It’s the great debate – Mac versus PC; the only problem is that those of us who choose to go the Mac route still find the need to run Windows applications on our machines. There are many reasons why this can be so, and it presents a recurring problem.
Unlike the VHS vs
Betamax war the Mac vs PC battle is ongoing, simply because
both can exist alongside each other and each has its own
band of followers. There is another reason, too, as unlike
the aforementioned videotape competitors some elements are
interchangeable: running Windows applications on a Mac may
be problematic at times, but it can be done.
There are a number
of ways: one is Apple Boot Camp, a facility that dual boots
the machine between the two operating systems and allows the
running of certain Windows applications, while another
method is by virtualization.
Virtualization involves, in simple terms, a process in which the Mac is made to believe it is a PC. This clever and sophisticated method of running Windows on a Mac is the chosen option by many, but to go too deeply into how it works is unnecessary – we simply need to know what it does.
One thing to be
aware of is that it operates with Macs that are powered by
Intel chips, and another is that there are several software
packages available to do the job. Apple Boot Camp is the
in-house approach – although it is not strictly
virtualization - and among the best on the market are the
highly recommended Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. All
these do effectively the same job, but in different
ways.
The beauty of
virtualization is that it enables the user to run different
operating systems on one machine, at the same time. This has
a number of obvious advantages as the ability to move
between operating systems without the need for a reboot, and
even copy files between them, is clearly an aid to
efficiency and a great time saver.
Boot Camp is a
different sort of approach in that it simply ‘dual boots’
the machine, allowing one to operate the machine in Windows
mode. The limitation with Boot Camp, however, is that unlike
the virtualization packages it will not allow the running of
two operating systems at the same time.
In its favour it
runs faster, and is the gamers preferred method of running a
Mac in Windows mode. This is mainly because of the better
representation of quality graphics when running in this
mode.
Developments in
computer software are ongoing and constant and, as such, it
is conceivable that better and faster ways of running
Windows on a Mac will present themselves in the near future;
there are always products being tested and in beta format,
and these will become fully fledged products as they are
properly developed.
The choice as to whether to have a Mac or a PC will always be one of taste and preference, but it remains to be said that running Windows on a Mac is not the trial and tribulation is once was.
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