Cross platform development for Windows and Mac OS X
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Killing two birds with one stone Hands on Iâve been fascinated by cross-platform programming for more years than I care to remember, and my interest has recently been sharpened by the acquisition of a number of Apple Macs â both Intel and PPC (PowerPC). This article focuses primarily on some technical aspects of Qt, Trolltechâs cross-platform C++ toolkit which, as you may know, is the architectural core behind the KDE desktop on Linux. At the end, I show how easy it is to create a simple application without writing a line of code.â¦
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Parallels has released to beta testers a glimpse of the next version of its Mac OS X virtualization software. Among the changes are a redesigned user interface, and tighter integration with Boot Camp.
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InfoWorld's "Save XP" petition asking Microsoft to keep Windows XP available indefinitely, not end most sales on June 30 as currently planned, has prompted many readers to suggest that maybe the best answer for those who don't like Vista is to switch to another operating system completely.                                                    "Don't be afraid. Just switch to Linux and become a member of a really free society," wrote Carlos Raul Gutierrez.[ Find out the deployment secrets of early Vista adopters ]"Windows Vista was the reason I bought a Mac mini. I didn't want my only choices to be an operating system that would soon be obsolete (XP) or one that was buggy and would break much existing hardware (Vista), and I'm not enough of a geek to use Linux (do things from the command line? Puhleeze...)," wrote "Jack."How realistic is a switch to Linux or Apple's Mac OS X? For some users -- often technically savvy people such as engineers, consultants, designers and CTOs -- it is clearly an option that already works quite well. In the past year, running Mac OS X or Linux as your default OS has been made easier by the capability to run Windows in a virtual machine, giving you access to both Windows-only applications and Web sites that rely on Microsoft's Internet Explorer-only ActiveX technology. But in a business environment, switching to a Mac or Linux PC may not be quite as easy.The Mac OS X option Of the plausible alternatives to Windows, Apple's Mac OS X has the largest market share and history. InfoWorld chief technologist Tom Yager has written that the latest version of the Mac OS, Leopard (10.5), is simply the best operating system available. And Macs are indeed popping up more frequently even within IT circles -- I've seen more MacBook Pros in the hands of CTOs and IT execs at conferences in the past year more than I've seen Mac notebooks in such venues ever. Although there are no real numbers on just the business adoption of Macs, it's clear that Apple is in growth mode, gaining an increasing proportion of all new computer sales for more than a year now.InfoWorld's Yager has chronicled the adventures of one PC user who switched to the Mac OS, showing that for an individual, the conversion was ultimately a rewarding one. The TechWeb site has also provided a good guide on how to make the switch to Mac OS X.A key tool for any Mac OS X switcher is a virtual machine to run Windows for those apps and Web sites that require it. Both Parallels Desktop 3.0 and EMC VMware's Fusion software will do the trick, as InfoWorld's comparative review has shown.Although Macs are compatible with most typical hardware, such as monitors and drives, fitting a Mac into an enterprise's management systems and ERP applications can be a different story. Yager's Mac Enterprise blog and the Mac Enterprise user group both provide advice on managing Macs in a traditional IT environment.The Linux option The more technically inclined may be attracted to Linux, the most popular form of desktop Unix. Linux desktops typically are challenged by limited hardware compatibility (due to lack of drivers), limited application options, and user interfaces that require active participation to get work done, which tends to keep Linux away from the general user population. But those who work with a Linux server all day may find that using it on the desktop as well actually makes their lives easier.Just as Mac users need occasional access to Windows, so do Linux users. Because Linux distributions run on Windows-compatible hardware, it's straightforward to use desktop virtualization software, such as Parallels Workstation, Sun's (formerly Innotek's) VirtualBox, and EMC VMware's Workstation software, to provide access to both environments.Although some enterprises have committed to wide Linux deployment -- such as automaker Peugeot Citro?n's plans to install 20,000 Novell Suse Linux desktops -- most have left Linux to the engineering and development staff.InfoWorld Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy argues that desktop Linux is doomed to remain a tiny niche OS, given the Linux community's lack of interest in providing a UI that regular people could use. Kennedy tried to spend a week working on nothing but the Ubuntu distribution of Linux but gave up on the fifth day.But Kennedy's take isn't the last word on desktop Linux. Frequent InfoWorld contributor Neil McAllister put together a special report on how to move from Windows to Linux, concluding that the effort was not as hard as you might think.Who's right? As with any platform choice, they both may be. A one-size-fits-all approach may be unrealistic. And that likely explains why many businesses will have a mix, dominated by Windows XP today (and perhaps Vista in a few years) but not exclusively tied to Microsoft's OS.
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As expected, Microsoft has publicly unveiled Virtual PC 7 following its September release to manufacturing. Virtual PC 7 for Mac emulates Intel Pentium type processors, bridging the divide between the Windows and Mac OS X operating environments so that customers can run Windows and PC-based software directly on their Macs. Virtual PC 7 was originally intended to arrive late summer but was delayed due to work on Windows XP Service Pack 2.
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Parallels Inc. has updated its flagship virtual machine software for running Windows on Intel-based Macs, with the latest version letting users launch Windows apps without having to run the whole operating system.
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InfoWorld - VMware Inc. is pricing its upcoming new software to run Windows on a Mac similar to rival Parallels Inc.&#39;s software announced last week.
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Felix Geisendorfer shows, in a new blog post today, how to setup XDebug (the popular debugging extension for PHP) on a Mac OSx (or Win32/Linux) system.   One of the biggest obstacles when getting started with Xdebug was that I had a hard time finding good instructions on how to set it up on Mac OS X (I finally got rid of windows, yeah !). The only good resource I found was stored in Googles cache (wasn't live anymore) and had instructions on how to manually build xdebug from source.   His is a four step process of installing XDebug support on his MAMP setup - including a few configuration directives you'll need to apply to get XDebug support included.
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Warm, fuzzy and free, the open-source operating system is winning over both Windows and Mac users. Ready to try it? Here's what you need to know. By SeÃ¡n Captain.
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Microsoft&#39;s Virtual PC software has been lauded by critics as a convenient way for Mac users to run Windows applications on their Macs, but what if you need to do the opposite?
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A major KDE overhaul gives a leading Linux interface a new look and new apps. Some features will be familiar to Windows and Mac OS X users.
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Apple Computer&#39;s OS X, the operating system in its Macintosh personal computers, is Apple&#39;s most Windows-friendly OS to date, but it won&#39;t run Windows applications.
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New VMware Fusion for Mac lets Windows apps run on the Mac OS; free VMware Player 2 runs virtual appliances on Windows or Linux.
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A new beta version of Parallels Desktop for Mac, the software that lets Intel Mac owners run Windows without having to first reboot their machines, is now out.
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Windows? Linux? Mac OS? One day it won't matter.
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Juce in the spotlight Hands on Last month I looked at Qt, the popular C++ cross-platform framework which underpins the KDE desktop, and a whole lot more. This time, I'm continuing that same theme by taking a look at another cross-platform C++ library called Juce (OK, no jokes about Apple Juce!)â¦
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Not just iTunes How many of Apple's Windows-compatible applications are ready for Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista? According to the Mac maker's own tech support site... er... none of them are.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Two makers of virtualization software for running the Windows operating system on Apple's computers have issued dueling upgrades this week. VMware said Friday it's going to release sometime in June a beta 2 upgrade to itsÂ VMware virtualization software for the Mac, code-named Fusion. It will be an upgrade to the desktop virtualization for Macs product it first introduced in April 2006. Rival ParallelsÂ unveiled an updateÂ to its Desktop for Macs software on Feb. 27. Both use virtualization to run Microsoft's Windows on an Apple computer and make it possible for the user to switch from Mac to Windows without having to reboot. Among the improvements in VMware's Fusion is its ability to run Windows-designed 3-D gaming software on a Mac, said Dan Chu, VMware's vice president of emerging products and markets. "There's been a ton of traffic about this on the blogs," said Chu, about discussions by end-users anticipating the beta 2 release. Chu also noted that Fusion will be able to run software programs written in the 64-bit and 32-bit encryption protocols, while Parallels only supports the older 32-bit standard. True, admits Benjamin Rudolph, a Parallels spokesman, but said his company will add the 64-bit standard in its upgrade, due later this year. It will also offer the 3-D graphics capability Fusion, announced Friday. But a key feature of the new Parallels Desktop announced Tuesday is a program it calls Coherence, which runs Windows applications on Mac's OS X as though they were native. When users switch to Coherence mode, Rudolph said, the Windows desktop disappears but Windows applications, such as Word, Outlook or Internet Explorer run on the Mac desktop and their icons appear in the Mac application dock. "Coherence in particular, speaks to the innovation we put out here at Parallels," he said. "That's something nobody really has done before." Fusion also enables merging of Mac and Windows applications, but "it has a different user interface" than Parallels, said Chu. The Mac desktop will be visible and a Windows window will open in a portion of the screen from which the Windows applications can be launched. Although VMware is clearly the industry leader in virtualization, it's largely focused on enterprise virtualization of servers. Parallels focuses on the niche Fusion is going after, that of running Windows on a Mac. "I think we're far ahead of them on virtualizing the Mac," Rudolph said. Parallels' newest version of its Mac product lists for $79.99, although existing users can download the upgrade for free. VMware's currently available version is free, but Chu would not disclose the price at which VMware's beta 2 will sell when it hits the market.