Mac OS 9 Minimum Requirements: Mac OS 9.1) native G3, CD-ROM drive (RAM and disk space requirements vary with OS)
Mac OS X Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X v10.1, 400MHz native G3, CD-ROM drive (RAM and disk space requirements vary with OS)
Retail Price: $199 ($79 upgrade)
Availability: Out now
You'd think that people would've had enough of silly PCs. I look around me and I see it isn't so.
Sad, isn't it? Even sadder, that'll always be the case. Until the government starts planting chips in our necks and our names start to resemble those of Logan's Run—Logan 3, Jessica 6, Darren 402 (is it just me, or are AOL and Hotmail e-mail addresses getting creepily closer to government assigned monikers in science fiction?)—PCs will always be around and they'll always be the standard.
Of course, I also believe the Mac will always be around. Apple will have its ups, Apple will have its downs, and throughout, the Macintosh will be my platform of choice. Yet, I understand the importance of having a working knowledge of the PC, and of the need to make the Macintosh as friendly with the PC as possible. Cross compatible documents is a plus, as the ability to open graphic and text files on both systems—especially web documents—is a necessity for practically every computer user every day.
Virtual PC takes this to a completely different level. By allowing Mac users to open the Windows OS on their Mac and run almost any PC app (limited only by system specs), Mac users on all levels suddenly had a much better argument for keeping that Macintosh on their desk at work.
Then, along came Apple with a really cool and powerful but totally different operating system. Mac users not only had to worry about running PC apps on the Mac, but running Mac apps as well! While we're still waiting for some Mac programmers to catch up with Apple, Connectix has the PC side covered with Virtual PC 5.0
First and foremost, the new Virtual PC runs on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. Even better, Connectix has built in complete interoperability between the two operating systems; saved states from one OS will be remembered if you boot up in the other and launch Virtual PC 5. For users like me who split their time between OSs 9 and X, this is a very important feature that's well implemented by Connectix. Setting this up with upgrades from Virtual PC 4 requires some digging around in the OS X folders, but the user manual does a good job of explaining what has to be done.
Even better news is that Connectix chose not to stick with OS X compatibility for this upgrade. Virtual PC 5.0 includes Windows XP support, DVD-ROM data support, and Virtual Switch for increased networking capabilities. This one bears a little more detail. When running Virtual PC 5 in Mac OS X, Virtual Switch allows host-to-guest and guest-to-guest networking so the Virtual PC user can, in effect, run a small network inside the Mac. As Connectix states in their example, this is a great way to test various firewall settings between Windows 2000 Advanced Server and several different Windows clients. This requires the appropriate OS Packs for Virtual PC, which come with Windows operating systems pre-installed and pre-configured, allowing users to add additional Windows operating systems without having to go through a complex installation process. OS Packs are available at the Connectix online store and include Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows Me. Additional Connectix OS Packs with Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home should be shipping soon...although why you'd want to mess around with that junk, I have no idea.
Another feature that requires a close look are "undoable" drives which give users the option of leaving the original drive image file unchanged by backing out of any Windows session. Especially handy for developers, educators and such, undoable drives allow the user to tinker with system settings, test new software, or even just download e-mail (and trust me, that alone can be enough to take down a Windows system) without fear of losing the PC's previous state. Virtual PC achieves this by writing all hard changes to another to a separate undo drive file. If something should go horribly awry, simply leave the session without saving the changes and Windows will be returned to its previous state. The user can also chose to merge the new changes with the previous state, or continue using the supplementary drive image. For this feature to work, however, you must turn on undoable drives before launching Windows. I found this feature to be quite simple and effective throughout the testing process, the only drawback being that it promotes a "better safe than sorry" attitude. Sure, that's probably a good idea when working in Windows, but Murphy's Law will undoubtedly come into play here; the major problems will occur in Windows that one time you neglected to turn on undoable drives.
Additional features in Virtual PC 5.0 include shared Zip, Jaz, CD, and DVD drives, enhanced support for dragging and dropping files directly between virtual machines, and full mapping between the Macintosh keyboard and a standard PC keyboard (although the inability to control-click to select multiple, non-contiguous files in Windows Explorer, for example, continues to be annoy the PC user in me. DVD movies are not supported, and although Virtual PC automatically reads writable media, there is not yet support for CD/DVD burning.
A new user-requested feature is the ability to resize the Windows resolution by simply dragging the Virtual PC window. The program automatically snaps Windows to the next regular size (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, etc.), but holding the shift key while dragging allows for custom Windows resolutions. In full screen mode, Windows will match the Mac resolution so your Mac desktop will not be resized. I found this to be especially handy for checking to make sure our websites fit at smaller screen resolutions on the PC. With my Mac set to 1280x1024 and Virtual PC at 1024x768, verifying a site will look okay at 640x480 on the PC is simple as dragging the Virtual PC window. Excellent.
The video itself has been improved, as Virtual PC 5.0 takes full advantage of multi-processor systems in OS X; all video tasks are automatically spawned to the second processor. This feature also works in Mac OS 9, but the improvements will not be nearly as significant. Without dual processors, however, I found that Virtual PC 5 suffered a bit of a slow-down in OS X. Mac OS 9 speeds are as good if not a little better than before, but scrolling through and resizing windows OS X seemed to drag a bit on slower systems. This wasn't noticeable on my 867MHz G4, however, so I remain true to my usual Virtual PC advice. If you're questioning how fast a Mac should be to run Virtual PC, the best answer is, "As fast as you can afford." Virtual PC 5 does do a better job of reporting performance stats now, so it's easier for advanced users to see if their customized settings are achieving the desired results.
Capping off the powerful package, Connectix is providing Connectix Care, a full suite of support services and tools including online forums, extensive contextual help, and an online knowledge database.
Here, however, is the best news of all. The stability problems I experienced after switching from Virtual PC 3 to 4 have completely disappeared. I've been using the Virtual PC 5 for a little less than a month now, and I have yet to experience one crash or freeze in either Mac OS 9 or X. That's not to say Windows hasn't crashed, but that's beyond the control of Connectix, let alone mortal man. It's Windows. It crashes when the office door gets shut too hard.
Virtual PC continues to be one of the most important applications available for the Macintosh, and v5 is one of the best updates yet. Although application speed continues to see only modest improvements, the program gets easier to configure and receives an impressive list of new features with each release. Connectix has been great about listening to the suggestions of their users and addressing their concerns. Virtual PC v5 is a gem of a program that should be seriously considered by Mac users who need to run PC apps and by PC users who need a better computer.
Come on, you Wintel drones. What's wrong with Macs? I'd like to know. And here I go again.
Review: Virtual PC 5 with Windows 98
