Three Ways to Run Windows on Your Mac

One or two people out there supposedly want to pollute the sacred temple Mac with other operating systems, most specifically, Windows. In an effort to find out who they are,  I hope to flush them out by laying this trap for them by discussing ways to get said evil operating system up and running on the Mac. I’ve got the matches and kerosene, everyone else grab some kindling and try to look inconspicuous.

Of course, there are many reasons why you’d want to run an inferior OS on the Mac. For example, you might be a closet masochist; or you have a short memory and need to keep reminding yourself how much better OS X is; or you plan to boast about it at the next Mac World love-in because you’ve had a death wish ever since Apple dropped the iPod mini (the gold one went so well with your bling-bling); or you just want to be able to truly empathize with your dear friends trapped in Windows Hell (not that you’d ever admit publicly to having friends who use Windows).

I must add, the free MacBook from Apple seems to have got lost in the post, so I haven’t yet been able to test the Intel Mac solutions proffered here. But that’s okay – they’re on a Mac, so they must work.

So how can you pollute your Mac? Let me count the ways:

Option 1: Dual Boot
Dual booting means having more than one operating system installed and when your computer starts, it prompts you and asks which operating system you’d like to run.

On PowerPC Macs you can install and dual-boot OS X or Linux¹, but Intel Macs boot the king of OSes, Windows (well, King Puke, that is). This means now you will be able to tri-boot Macs, selecting either OS X, Linux or Windows.

In a PR stunt rivaling that of George W inviting Osamar over to a BBQ at the White House, Apple, with the introduction of Boot Camp, openly invited Windows to come play on the Mac. The most likely explanation is Apple wants you to see how bad Windows is. That is why Apple quite deliberately chose the name “Boot Camp” because they want you to stick the boot into that wussy OS from Redmond.

If you happen to find Windows is so superior that you hardly ever go into OS X but you still miss it for nostalgia’s sake, you can still fire up OS X to play chess. So now you’ve got the best of both worlds – Windows Solitaire, and Mac Chess. What more could you want?

For information about Boot Camp, check these articles on the revered Apple Matters website:

– 11 Easy Steps to BootCamp
– Boot Camp: Apple’s Insanely Bad Idea
– Boot Camp: Apple’s Insanely Good Idea?
– Inside Boot Camp

In case you don’t trust Apple Matters, here’s a couple from other reliable sources:
– Heading off to Boot Camp
– Signing up for Boot Camp

Option 2: Virtual Computing
Virtual computing allows you to run an OS inside an OS. That is, your main OS hosts a secondary OS. Apple for instance have been doing so with OS 9 (or Classic as you young ‘uns may know it) in OS X since day one.

In virtual computing on the Mac, there are a few options –- Q, Guest PC, Virtual PC and Parallels Desktop

Whereas the first four will run on PowerPC Macs, Parallels is the only one developed specifically for Intel Macs. As such it is causing quite a sensation in the Mac community, with even Apple backing it.

Microsoft has long ruled the world of virtual computing. Well that’s what Microsoft will want you to believe just as soon as it finishes rewriting history. Watch out for the next release of MS Encarta when you’ll also learn how Microsoft put the first man on the moon.

The current reality is Microsoft has had its virtual computing solution, Virtual PC, since the friendly slaying of Connectix. I’ve used Virtual PC quite successfully, but it is somewhat slow and tells me my Mac (a G4 1GHz) is equivalent to a Pentium II at 500MHz. Thus I tend to only use it when I want to inflict pain on myself, which is usually when I want to see how Internet Explorer breaks a web page I’ve designed.

On a PowerPC Mac, virtual computing means having to emulate a Pentium processor. This is the greatest cause of slow down and afflicts all virtual computing solutions, such as Q and Guest PC, not just Virtual PC. None that I have looked at have been any quicker than Virtual PC. When these release Intel Mac versions and start to challenge Parallels, this market will really heat up.

One other overlooked virtual computing method to get Windows on a Mac is, if you have a Windows server, thin-client computing. In a corporate environment, where thin-client computing is booming (38% in 2005), this is an excellent way to get the best of both Macs and Windows (Chess and Solitaire, remember?)

Apple Matters again is at the forefront of wisdom on the subject of virtual computing, having provided the following articles:

– Virtualization: Running Any OS Within OS X
– MacIntel: The Thin Client Theory

Some other articles worth a read are:
– How to Run Windows on an Intel Mac with Q
– My Favorite Windows Testing PC is my MacBook (with Parallels Desktop)
– Parallels Desktop for Mac

Option 3: Virtualization
While Classic Mode is a virtual OS, Rosetta is an example of virtualization. There’s no application that has to run first, and no virtual OS.

As yet there is no reliable virtualization solution on Macs for running Windows applications. But there are a couple of exciting projects underway. Exciting that is if you’re the sort who gets excited about transparently running Visual Basic, Publisher, Access and a horde of viruses on a Mac. If you are, we have a stake warming up for you now.

WINE (an acronym for either Windows Is Not Everything, or Wine Is Not an Emulator), which has been available for PCs for a several years, provides a way to run Windows applications on non-Windows operating systems without requiring a Windows environment. If that statement didn’t confuse you, you’re probably smart enough to not run Windows anyway.

DarWINE is a port of WINE for PowerPC Macs. Currently it is still under development and not recommended for general use.

One problem with the WINE solution is that you have to configure each application. In an effort to make that process much easier, Codeweavers released CrossOver. According to the CrossOver website, a Mac version (Intel Macs only) is coming soon.

The biggest benefit of CrossOver, WINE and DarWINE is they allow you to install Windows applications without needing to buy a copy of Windows.

Apple Matters has had nothing to say on this one yet. A spokesperson for Apple Matters said: “Well whaddya expect? Those solutions are still in alpha. We’re not putting alpha software on our Macs. That’s why we don’t put Windows on them.”

Some other sites have had their two cents though:
– CrossOver Promises Easy Windows Apps on OS X
– CrossOver Mac allows Mac users to run Windows apps without Microsoft Windows
– CrossOver Mac Lets You Run Windows Apps on OS X, without Windows
– DarWINE now functional on Intel Macs

What’s best for you?
What a silly question! What’s best for you is to exorcise yourself of Windows and go pure and holy wholly Mac.

If you must run Windows on a Mac, and if you’ve managed to weed through this writer’s pathetic attempt at satire, you will have hopefully seen that the Mac is the most flexible computer available for running other operating systems, with the dual boot solution Boot Camp, virtual solutions such as Parallels Desktop and Virtual PC, and virtualization solutions WINE/DarWINE and CrossOver.

– If you want the full power of your Mac, including anything graphic intensive, go Boot Camp;
– If you want to run a few Windows applications without having to reboot, look at the virtual OS solution;
– And if you want to really live on the edge –- and enjoy receiving death threats—look out for WINE and CrossOver.

Seriously though, virtualization is the most interesting and exciting of the three, with its promise to (one day) seamlessly run any Windows application on Macs.

In a further clue that Apple is getting right behind virtual computing and Parallels, Phil Schiller, Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple, told Needham and Company analyst Charles Wolf,  that regarding Apple including virtualization in OS X 10.5²: “absolutely not, the R&D would be prohibitive and we’re not going to do it. Our solution is dual boot.”

That is no surprise and is supported by Apple’s unequivocal backing of Parallels for virtual computing. Consequently, it will be hard to see Apple sucking up to Microsoft when Virtual PC for Mac goes Intel. With it already stepping on Microsoft’s toes a few times in the last few years (eg iWork, Safari and of course the iPod+iTMS combo which Microsoft is particularly dark on Apple for thinking of it first), Apple seems willing to trigger another MS tanty and sook-fest. King Ballmer the Ballistic will be bouncing chairs off some poor Microsoft minion’s noggin. You really get the impression Steve and his cohorts enjoy holding the magnifying glass over the Redmond ant nest.

So there you have it. You can easily run the worst OS on the best computer. But if you do, we will find you…

1 If you are the Linux user who runs Linux as a desktop OS, then you’ll be be pleased to know, out of sympathy, we won’t be burning you at the stake, and options one and two will let you run Linux on a Mac.

2 A rumor just in from a source with a perfect track record in rumor mongering (having never attempted fabricating a rumor before), is Apple is bored with big cat names for Mac OS X, and so will take on the new naming convention of Microsoft insults. Leading contenders for OS X 10.5 are:
– the churlish and succinct “Up your’s, Microsoft” or “Windoze sux”;
– the snide “Copy us - if you can catch us”;
– and the rather longish but apt “Windows where are you, we’ve been in the 21st century since it began?”