I've talked about my venture into the Mac world before on this blog, but not about my attempts at emulation of other operating systems.
I installed a wonderful program called Parallels. It puts virtual machines on your Mac, which you can install any operating system on. It's like having a little window on your screen that connects to another computer. (Except that computer is a big file just sitting on your main computer.)
I installed Windows 2000 in one virtual machine, Windows 95 in the other. (If you're wondering why I picked those, they're the two versions of Windows that I have official copies of. Since Parallels acts as a virtual computer, you need an operating system to install on each instance.)
I can run them both at the same time from within MacOSX, and I should grab screenshots. Windows 2000 boots in under 10 seconds, and I have Microsoft Office installed, as well as some work related programs that are only available in Windows. Compatibility has not been an issue at all so far. (Haven't tried any 3D games, but even DirectX based games seem to work just fine!) I also got Windows 95 to install, although drivers were a bit dicey at first.
The proof that I'm a geek is that this weekend I installed a Macintosh System 7 emulator that acts as a virtual Mac Plus, on my virtual Windows 2000 computer. I did it, just to say I could. The fact that it took me virtually 90 minutes to do on a sunny weekend, proves that I am a geek. Not virtually, but actually.
How is this work-related? Operating systems are becoming little more than fashion statements. Note the recent Mac vs. PC commercials we've been innudated with - (which by the way, make me ill as to how arrogant and snarky they make the average Mac user look.) And don't get me wrong, PC's can do virtual machines just as well as Macs. I've run a Commodore Amiga virtual machine for years on Windows. Virtual PC for Windows does for PC's what Parallels does for Macs. However, the interchangeability between Windows, MacOS, and Linux is making it less important what operating system is used to start with. Content, reliability, ease of use, price and even style will drive computing more than compatibility concerns. (Does it work with Windows? Who cares?)
I bought a Mac not to make a big change in the way I do my computing, but because it no longer felt like such a big change. Now, if only it came in black...
Should we just switch the whole campus to Mac or Linux, if we could even afford that? I'm not asking that question. The time is coming soon though that migrating to Windows Vista and Office 2007 may not be the no-brainer path it's been in the past.