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FWB Admits RealPC for Mac OS X was Vaporware

Posted by pudge on from the yeah-so-you-know-that-thing-we-said dept.

reiggin writes "In a press release on their site, FWB's new management comes clean and says that the former management had been lying about an upcoming RealPC OS X release. Apparently, not one line of code had even been written. This is a huge disappointment for anyone looking for an alternative to the now-MS owned Virtual PC (which, incidentally, Apple and Microsoft have said will not initially run on a G5)."

2 of 472 comments (clear)

  1. Time for hardware fix by Glock27 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    G5s have PCI-X slots. Someone should make an ~$200 x86 card with sufficient performance to run Windows. Perhaps a low-power AMD Duron plus integrated graphics and up to, say, 1 GB RAM (256 MB standard). Mass storage could come from some virtualized Mac resources...perhaps Samba. Low-power Athlons could be used for upscale versions with more performance.

    I'm sure Microsoft would go for an OEM bundle approach on XP Home, so that would only add $30 or so (maybe less). What did the emulators cost?

    The only downside to this approach is that it involves opening the case and inserting a card, anathema for many Mac people. The obvious answer is a micro-form-factor PC hooked up via Firewire 800, with some (simple) custom software to handle display on the Mac. This should go for under $300.

    OK, now that we have a business plan, who's ready to hire me as CTO? :-)

    --
    Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
    Score: -1 100% Flamebait
  2. Re:That's OK... by RocketScientist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow. Mozilla ate the post I had written.

    To answer your question, here's the short list of what I need VPC for:

    1. SQL Server Management Tools: Enterprise Manager, ISQL/W, and so on.

    2. Outlook to Exchange 5.5 integration. Yeah, Entourage works great for Exchange 2000, but it still don't work worth talking about against Exchange 5.5.

    3. Testing sites on IE 6. It's just wacky enough to need separate testing.

    4. Various Windows network admin apps (User Manager, Share Management, Server Manager).

    All told, I get into it once or twice every 3 or 4 weeks. It's not like buying a PS2 to play zelda, it's more like buing a Torx screwdriver: I don't use it often, but when I need it, I REALLY need it, right then. Am I in it all the time? Nope. But I use it enough to justify buying it (err...making my employer buy it :) )

    Hope that clears things up.