VMware Fusion Beta 4 Works with Boot Camp
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VMware today introduced Fusion Beta 4, a new version of its virtualization software for Intel-based Macs.
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Install, spin three times, buy a monkey and wait Microsoft is now letting the common rabble get its mitts on the latest beta build of Windows Vista Service Pack 1.â¦
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Make your Mac apps run faster REAL Software has begun shipping REALbasic 2006 Release 4, offering developers targetting the Mac platform the opportunity to create apps ready to run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based boxes by selecting a single checkbox.â¦
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This is release 0.3.1 of ReactOS, an open source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with applications and drivers written for the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems (NT4, 2000, XP, 2003).   Mainly, the work focused on rewriting certain parts of the ReactOS Core (kernel, HAL, bootloader, etc). Read through the changelog, and you will see the amount of changes in this release!  Please don't forget this is an alpha-stage operating system, which means it is not suitable to replace your main OS. Also, this release is aimed to be run mostly in virtualizers / emulators (like QEmu, VMWare, Parallels, etc): because of the big amount of changes, our development team was not able to test/fix all problems which arise when running ReactOS on real hardware.  Press-release: http://www.reactos.org/en/news_page_34.html  Changelog: http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/ChangeLog-0.3.1  Download packages are here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=6553&package_id=6629&release_id=492696  ReactOS website: http://www.reactos.org
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Fusion due in August VMWare's Windows-on-Mac application, Fusion, will go on sale in August, the virtualisation technology specialist announced today. Order it now and you'll get the software at half price, the company said.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.
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A Service Pack 1 near-final "release candidate" can now be downloaded, despite initially being restricted to 15,000 beta testers.
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Virtualization looks tasty, but VMware is so scary -- let's shack up with another also-ran!
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(InfoWorld) - SWsoft, the company behind theÂ Parallels DesktopÂ virtualization software for Macintosh, expects to release a beta version of a server edition of the software in the next four to six weeks. It is also working on new management tools for the datacenter that will control other vendors' virtualization products. The company sees Parallels Server as a product for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) or for departmental use in larger companies, filling the niche between its desktop products andÂ Virtuozzo, its OS-level virtualization systemÂ for datacenters. Where Virtuozzo allows multiple virtual machines (VMs) to run on one machine using a single instance of the same operating system kernel -- either all Windows 2003, or all Linux -- Parallels Server will allow disparate operating systems to run on the same server. While large companies tend to have the power to force standardization on a single operating system, making Virtuozzo's virtual environment approach appropriate for them, SMEs need the flexibility that true virtualization offers, according to Benjamin Rudolph, director of corporate communications at SWsoft. Some of the features of Parallels Server, such as full 64-bit support for host and guest operating systems, and support for multiprocessor VMs, should also appear in the next major version of the desktop edition, due in the first half of next year, said Rudolph. Supporting 64-bit operating systems "is not really necessary on the desktop, but on the server it is," said Rudolph. The feature will take away one of the advantages ofÂ Fusion, a rival desktop product from VMware, which already has the capability. Both products continue to evolve and add features: Parallels offered a downloadable feature update for its version 3 desktop software earlier this month, and VMware began beta testing version 1.1 of Fusion on Tuesday. SWsoft's planned addition of SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) support in Parallels Desktop will allow Mac OS X users to get the best performance from multiprocessor-aware applications such as PhotoShop running in either operating system. Currently, virtual machines in Parallels Desktop run on (and emulate) just one processor core, with other cores in the system occupied by the host operating system. The company's new datacenter management tools will debut in Virtuozzo 4, now in beta testing, where they will allow management only of Virtuozzo virtual environments. But SWsoft intends to extend the capabilities in future versions to allow management of other virtualization systems, including VMware, Xen, and Microsoft's Veridian, said Rudolph. That move would come as no surprise to IDC research director Chris Ingle. As virtualization technology itself becomes more of a commodity, virtualization vendors will be forced to develop innovative management tools in order to remain competitive, he said recently. An IDC study found that while cost is the prime reason in deciding whether or not to virtualize, it is less important than the availability of management tools when choosing a virtualization vendor. Rudolph also hopes that other vendors will offer management tools for Parallels Server when it is released: SWsoft plans to open up the APIs (application programming interfaces) to allow that, and some of the software tools in its SDK (software development kit) will effectively be open source, he said. SWsoft hasn't yet chosen the license under which it will release that code, he said.
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New virtual-machine technology can be used to test software patches and migrate aging Windows NT applications. By John Foley, Paula Rooney, CRN.
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VMware's beta 2 of Fusion is due in June, and Parallels' new desktop software is available now.
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Microsoft Thursday did something it rarely does. The company released a beta for a long-awaited technology -- in this case its Windows Server 2008 virtualization technology Hyper-V -- ahead of schedule.Hyper-V, formerly code-named &quot;Viridian,&quot; is now available for download from Microsoft&#39;s Web site and is ready to be used with the current x64 beta version of Windows Server 2008, which is also available online. The technology, called a hypervisor, is the underlying virtualization technology for the server release, which is a major update that&#39;s expected to be released on Feb. 27, 2008. A beta of Hyper-V originally was planned to be released on that date as well.Virtualization, or the ability to use virtual machine technology to run multiple OSes on a physical server, is widely seen as a disruptive technology and is becoming increasingly important as companies seek to cut costs and consolidate hardware in their data centers and IT environments. Microsoft had originally intended to release Hyper-V as part of the original release Windows Server 2008, but the technology was delayed and is now scheduled to be generally available 180 days, or about six months, after Windows Server 2008 ships. Hyper-V&#39;s released was delayed earlier this year because Microsoft opted to pull out some originally planned features.Hyper-V takes advantage of virtualization-optimized microprocessors from Intel and&#160;AMD and is meant to help Microsoft compete with virtualization leader VMware, which already has hypervisor technology on the market. Hypervisors allow for cross-platform support so servers can run multiple versions of different OSes -- such as Windows and Linux -- side by side on one piece of hardware.Bill Hilf, general manager of Windows Server at Microsoft, said customers have been asking the company for a built-in virtualization technology that works directly within the Windows Server environment so it&#39;s easy to manage and implement. By design, Hyper-V is set up as what Microsoft calls a &quot;role&quot; within Windows Server 2008, and can be turned on or off as a customer wishes, he said. Roles are a new feature of the forthcoming release of the OS that allow servers to be set up so only the role or roles a customer wants them to play in the IT environment -- such as e-mail server or application server -- will be turned on.Mike Neal, general manager of virtualization at Microsoft, said Hyper-V is meant to make the virtualization market &quot;a two-horse race&quot; between Microsoft and VMware. However, with Hyper-V not scheduled to ship until the second half of next year, the company has a lot of ground to make up to topple VMware from its leadership position. And Microsoft also faces pressure in providing built-in OS virtualization from Linux leader Red Hat, which already has integrated cross-platform virtualization into Red Hat Enterprise Linux.Windows Server 2008 eventually will be available in multiple editions and will be offered with and without Hyper-V. Microsoft also plans to release a product called Microsoft Hyper-V Server specifically as a virtualization host environment in the second half of 2008.
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(InfoWorld) - Codeweavers has released theÂ public beta version of CrossOver Mac, the firm'sÂ virtualization software that lets Intel-based Macs run Windows applications --Â without having Windows installed. Based onÂ the open-source project WINE, CrossOver Mac provides the ability to run Windows applications and some games on the Mac without having to reboot or switch to a virtual machine interface -- applications appear in the same Finder interface that Mac users are accustomed to. Because it's based on WINE, which translates Windows-specific code references to other operating systems' technology, no Windows operating system license is needed in order to get CrossOver to work. By comparison, Boot Camp, Apple's Windows-enabling software for Intel Macs, requires you to install a copy of Windows. Similarly,Â Parallels Desktop for MacÂ needs a Windows operating system (or other PC-compatible operating system) in order to operate. Codeweavers advises that CrossOver Mac's public beta "will give you a taste," but "should be considered an early test release." The developers promise "substantial further improvements" before the production version ships. In other words, unless you're willing to tolerate issues that sometimes pop up with experimental software, "you should skip this and wait for notice of the production release." The CrossOver Mac public beta is a 60-day version. Users interested in placing a pre-order can, for a reduced price of $39.95.
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The long-awaited update to Microsoft's virtualization software was released Monday. Virtual PC 2007 brings support for Windows Vista -- as both a guest and host operating system -- and takes advantage of new hardware virtualization technology from both Intel and AMD.
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(InfoWorld) - MicrosoftÂ could pull the trigger on putting out a beta of the first service pack for Windows Vista any day with a final release by November, sources close to the company said. Microsoft has been mum about exactly what will be included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1, a rollup of updates for the OS, many of which are pushed out automatically through its Web-based update services. The company also has not said when the software will be in final release --Â the latest from the company revealed only that a beta will be out sometime before the end of the year. The WinBeta.org blog reported Tuesday in a post that Microsoft 's WDK (Windows Driver Kit) team sent out an e-mail to beta testers that a new build of the WDK was being released to them to coincide "with the recent OS beta release for Vista SP1 Preview," hinting that SP1 beta is soon to be sent to testers. Others speculate Microsoft might release the SP1 beta Thursday, the day it will report the company's fiscal 2007 fourth quarter and year-end financial results. In an interview Wednesday, one source close to the company said he had been told by insiders that a beta of SP1 would be out by now, so an imminent release is highly likely. And another source said that beta testers report SP1 will definitely be out this week with a final release coming in November or December. At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver two weeks ago, Mike Sievert, corporate vice president of the Windows business group at Microsoft, toed the party line on Vista SP1 and said little about when it would be released or what would be in it and hinted that Microsoft's own plans for the service pack are still in flux. Sievert also downplayed the software's role in when some Windows users will upgrade to Vista, though it's widely known many users -- especially business and enterprise customers -- are waiting for SP1 before replacing Windows XP with Vista. "Most companies are still in the evaluation phase," he said in an interview. "Service pack or no service pack, they're still looking at what they will deploy."
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(InfoWorld) - Virtualization software leader VMware Inc. is testing a desktop virtualization program that can be stored on a USB drive and moved from one computer to another. VMware is introducing Monday a public beta version of ACE 2 Enterprise Edition, an upgrade of its two-year-old ACE program for virtualizing desktop computers so they can run multiple software or operating systems. One of the new features is Pocket ACE, which allows the user to store the ACE desktop virtualization tool on a USB (universal serial bus) drive, a portable hard drive or an Apple iPod, plug it into a remote computer, and run the virtualization software on that computer. The VMware news coincides with the general availability Monday of an upgraded server virtualization product from rival Virtual Iron Software Inc. VMware's Pocket ACE is designed for mobile workers who may not have a laptop with them in the field, but could use an available desktop computer and run the company's virtualization platform from the USB drive, said Jerry Chen, director of desktop platforms and solutions for VMware. The new ACE program also features VMware ACE Management Server, which gives a system administrator control over the virtualization program run on desktops. The administrator can control access, security settings and software updates from a single console. Changes in settings are delivered to the client computer when they connect to the corporate server. Desktop or laptop computers running VMware ACE can run the virtual desktop on their computers alongside whatever operating system and files the computer already runs, said Chen. This would suit contract employees who use their own computers when working for a client. The administrator can also shut off the virtual desktop remotely when needed if, for example, a company gives access to its computer system for a specific contract term. Access privileges can be set to expire when the contract is completed. Virtualization is most prevalent in the server environment where servers run multiple software applications or operating systems simultaneously. While virtualization of the desktop is a logical extension of the technology, adoption is more limited, said Charles King, president and principal analyst at Pund-IT, a technology analyst firm. "Desktop virtualization is still a relatively unexplored territory," said King. However, he sees value in the Pocket ACE portability feature for the increasingly mobile work force. "As mobile and remote workers become more the norm, it gives those employers a great deal of flexibility," King said. Also Monday, Virtual Iron said its Version 3.5 upgrade adds support for iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) protocol for the connection between servers and storage. The iSCSI connection is one-tenth the price of the alternative fiber channel connection. Version 3.5 also features one server installation, said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer for Virtual Iron. With one server installation, the same server that runs the virtualization management program for the enterprise can also act as a virtual server.
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Apr. 5 was one of those days after which nothing will ever be the same. That's when Apple Computer (AAPL) released Boot Camp, an application that lets owners of Intel-based Macs install and boot their computers to Microsoft's Windows XP.