Windows environment which effectively fools applications into running correctly as though truly installed in a dedicated Windows installed PC. This is only possible with x86 compatible hardware (an Intel based Macintosh works just fine) and the genius of the collective open source project called, WINE. The software ‘kit’ seeks to replace the proprietary library files of Microsoft Windows with open source solutions allowing graphics acceleration. While CrossOver and CrossOver Games isn’t compatible with every application available for Windows it does give you a rather cheap alternative to a full blown Windows OS purchase and install while granting access to some popular software titles.
I tested Microsoft’s Office 2003 suite and also installed a few games with varying results. The difference is to be found in the version of Codeweavers product you choose to install.
I was able to easily install Microsoft Visio and create, edit and publish the very same documents I could under Windows and the rest of the Office suite I had performed as expected too. The ability to produce business graphics is also very good in this version of CrossOver but it does have some limitations.The user interface can be confusing at times.
There’s no real downside to using applications under CrossOver other than some of the confusing Windows dialog boxes you’ll see in normal use. While writing a short story in Microsoft Word is pretty straightforward and uneventful, saving the document will invoke the Windows explorer dialog box to appear prompting you to locate the spot you wish to save the file to. Opening a file will also throw you into a dizzying maze of folders that while normal for Windows users can be confusing if you don’t really know what to expect. This is not a shortcoming of CrossOver- it is simply giving you a genuine Windows experience by not altering how the application really works. My advice to a new user who needs Visio or any other suite on their Mac is to read about how the application works under Windows and you should be able to adapt quickly to what you’re seeing on your Mac, without a safe windowed OS environment to show you you’re not in Kansas anymore which is what a VMWare or Parallels install would do by default.
CrossOver Games:
CrossOver Games is really very much the same product as CrossOver but it is primarily focused on cutting edge support for hardware acceleration and improved graphics performance, whereas the latter is focused on stability and compatibility with productivity software. I downloaded STEAM for the PC and installed my copy of Team Fortress 2 within a few minutes and was rewarded with a real working multiplayer PC game all from the comfort of my Mac. Games offers support for DirectX 9 shader 2.0 which is fairly standard but showing its age a bit in the creeping DirectX10 world that’s slowly taking over. While Team Fortress 2 was fast and very playable, the graphics were a little extra cartoonish in appearance but not in a good way. Textures were off a little where gravel on pathways or wood grain in buildings was completely lost. Truth be told it didn’t impact my sniper or soldier’s abilities one bit.
What about Viruses? At this time Codeweavers states that the ‘bottles’ used to encapsulate your emulated Windows install are not normally targeted and can not easily pass on a virus to the rest of your Mac system. In short a virus would need to understand its running in a bottled environment to break free and then be able to cope with running on a Unix system like Linux or MacOS X, and then again it would be restricted to your user account as system changes require authentication by a user designated as an administrator. However, it stands to reason that an infected file can quite freely pass through your hands and be sent out to all your colleagues who use full Windows OS installs so scan you files from the Mac and then work on them.
Parallels Desktop for Macintosh:
While working in an emulated Windows install may allow you to save space on your hard drive and reduce the number of maintenance rituals you participate in daily- sometimes you have no choice but to run your application under a fully supported copy of Windows. Parallels Desktop for Macintosh was first to market by offering a way for Intel based Macs to install Windows XP or Vista while delivering increased compatibility and performance. The underlying technology delivering graphics by way of Direct3D is still being handled by the WINE project’s library files which supports many but not all software titles available. Parallels Desktop sees product updates far less frequently than CrossOver and CrossOver Games. My understanding is that while Parallels and even to some degree VMWare’s Fusion tap the WINE project for resources, Codeweaver’s CrossOver software is actually more a part of the WINE development community. All the benefits of such intimate project work is brought to end users much more quickly.
VMWare Fusion:
VMWare is pretty much widely known in the world of technology as the virtual machine host to beat all others. With deep roots in server virtualization and a long history of understanding the do’s and don’ts of the technology you will find the polished VMWare product for the Mac is friendly while also geeky enough to allow you to create virtual Mac OS X server installs if that’s your kind of thing. Fusion is a little more simplified compared to Parallels Desktop’s more granular settings options, but both products are well supported and will help you get the job done whether you need a few different operating systems running side by side for software testing or you are saving money by reducing the number of hardware servers you have plugged into your AC outlets. While sounding terribly technical, Fusion’s friendliness also lends itself to making your Windows experience easy and seamless while you run Outlook 2007 or prepare your next big presentation with PowerPoint.
BootCamp – Windows on your Mac:
If performance and 100% compatibility is your concern then there is no better option than simply installing Windows on your Mac and booting into it. With BootCamp Assistant (found in your /Applications/Utilities folder) you can partition your computer’s main hard drive or even utilize a separate internal hard drive to install Windows XP/sp2 or higher. When you choose to boot your Mac from the Windows operating system you will get full graphics performance with the added bonus of expanded memory capabilities found in Intel Core 2 Duo Macs allowing one to take advantage of Vista’s DirectX10 without a performance hit. You may install either the 32bit or 64bit versions of XP or Vista without problems. All the drivers you need are included on your Mac OS X install DVD. Simply insert the DVD and the driver installer will automatically launch and begin activating all the cool hardware features of your Mac to work within Windows.
If you’re like me you might even do a combination BootCamp and VMWare Fusion allowing you to either boot into Windows or launch Windows in a virtual environment for a quick file copy or whatever else needs to be done without committing to a computer reboot.
You can see that there are a number of really good products to help you stay productive or to keep you gaming on your Mac by allowing you to run a copy of Windows or even your favorite version of Linux.