I was thrilled to see that Apple introduced Boot Camp yesterday. Boot Camp is a free-standing add-on to the next release of Mac OS X that gives Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers dual boot capability. All you need to do to run Microsoft Windows on the same machine is to install your own copy of Windows XP.
This is an 80 to 90-percent solution for people that want to upgrade their primary workstation, are currently Windows users, and can’t drop Windows because of the need to run an application that has no Mac OS X-equivalent. I am even more interested in owning a MacBook Pro now than I was before the announcement.
The next logical step for the Mac OS X– beyond Boot Camp– is to vitualization of the Windows operating system. I’ve been a big fan and heavy user of VMware for the last three years or so. What VMware’s products let you do is run a logically-separate computer in a window on your Windows or Linux workstation desktop. This has meant that I’ve been able to create virtual copies of servers that my company has running on the Internet, so that I can do testing before we make major infrastructure changes.
What I hope to see soon is a VMware Workstation as an alternative to Boot Camp. VMware Workstation for Mac OS X would run Windows XP at the same time as you run Mac OS X. It could also run other Intel-based operating systems. Based on the current cost of Workstation for Windows and Linux, it would probably cost about $200.00
Apple could go and build a virtualization product like VMware Workstation on their own– call it Boot Camp 2, but I think it would be far more efficient for Apple to encourage VMware to come out with a version of VMware Workstation for Mac OS X. This would allow casual Windows users to continue to use Boot Camp and gradually wean themselves from Windows, while power users who need access to both platforms would be able to go the operating system virtualization route.
Technorati Tags: Boot Camp, MacBook Pro, Mac OS X, VMware, Windows XP