[eStar]

What options do 2005 powerbook users have as far as running windows? Just virtual pc?

Thanks!

[ghporter]

VPC and Parallels are about it right now. There are some other virtual machine programs for PPC-based computers around, but they aren't very popular for some reason, maybe because they just aren't well known. But virtualization is your only path with a PPC Mac.

[Moose]

Originally Posted by ghporter

But virtualization is your only path with a PPC Mac.

You mean emulation, of course.

[harrisjamieh]

...and Parallels won't work with PPC...... its not a UB, its intel only.. as it needs accesses the Intel chip directly, something that is not present in PPC macs...

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Moose

You mean emulation, of course.

As far as I can tell, the two methods are effectively identical. Either you build an emulated computer inside your actual computer, or you build a virtual computer inside your actual computer. And it looks like the actual methodology for most emulators is virtualization.

Whatever, the only way a PPC-based machine can run Windows right now is through a software solution rather than some hybrid solution like Boot Camp.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by eStar

What options do 2005 powerbook users have as far as running windows?

Well, they could sell their PowerBooks and use the money to buy MacBooks or PCs.

Seriously, you should consider doing this if running PC software is important to you. VPC is the devil's spawn.

[Moose]

Originally Posted by ghporter

As far as I can tell, the two methods are effectively identical. Either you build an emulated computer inside your actual computer, or you build a virtual computer inside your actual computer. And it looks like the actual methodology for most emulators is virtualization.

While emulation is indeed a specific form of virtualization, the two have taken on specific connotations inside the Macintosh community since the switch from PPC to Intel and the rise of Parallels Desktop for Mac. Accordingly, when you refer to Parallels as a solution for PPC Macs to run Windows, you don't demonstrate a keen understanding of the finer points of virtualization.

To address a point from your original reply, Virtual PC is the market leader in Intel emulation for PowerPC mostly because every competing product is even more miserably slow than VPC is.

[ghporter]

I really don't think it matters whether there's some "inside" term for it. From a computer science standpoint, it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck so it's a duck. And it doesn't matter whether the Mac community wants to think of different ways to run Windows on different processors in different terms, if it's a software solution, it's virtualization. Since the biggest player for the PPC platform is still VPC (which only runs on the PPC platform) and the up and coming biggest player on the Intel-based platform is Parallels, I don't see a need to come up with an additional term for it.

[Moose]

The question was, essentially, "What solutions exist for running Windows on a 2005 PowerBook."

You answered, "Virtual PC and Parallels."

Can you understand why people might not think you're fully briefed?

[ghporter]

Rereading my post, I see what you mean. I should have mentioned that these are the best software-based options for running Windows on Macs, and then explained which one was applicable to the PowerBook. I must have been in a hurry when I posted that one...

[Moose]

So, like.

Do we hug now?

[Dr. DDS]

Depending on what windows software you need to run, Virtual PC can work. I'm running virtual PC in my ibook g4 for some apps and i think it's doing the job, sure it's not fast, but not painfull.