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PC emulation on Mac

H

heljy

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 19, 2002
67
0
Madison, WI
I have got my iBook for a couple of months now and have been using more and more of it instead of my PC at home. =)

One questiont though, my gf wants to move to a OS X but still need to use some PC software. I heard of Virtual PC. Is is a good PC emulation program? I know that Microsoft have bought it from Connectix and the possibility that they will no longer develop it (like what Sony did to the PS emulator).

Is that the only alternative that I have? If I were to go for Virtual PC, I would get VPC 6.0 I checked out connectix's site and realize that they come bundled with the OS. Since I will be using my own OS, is there anyway that I can just buy Virtual PC itself without M$'s OS and then install of my own(Linux, Windows)?

Thanks in advance.
 
VirtualPC is not the only one, but there is an update to VirtualPC 6.0.1 on http://www.connectix.com/ . There is also a Bochs PC emulator on http://www.openosx.com/wintel/index.html which may also work. VirtualPC is pretty good as long as you have a minimum of 512MB of RAM in Mac OS X and give the Windows environment at least 256 MB of that RAM and 5 GB of your hard disk's space when creating a VirtualPC disk.

FWB may release RealPC for Mac OS X later this year based on Unix code which may be fast enough for high end games. But presently that is only rumor.
 
VirtualPC 6 works extremely well as an emulator - just do not expect very fast performance. In fact expect slow performance, but it works. (I have a 12@ powerbook with 640MB). Win98 is much less slow than XP.
It is available without a bundled OS if you have your own MS operating system. That version is around 100 Euros over here.
 
So far I've had very good luck with my copy of Virtual PC. I think the one you're looking for is teh PC-DOS version which is the cheapest and is essentially a non-operating system (though if you have some old DOS games it might be usable). One word of advice though is that you usualy can't get OEM versions of Windows to work on anything but the computer it came with. I'm in college and am able to get licensed versions of Windows so I find it especialy helpfull that VPC lets you run multiple OS's.
 
gopher:
Thanks for the quick reply. I am hoping that RealPC to come out quick (didnt they say they will release it within a month or something like that?)
 
Originally posted by heljy
gopher:
Thanks for the quick reply. I am hoping that RealPC to come out quick (didnt they say they will release it within a month or something like that?)
Click to expand...

A month would be too quick. If it came out in a month I'd be really surprised.
 
I've heard that MS:MacBU is about to bring an upgrade really soon; it's more of a name change and to bring it more in-house under the Microsoft moniker, but it might also mean a lower price because of there would be no licensing fees and it being from an obviously larger developer now.

So If you are planing to buy VPC (which I think you should), I would hold off for just a bit, maybe a month?, and you might save some change.
 
i remember seeing something once on techtv- they logged into XP from OS X and had windows and were actually controlling the pc with the desktop and software and everything, even though windows was just running on the pc. And I think they did it all with software included in both OS's. does anybody know how to do this?
 
yep - that's Microsoft Remote Desktop, available as a free download from microsoft.com (shock horror :D ). I use it at home when I need to burn a DVD or use kazaa on my PC (easier to use one set of mouse/keyboard/monitor than turning around all the time!)

I think you need XP Pro though, won't work with XP Home
 
Why not make it free?

Originally posted by pretentious
I've heard that MS:MacBU is about to bring an upgrade really soon; it's more of a name change and to bring it more in-house under the Microsoft moniker, but it might also mean a lower price because of there would be no licensing fees and it being from an obviously larger developer now.
Click to expand...

Microsoft might as well make Virtual PC a free download. Whatever the cost of developing VPC may be, I am sure that MS would make the money back from the sale of the operating system... unless of course you install an x86 version of Linux.
 
Re: Why not make it free?

Originally posted by Sol
Microsoft might as well make Virtual PC a free download. Whatever the cost of developing VPC may be, I am sure that MS would make the money back from the sale of the operating system... unless of course you install an x86 version of Linux.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt free...esp. for the very reason that you said. However I wouldn't be surprised that they'll drop the OS-less version. to protect you from over steping Windows licenses
 
Is emulation the way to go for Windows on Mac?

Originally posted by pretentious
I highly doubt free...esp. for the very reason that you said. However I wouldn't be surprised that they'll drop the OS-less version. to protect you from over steping Windows licenses
Click to expand...

If they drop the OS-less version then they should create a SoftWindows-like application that does not exactly emulate x86 but is optimized to run Windows on PPC. If they continue developing an x86 emulator then I see no reason why people would not be able to install Red Hat Linux, BeOS etc on it. Anyway, they will have to be price competitive with the Real PC emulator when that gets released.

If Real PC is up to scratch then Apple should buy it and offer its customers an x86 layer. If the IBM 970 CPUs are all that they are made out to be, emulating x86 on a Mac may be faster than running actual x86 hardware.
 
I think you need XP Pro though, won't work with XP Home
Click to expand...

Yeah it won't, it needs XP Pro. For Macs, Apple Remote Desktop is really nice - Mac only though.

If M$ has bough Connectix and controls VPC, do you think they'll nail Linux from the ads? Doesn't make too much sense to advertise their competitor.

I ran WinXP in VPC and it ran mind-shreddingly slow. Win98 was OK, and so was W2K.
 
Originally posted by szark
For remote control, you can also use Timbuktu ($) or VNC (free).
Click to expand...
I use tightvnc (tightvnc.com) and OSXVNC which compress the VNC data; both from PC to Mac and Mac to PC and it works fantastically. In fact I'm typing this on my Mac (at home) from a PC (at work) ... and the price is right!
 
RealPC for OSX is scheduled to be released on the 1:st of June, that's 2 weeks from now. And that is official, I think I read it on their site or so.

Really hopeful to try it out, if everything the C.E. said is true RealPC will be the fastest emulator ever, by far

/ filipp
 
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