Comments on: Virtualisation of the desktop

By: Order of the Bath » Blog Archive » Migrating to Mac (Part 1)

Order of the Bath » Blog Archive » Migrating to Mac (Part 1) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:42:12 +0000

[...] major change from the initial ideas was to scale back the virtualisation to just a single XP guest. I realised that my plan based on a [...]

By: Rick

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:16:40 +0000

And what goodies have you been buying this time?

As you point out, many Linux applications can be ported to the Mac with no trouble; but the reverse is not the case so I think this reduces flexibility. What you do get for your money with Apple is a rock solid configuration which is guaranteed to work with all the drivers required fully supported and that is attractive. For that reason I reserve the option to go to Mac when I next need to purchase as I think that transition would be less painful.

I don’t think WINE is a viable option. It has its advantages that it doesn’t need a Windows licence but I am not short of those. Also they will forever be playing a catchup game with Bill as Vista and its successors are developed. The true VM solution, and I think Parallels is the Mac option, only needs to emulate the hardware which has a much longer evolution cycle and is fully documented.

I will certainly take up your offer to view a working system.

By: Paul Roberts

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:07:40 +0000

Rick - there was a problem commenting on the earlier post, so let’s see if this one works: you’re welcome to come over and try out my seasoned Ubuntu box any time. If you’re going down the virtualization route, then my hunch is that Macs would give less problem, but oh so much cost! You could try out Wine for the stubborn apps that you don’t want to migrate yet.

I could add to my list of ace Linux apps (many of which I’ve compiled to run on my Mac) but I’m currently in the Apple Shop in London and the tube beckons!