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Parallels Beta Adds Boot Camp, Desktop
Verunks writes "Parallels has released a new beta of its virtualization product for Mac OS X. This new release includes one major new feature, something Parallels calls Coherency: "Shows Windows applications as if they were Mac ones. Try it and enjoy best of both worlds truly at the same time. No more switching between Windows to Mac OS." Check out this Screenshot"
More interesting to me is the Boot Camp support so you can have a single partition to run IE7 in Parallels to test compatibility of a website but reboot to play video games that need a little more juice.
I've been wondering why a Linux distro doesn't do this automagically with WINE. It seems like such an obvious feature to implement, and would be great for people new to Linux or even those whose who don't know how to use it if it just ran as if native...
Are these guys in Microsoft's pocket with some kind of authorization for the WindowsOS itself, or can I just go on exploiting the fruits of Swedish piracy?
Also, does it come in different colours? Because I know some girls who use Macs. They like their GUI to match their purses.
These stories are free but worth money.
The constant improvement that this product has seen in its short existence is astounding. When you consider that it costs only $80 and has no competition at this time, it almost seems like they're working too hard on it.
If Parallels was publicly traded, I'd be buying up a lot of their stock. These features are too damned useful for Apple to not add to OS X at some point, and the best way would be for them to just whip out the checkbook and buy the company.
Actually, with modern multi-core processors and oodles of RAM, virtualization kicks pretty much ass. When I run parallels in fullscreen mode on my macbook, you pretty much can't tell it's virtualized. It's more responsive than the dell desktop sitting in my office at work. The only thing you really notice is that the video card doesn't support hardware acceleration, so stuff like games suck. Then again, the video card in my macbook is pretty crappy, so even with 3d support they would suck =/
MacBooks and MacBookPro's do support right mouse buttons. Tap one finger on the touch pad for left click, tap two fingers for right click (and drag two fingers around the trackpad for scrolling, or zooming with Control pressed).
For charity?
Out of good will?
Because of indignant responses from hardcore Mac fans?
Maintaining a separate Cocoa code base for a product, buy and support expensive Mac hardware, maintain Mac software engineers
or let Mac users run our app from Parallels...
I installed this as soon as it came out, as did many other Mac users. My Mac (mini DP Intel 1.67GHz, 2GB RAM) slowed to a crawl as soon as I launched it. I had to yank the power cable. I uninstalled it and all was well. This is a common experience. If you're just going to try out a new version, cool, go for it, maybe it'll go well. But please understand that it's a beta -- don't plan on getting any work done with this.
Just an FYI, but the new MacBook Pros have a "right-click" control panel option whereby if you put two fingers on the pad while you click the button it's interpreted as a right click. Much easier to do than say, and no more "control-click". And the Parallels/Boot Camp drivers for Windows look for this as well.
;)
As to Linux... well, it's open source. Just change the driver yourself.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
What do you call "non-native support for Linux"?! Apple laptops run linux _as natively as it goes_ for ages and this doesn't exclude the Intel based machines. I even could setup a triple-boot on an Intel based Mac (vs. all the dual-boots I had in the past). All running "natively" of course
Now, mod me down freely. My karma can't get any worse...
You'd think that in, say, full-screen mode that there's be some way for Apple to open a hole so that Parallels/Windows could get direct access to the video card.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I've installed it and it is very similar to Classic on PPC macs under OS X. As with OS 9 apps on OS X, a full copy of the operating system is running, but the windows are drawn directly to the desktop (or at least appear to, with some glitching at the moment). I have the Windows task bar running down the left hand side of my screen so it doesn't get in the way of my dock (at the bottom) and desktop icons (to the right). Running Windows with the classic theme looks better as the shaped edges of Windows apps leave a little triangle of the Windows desktop which looks a bit poor. Lighten up the theme and it works quite nicely on the OS X desktop.
:-)
Apple really needs to buy Parallels or do something similar. It would make a huge difference to people moving from Windows to the Mac and eventually, Windows could go the same way as Classic MacOS has under OS X and just fade away. I don't think MS would be very pleased with this development though
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
And, in addition to what MustardMan said, don't confuse virtualization with emulation.
I think he's referring to the fact that Intel Macs use EFI instead of BIOS, which makes it tricky to load anything other than MacOS. Bootcamp lets you run Windows, but as far as I know, it's still a PITA to get Linux to run on any Intel Mac.
Saying your "phone ran out of batteries" is like saying your "car ran out of gas tanks".
Saying your "phone ran out of batteries" is like saying your "car ran out of gas tanks".
> I think he's referring to the fact that Intel Macs use EFI instead of BIOS,
> which makes it tricky to load anything other than MacOS.
http://elilo.sourceforge.net/
It's so small, it doesn't get in the way at all. I used the kind of adhesive that doesn't leave residue when you pull it off and you can keep sticking it on over and over. I don't know, works for me.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Is that built into the firmware/hardware, or is it a function of the touchpad driver? Does it still behave that way when fully booted into Windows or Linux?
This guy's the limit!
Does anyone know if VMWare Fusion (for Mac) is going to have something like the "Coherency" feature? Also, is the Parallels Coherency feature for Windows-only, or can it be used with Linux in, say, an X/KDE or X/GNOME configuration?
I'm not that happy with their charging for program updates after a year's passed since you purchase it. I understand it costs the company to generate updates, but I'm certain that Microsoft and/or Apple will produce their own updates that will break Parallels. Updates will be a necessity, and I'm hesitant to buy a product that will generate a long-term expense on my part in order to keep using it.
Or you could just attach a two button mouse via a USB port...
Visit http://theshrine.ca/ at irregular intervals and you might see something interesting.
Emulation is slow. E.g. a PowerPC executing x86 code by emulation will be much slower than a native x86. There are tricks, like profiling the application and translating, rather than emulating the frequently used bits, but it in general there will always be a hefty penalty. And modern performance critical code will use multimedia instructions which don't have 1:1 mappings to a different instruction set.
But on an Intel Mac none of this is an issue, since the Windows app and a mac one run on exactly the same instruction set. Of course, the API the applications use will be completely different. Virtualisation is about running two kernels simultaneously on the same hardware. Now this is tricky, because OS kernels want to be in sole control of the hardware. The x86 isn't completely self virtualisable, i.e. you can't trap and emulate all the instructions you need to fool the kernel, so you go back to profiling and translating, at least for kernel mode code. Or you can trap many more instructions than you need to. But recent intel chips have a technology called VT which plugs the holes and allows self virtualisation.
So you can run the guest kernel code at full speed, and trap and emulate just enough to keep the guest OS under control of the hypervisor.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
I'm running this beta build right now - have been doing all day as I do the exciting task of catching up with my accounts (Quicken UK, Windows only). There's some graphical improvements to the interface - I like the better laid-out screen for picking the VM. There's still some interface no-nos (ok button on the left? Nope, shouldn't be the case on OS X) and I think the dock icon is trying just that bit too hard when it turns into a dancing egg timer as you save a machine's state, but overall things are better and things are fine.
I upgraded from a previous install, which means I had a disk image of Windows installed rather than a real partition. What I'm wondering is how Windows would cope with being booted for real on MacBook Pro hardware one moment, then booted again in Parallels another moment. Surely that would kick Windows activation into life?
Cheers,
Ian
It's driver dependent. Support for it is built right into OS X, the latest Boot Camp beta adds a trackpad driver so you can do it in Windows as well. As for Linux, I have no idea-- there are certainly no Apple-provided drivers.
~Philly
It's a function of the driver - there are drivers for both Windows and Linux however, and they both support the right-clicking functionality.
Cheers,
Ian
Holding the Command/Apple key while clicking is the equivalent to right-clicking. Or as others have said, you can plug in (or Bluetooth) your own mouse with 2/3/4/5/* buttons. I use both of these techniques when I remote-desktop into my Win XP machine from my PowerBook G4.
John S. Jacob * jsjacob@iamnota.com * www.iamnota.com * pgp: ac6ace17
Intel Macs' EFI can function as a BIOS, and will run Linux fine. This feature was added at the same time as boot camp (the drivers), but it works fine with any OS. It's quite simple to get Linux to run on an Intel Mac.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
I see. It's not that much of a PITA - various explanations on how to do it are available on the web and quite understandable. Following them is a matter of minutes, rather than hours, but of course HMMV.
Now, mod me down freely. My karma can't get any worse...
Can also get a Blootooth mouse, that "Just Works"... there are a few out there, since the Macbook has built in Bluetooth, no need for a usb dongle hanging off your laptop.
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
Can you imagine IE 7 and IE6 as standalone programs on a KDE desktop?!
4 linux-2.0.tar.gz
While you can't run IE 7 in Linux yet...IE 6/Flash 9 & below is certainly possible with Wine from any desktop at the following address:
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies
Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. - Charles M. Schulz
That's what I did at first. Didn't work too well for me for some reason. Maybe I just had a bum mouse but the setup I have now works better. I never lose the signal and I can live with the dongle.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
This is really good for Parallels and will be important for the company in several ways.
Obviously it is a big feature for users who might be interested in Boot Camp and Parallels. One license, keeping the same settings etc.
The thing that will bring the real benefits to Parallels though are related to development. Working with Boot Camp means that Parallels can access the Boot Camp drivers for Windows that Apple writes. Every time Apple updates their hardware they'll update Boot Camp with new drivers. This will make it much easier for Parallels to keep up with new hardware.
Boot Camp adds a driver for the touchpad that includes Apple's right click implementation. Suddenly it's in Parallels automagically. Apple ads a driver to operate the inbuilt iSight. Parallels can start using it too.
Shared documents are potentially great. Apple should work with Parallels to ensure things like the iTunes library (and iTS purchased music) is available in the Windows partition.
Apple have already said that they are not going to include virtualisation in Leopard because they are so happy with the performance of Parallels.
If necessary they'd buy Parallels to ensure that development keeps going on. They might do it anyway to reduce the costs.
the more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the pipe
wild, I have a few friends using the Belkin Bluetooth mouse and it's been working great for them.. *shrug* as long as it works for you.. :) just surprised the bluetooth didn't cut it.
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
Do you have pictures of it? I'd also like to see your desktop/setup at home, sounds "l33t" :)
Sig: I stole this sig.
It's the control key, not the Apple key, that defines a click as a righ mouse button.
And once you get use to it, you realize that chording is far better than hacking a second button onto a laptop - your hand is always resting by the key anyway, and it makes for a much larger mouse button target to hit with no confusion.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I run a VNC (desktop sharing) server on my windows box so I can interact with windows programs from my MacBook Pro. Recently, I've noticed that I spend far more time using windows-based CAD/CAM software this way rather than directly on the windows box. Right button clicks are easily simulated. The middle button is useful with this program, but not necessary, and I find myself working just as well without it.
Ergonomically, I have come around to the belief that the single button is very nice. Two button laptops now feel uncomfortable, requiring a little stretch of the thumb for every left click. As for trackpoints, I'm willing to call that personal preference. More power to you if you don't get a sore index finger using them.
Writing software that requires Parallels is still cutting out a large part of the market as you have to pay for Parallels AND Windows, and the extra resources a whole XP installation running requires puts more strain on a laptop which is already constrained for resources.
I use parallels to run the things that Mac that I simply cannot any other way. When looking for software I look mac specific because it interacts better with other programs, and also makes use of many key underlying operating system features (like spell checking in text boxes)
It's this last argument that is really important - going forward more and more really nice system resources are availiable to the user of any Cocoa program (or even plain Mac app). If you distribute a Windows app to sell to Mac users under Leopard they are not geing to be able to take advanatge of Time Machine. You could get some of these features with Vista but now you are talking about hundreds of doallrs extra to run your app on a Mac - and that leaves the market wide open for competition.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You're perfectly entitled to your opinion; you're also entitled to be wrong.
"Tu fui, ego eris" - Virgil
For reference, Windows XP boots in 7 seconds under Parallels on my iMac. Funny thing is, it takes longer to restore from a snapshot!
Come on now... as a long-time Mac user, I've probably already suffered a lethal exposure to the Steve Jobs reality distortion field(TM). Even so, I have to point out that there are some places where it just isn't practical to use a mouse with your laptop. Want to try your solution in an airplane seat?
I really don't get why Apple won't just come out with a real, honest-to-goodness two-button laptop. None of this gimmicky stuff meant to keep it looking like a one-button setup while ever-so-awkwardly implementing a secondary click feature. Lack of a real two-button touchpad is the only reason at least two of my friends haven't yet bought Mac laptops, and I can only chalk this kind of reality-defying failure to address the market to direct veto from Jobs himself.
Shows Windows applications as if they were Mac ones. Try it and enjoy best of both worlds truly at the same time.
Let me get this straight: First, I have to buy a copy of Windows, so that I can run Windows programs on my Mac?
Isn't this like paying Rosie O'Donell for sex when you're already dating Halle Berry?
"tap two fingers for right click"
If configured that way. Optionally, place two fingers on the trackpad and click the button for the secondary right click. This is a check box option in System Preferences->Keyboard & Mouse->Trackpad. You get the two-finger tap or this option but not both at the same time.
Also, on the PowerBook and MacBook, you can press the ctrl key and click the for the secondary right-click.
MacBooks and MacBookPro's do support right mouse buttons.
Or get a $9 2-button-and-scrollwheel USB mouse, plug it in & use all of its features exactly as expected.
"Inquiring Minds Want to Know!"
I never even use the single button below the trackpad on a Macbook. I tap with one finger for left click, tap with two fingers for right click, and drag with two fingers for scroll. This method doesn't strike me as awkward at all (whereas holding down option while clicking the button is indeed awkward.)
Because there are plenty of people like myself that recognize that the single button has kept carpel tunnel at bay, since I can vary where I click the button.
I _love_ the two finger click on the MBP. It is an elegant solution to an inelegant problem.
I don't know why they haven't implemented it in the AlBooks that support two finger scrolling, since it is obvious that they would support this as well.
"requiring a little stretch of the thumb for every left click"
On my ThinkPad, I can hit the the left mouse button with a 1/2" movement of my left thumb, the right mouse button with a 1/2" movement of my right thumb, the middle with a 3/4" movement of either thumb, and comfortably hit the trackpoint with either index finger, all without taking my fingers off the home row. I have always found Apple's mouse button placement awkward.
The masses are the crack whores of religion.
I have memories of this odd input device. It looked very similar to a regular computer mouse, but the ball was ON TOP. I think they called it a "trackball". Oddly enough, by simply manipulating the ball with one's thumb, you get the same effect as moving the mouse across the desk, but the trackball remained stationary! I do wonder if that might be useful to you, as it could, theoretically, be placed on any surface and work just fine.
I don't get why posts are limited to 120 characters. Seems unreasonable to me. I mean, just because I like having a real
There are four features I just love about this release (well, there are more, but these are my main favourites):
All in all an utterly amazing update. I found this screencast showing some of the features.
Aha! You like trackpoints because you keep your fingers on the home row.
Good for you. That helps explain your preference.
Still, you said not having three buttons was part of the problem without explaining why. And that makes me wonder since my experience shows it works quite well, even for applications that need 2 or 3 buttons.
I am also puzzled because you confirmed my complaint about 3-button laptops - that you have to move your thumb sideways for every mouse click - and then said Apple's interface is the awkward one. Have you tried them both long enough to get used to them?
Anyway, my point is that many people who are used to three-button laptops may well find Apple's one-button approach more than adequate. Having used both for thousands of hours, I have - to my own surprise - come to prefer the single button trackpad. Not only for native OS X applications, but for Windows (under parallels and via VNC) and X11, using 2- or 3-button emulation. So much so, that I prefer using my laptop to interface with my Windows box rather than the very nice keyboard and mouse on it.
Apple's trackpad is very good. I'm not asking you to like it. But I'd like you to accept that it will be adequate (even excellent) for many users.
Question:
Can Bootcamp or Parallels be used to run a IIS + win2K server on this? (Apple XServe)
Thanks.
But I'm afraid it doesn't do much for me until it supports Linux in liu of Windows. It's just virtualization, so Linux *can* be supported, right? And should such support be easier since we have all the source code already?
Wine is not the same thing as parallels - parallels is a virtualization environment that runs the full windows xp operating system concurrently with mac os x. Wine is a from-scratch implementation of the windows API. There is a wine-derivative package for mac (crossover from codeweavers), so people can pick-and-choose the best solution for them.
I'm switching from WinTels to MacTels rsn, I plan on getting a MacBook Pro in the next couple of weeks. At first I was planning on getting Parallels to run Windows in but instead I decided to get CrossOver Mac. I don't see the need to run Windows, which I'd have to go and buy anyway but doing so would mean I'd still have to deal with both Activation and WGA. And they are why I'm switching. There's only a few Windows programs I will want to use at most, XMLSpy (if I can't find an equivilent Mac app) and various browser versions, and I can just run them in CrossOver.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I've been wondering why a Linux distro doesn't do this automagically with WINE
Isn't that pretty much what Lindows/Linspire tried to do? As I recall, they had technical difficulties and eventually stopped promoting that feature.
Linspire now has CrossOver that can be used instead of WINE.
FalconShould there be a Law?
After all, we know what happened to the last OS which did this: by billing itself as "a better Windows than Windows", it signed its own death warrant. After all, who'd develop a native app when it runs Windows apps so well?
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Apple doesn't sell a portable (they aren't laptops) with two trackpad buttons because they suck. I'm on my sixth Apple portable (PB 5300cs, Duo 230, PB 520 w/PPC, PB G3 Wallstreet, iBook G4, and MacBook) and I've found the single button to work great on every one. Only the last three even supported trackpad click and only the MacBook supports two-finger click out-of-the-box, but I STILL wouldn't want two buttons. And yes, I've used PC laptops with two buttons and its a lousy solution.
I can't believe you all fell for this!! C'mon: Gluing a 2-button-USB-mouse circuit board to your Macbook??? How 'bout using the built-in "CTRL-Click?" (Doesn't even need to be configured via the control panel -- like the two-finger-trackpad gesture.)
I'll be honest and say that I really thought the one-button trackpad would get on my nerves. I mean, who wants to hold the Option key just to get a right click? I deliberated for a few weeks and spent a bit of time playing with the laptops in the local Apple store, before eventually taking the plunge and buying a MacBook.
Having used it for about 2 months now (I'm a first time switcher), I can say that the one-button design is perfectly fine. I use the trackpad features, like two finger scrolling and two finger tap for right click, so often that when I sit down with another laptop I find myself tapping away, wondering why the context menu won't come up. The same thing happens with two finger scrolling (and my Expose screen corners).
If the only reason for not buying a Mac laptop is the one-button trackpad, then I'd advise your friends to go down to the Apple store and spend 20 minutes playing with one. If they decide it's really not for them, then that's great. I can attest though, once you've used the trackpad features for a couple of days you'll wonder how you ever lived without them.
Thank's for the link. I was looking for something like XMLSpy for Macs, something that checked for wellformedness and would validate without being connected to the net. Now, er when I get me MBP, I'll try out Oxygen.
FalconShould there be a Law?
What I want to know is whether or not this thing is slick enough to permit, for example, an entire engineering shop to switch to a PC only CAD software without ditching all their Macs. I know an engineering company that is all Mac right now but the development of Mac CAD software lags and the emerged industry standards (Autocad, Pro/E, etc) are all PC only. It would be incredibly useful for many small companies, I imagine, to be able to stick with the safe, secure, Apple OS and other Apple applications that they have standardized upon,despite also needing to run PC-only industry software in order to be compatible with the outside world. This would be a matter of how much performance is available to the PC software while working in Parallels.
I have memories of this odd input device. It looked very similar to a regular computer mouse, but the ball was ON TOP. I think they called it a "trackball". Oddly enough, by simply manipulating the ball with one's thumb, you get the same effect as moving the mouse across the desk, but the trackball remained stationary! I do wonder if that might be useful to you, as it could, theoretically, be placed on any surface and work just fine.
I used to like trackballs but after a while of using one I realized must of the tyme a mouse was easier for me to use. Now what I'd like is a tablet, for graphics and writing.
FalconShould there be a Law?
It's actually really easy to install Linux on a MacBook Pro. Use Bootcamp to partition your drive, and then when it next boots up, just install Linux instead of Windows. Fedora Core 6 worked without any problems for me.
CrossOver doesn't support every application. In fact there is more that it doesn't support than what it does... I would suggest testing what you need to have running... Also, if you already have a windows license (that is transferable) you can use QEMU, which has made progress. I hate activation, and honestly, the increased issues and invasiveness is what is going to keep me away from vista in my home. I have a MSDN license, so my desktop is covered even, still won't be using it... ubuntu + vmware + winxp will probably be my setup for some time to come. I will probably get a MacBook Pro sometime next year myself, so vmware will be replaced with parallels, but will be keeping xp.
The only Windows app I believed I wanted to run on a Mac was XMLSpy however someone replying to a previous post of mine provided a link to the Oxygen XML editor which I'll try. So the only Windows software I know I'll want to run is IE and IE 5, 5.5, and 6 have been tested to run in CrossOver Mac. IE 7 hasn't been cleared yet but it's just coming out. For every other Windows app I use, there's a Mac equivalent.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I find OS X to be the most perfect desktop o/s I've used, so for me its only failing is that it won't run Windows programs. I have customers that would love to run Macs - they'd have less hassles & spend less time & money on technical support issues. But they're bound inexorably to one or two bespoke or proprietary apps, only available on Windows. That's the facts of the matter for me - the deficiencies inherent in OS X are that it isn't Windows.
Personally, I find this to be a pretty minor deficiency, but that's me - in particular I have a spare Windows PC around the place if I absolutely need to do something in Windows.
The parent might be a troll (or he might not be), but he has given me food for thought.
Stroller.
Very few people I know want to run Windows. They just want to run Windows apps. Two different things.
Most of the stuff on
Wrong. Windows XP appears to have booted in 7 seconds. It takes quite a bit longer for it to actually finish starting to the point of stable usability. This is something MS did in WinXP to make it seem to start faster than Win2k, and probably frustrates power users too. (while making the lesser users *think* their machines start faster)
"my last computer purchase was a mac. the retarded one button mouse makes it unusable as a laptop in class. its slow. its hot. its fragile. it needs to constantly be plugged into the wall. its breaking after under 2 years of usage"
We stopped using the G3 Wallstreets a long time ago
Seriously, our experience is quite the opposite. I don't know what you do with your machines but I've deployed Dell Inspirons, ThinkPads, HP somethings, iBooks and PowerBooks over the last few years. The sample size is in the dozens of laptops. Before two years was up, all the Dells were on the junk pile and the ThinkPads (which mostly still worked) were rejected in favor of the Apple machines. None of the Dells survived a drink spill but several spills into PowerBooks did not damage the machine. Just let it dry overnight and get back to work. The ThinkPads were too clunky and nobody liked them. After 3 years of deployment, only a single HP laptop is still being used and the rest are all the original iBooks and PowerBooks. The HP can't be left in a car in the winter because it won't boot until it's room temperature. Even then, you may have to bend the chassis a little to get it to start. Now, our oldest Mac laptops are 4 years old and we still haven't lost any to failures.
Thanks for playing.
Most of the stuff on
Everything old is new again. This reminds me a great deal of IBM's OS/2 Windows 3.1 emulation layer. You could run Windows applications in full screen, or in "windowed" mode. Also, you could specify that a Windows application ran in its own address space, or Windows applications could cooperatively multitask in a shared process space.
/. anyone else's pages with a deep link, so instead here is a hyperlink to a google image search on win-os/2 to illustrate what I am talking about.
I don't want to
Compare some of those images to the Parallels desktop, and you'll get my drift. Welcome to the early 90s!
The comparison to OS/2 brings up another interesting question for the future of OS X. Ignoring the eerily similar name (OS 2, OS X, ha ha) how much incentive will there be for software publishers to write native OS X applications when emulation such as this exists? Back then you could get a copy of Lotus 123 for OS/2, but running Lotus 123 for Windows under win-OS/2 ran almost as well, with copy and paste support and object embedding, and etc. How many copys of 123 did Lotus sell for the OS/2 platform?
Apple has a long history of supporting compatibility products. Users have had choices ranging from Orange PC cards to SoftWindows. However, these came with somewhat of a price or performance cost. If Windows emulation on OS X becomes ubiquitous, where does that leave OS X as an application platform?
I like OS X a lot. There is an appeal for me to be able to run unix apps along side X11 apps along side OS X apps along side Windows apps. Does OS X not run the risk, however, of following OS/2, NextStep, and Be into obscurity by emulating itself out of existence? True, Apple is a hardware vendor, and they provide a vertical solution of hardware and software. Maybe OS X will survive where OS/2 did not.
Full disclosure, I am writing this from Gentoo on a Macbook Pro.
Even better than Oxygen is nxml-mode for emacs, written by James Clark (of expat fame).
http://www.thaiopensource.com/nxml-mode/
My other car is first.
I own an iBook, and the biggest concern I had when I bought it was that I might hate not having a second trackpad button. After having used it, though, I'll tell you one thing: having only one button actually works better. It's actually easier and more natural to hit a modifier key with my left hand while pointing and clicking with my right, and I don't have to look down to find the 2nd mouse button.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Try this: when mousing on a Mac laptop, move both hands down two rows. Use your right index finger for the trackpad, right thumb for the mouse button, and left index, middle, and ring fingers for the cmd, option, and ctrl keys. That's what I do, and I prefer it to having two (or three) physical trackpad buttons.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Old McTorvalds had some code, E-L-I-L-O!
/sorry
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I disagree, too. First, it's not an ugly hack. It's a gesture. The trackpad supports several of these, there's nothing hack-ish about it. Seconds, just because everyone has it doesn't mean it's a good idea. Discussions about the second mouse button inevitably devolve into crap flinging, but sufficient to say there are very good reasons to stay with one button.
Trackballs were a godsend in comparison to trackpads.
Trackpoints, like the ThinkPad nipples, are also much better.
I just can't understand how trackpads got so popular - they weren't even usable when they started showing up on laptops. I tried using one of the first trackpads for the pre-USB Mac desktops a number of years ago and the damage to my soul still hasn't healed. The trackpad on my recent Dell laptop isn't terrible, but I still plug in a mouse whenever possible.
Does anyone make laptops with trackballs anymore?
How seamless windows compatibility worked out for OS2.
..don't panic
Umm... there shouldn't be an OK button AT ALL in any Mac app (according to the HIG). Dialog buttons are supposed to be VERBS. And yes, I know that several versions of iTunes violate this rule. Lord Steve is above the law.
You've got to be kidding. Right mouse click works perfectly fine on my MacBook Pro with Mac OS X, and on both Windows XP and Fedora Core Linux using Parallels.
Two button laptops now feel uncomfortable, requiring a little stretch of the thumb for every left click
The left button isn't as bad as the right - I can usually hit a left button with my thumb/hand/wrist, but a right click takes a finger which means little tiny tendons exerting pressure in an unnatural way. Thanks, but no thanks - I checked my carpal tunnel syndrome at the door (been there, done that).
"But no, Apple should be forced to use two, three, or four buttons so software developers don't have to think about their interface design too hard".
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The Windows 9x codebase used this very strategy.
This strategy was given up in later versions. Warp Connect and OS/2 v4 both shipped only in the full pack flavor. But by this time, Windows 95 was also out and most people were only interested in 32 bit Windows applications which wouldn't run on any flavor of OS/2.
In either case, the problem with attracting developers was most likely much larger a function of the lack of click and drool development tools. IBM's Visual Age ran like a cow compared to Microsoft's Visual Studio and I don't think any other vendor was really in the visual space at the time. (This was the bad old days of Borland's 5.x compiler that sucked canal water for building GUI apps.) Then the nail in the coffin (developer-wise) were the changes to the OS/2 v4 APIs where some API calls that were somewhat common in v2 and v3 would either trigger kill the synchronos input queue (no more keyboard or mouse) or even trigger a seg fault in the kernel. IMO, IBM ought to have shipped the EMX version of GCC with every version of OS/2. If they had done that and supported XFree86 for OS/2, they might have had a chance. On the other hand, though, disk space wasn't nearly as cheap back then. But if they had done that, OS/2 would have gotten the attention of quite a few *nix programmers.
I wish I would have known this before I spent a ton on a new Dell Inspiron. (which still works well, BTW)
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
*guffaw*
Yes, there is a delay between actually seeing the desktop and the Start menu working, which is a couple of seconds. I should admit I'm talking about a heavily tweaked XPLite adaptation of XP, rather than the usual one which does take somewhat longer. Of course, even once XP is 'booted', it's still churning for a while loading who knows what, but I consider it 'booted' as soon as I can hit the Start Menu and the system works, whether it's still loading programs or not.
With Windows 2000 the taskbar and windows are scaled up with no antialiasing, and downright ugly. It seems like this is implemented by making the Windows desktop transparent and maximizing the virtual screen... and they don't have the support for a resizable virtual screen in Windows 2000. I suppose it will work without distortion if I set the VM screen size to match my macbook screen from the start.
(why Windows 2000? Because I already own a copy of Windows 2000, and see no reason to spend an extra couple of hundred dollars when I'm only using Windows as a hosted OS to run a specific application)
Continuing on with the experiment, setting the screen size to 1680x1050 on my second screen (the laptop panel) lets "coherence" work without rescaling. It's nice, but not as useful as it seems because all the "Windows" windows are still rendered into a single layer... so selecting any of them brings them all up above all the OSX windows.
I was hoping for better. An early competitor to the Citrix technology in Windows Terminal Server, NTerprise, did real window level virtualization. It operated at the GDI level rather than screen-scraping, and you could share local and remote UNIX and Windows windows on the same desktop without any clue other then rendering speed which was which.
On the other hand having the command-X/V/C copy and paste commands work consistently is a BIG boon. Now if only they'd have an option to present a 101-key layout to the virtual machine and keep the rest of the Apple command keys in the Apple world.
Applications that use OpenGL for 3d should be able to run, OpenGL is well enough understood and there are enough readily re-usable (open source or cheaply licensed) OpenGL implementations that a thin OpenGL layer that just passed OpenGL calls to OS X should be relatively easy to do... probably easier than emulating a 2d video card. DirectX, though, would mean running the red Queen's Race against Microsoft.
Even better than Oxygen is nxml-mode for emacs, written by James Clark (of expat fame).
Thanks, I'll check it out. I'd thought of Eclipse but I don't know if there's an xml module or extension for it.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I think Oxygen is written on top of Eclipse, but it's not OSS.
My other car is first.
my eyes! my beautiful eeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyes!!!!!!!!! seriously, why would anyone want to do that? it's not like i'd trust this hack for webcode-testing anyway...
-- I am the Monkey Guru.
I'd be pretty surprised if you couldn't find a Mac app to check for wellformedness without being connected to the net. After all, xmlstarlet can do it on UNIX systems from the commandline.