Running Windows on a Mac

(and OSX on a PC)

Ok, so the second part is a furphy – the Apple Operating System (OS X) will not be seen on any PCs anytime soon. Also, to clarify – A Mac is a Mac, and by definition is a PC (personal computer), but it has become common usage to distinguish between an Apple Mac and a Windows based computer (PC).

And now, the basis for this article, that definition becomes even more gray, as an Intel Mac (ie one that came out in the last few years, with an Intel CPU) can be used to run Windows.

What is more, you can either run Windows in a window inside the Mac OS, or you can use Windows as the Mac OS. It can even get more confusing.

For example, I run an Apple ][e emulator inside a Windows virtual machine running inside Apple OSX on a Mac laptop. So is my laptop a Mac, a PC, an Apple ][e, or some weird genetic (silicon life) science experiment that has gone horribly wrong?

Ok – back to what really matters here. If you have an Intel Mac of some form, you can run Windows on it, simultaneously with the Apple Operating System (OS X) (OS X means (mac) Operating System 10, and the current version is 10.5, which is also known as “Leopard”)

The Windows….uh window….can either be on the desktop, can be full screen (so it just looks like a Windows machine, or can be run in a Unity, or Coherence mode (depending on what program you are using to create the virtual machine) which means the Windows programs and the Mac programs all appear to run within the OS X system.

There are 2 main programs out there doing this (allowing Windows to run within OS X) – Parallels and VMware Fusion.

I have been finding that the VMware Fusion to be the better choice of the two – bit more stable, better coherence (what they call Unity) mode etc.