OS X Leopard

OS X Leopard to be compatible with Windows Apps? :: osViews | osOpinion :: Tech Opinions for the People, by the People

“Could Apple’s decision to move to Intel processors be motivated by something more than IBM’s inability to meet the company’s processor demands? Kelly McNeill submitted the following editorial to osOpinion/osViews, which analyzes the earlier intentions of Apple’s NeXT accusation in an a rumored project known as Red Box. It was said that this project was to give OS X users full Windows compatibility nativly inside of Apple’s OS. When Apple chose to stick with PPC, the Red Box project needed to be shelved, but now that Apple has chosen to go x86, the rumored Red Box project would inevitably be back on.”

How suite would this be.

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June 23

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  • Dan
    Or if this redbox project works, a dell. Maybe that is why Dell is eager to sell OS X.
  • The days of dual booting are over for me. I used to always set up my laptops to dual boot Linux and Windows, but with apps like VMWare and VPC, it makes much more sense since you can use both simultaneously, rather than rebooting if you want to switch over.

    Re: PearPC - if they got to the point where you could do reasonably fast emulation of OSX on a Windows/Linux machine, then no one would have any reason to buy an Apple. :)
  • Dan
    give OS X users full Windows compatibility nativly inside of Apple's OS

    But it does say, inside.

    After thinking about it, wouldn't PearPc run a lot faster emulating an OS X intel release. Because it wouldn't have to emulate the PowerPC chip. I wonder why no one has talked about this yet; emulating OS Xintel. hmmm.

    On another note: Apple machines will be able to dual boot to Windows. So really if you had to work in windows for a certain project there would be no point to emulating Windows under OS X, unless it is for just a few things, like online poker and what not :D.

    When I went to that MS meeting last year they were showing off VPCWindows, and they were doing the same thing you are talking about, create an OS presentation. IT really is a great idea.
  • non-emulated running of PC apps on the Mac, ie: running a windows app directly in the Mac OS, as opposed to inside a VPC session. This is what I was talking about when I said that simply changing to an x86 processor does not allow, because very few applications these days work directly with the hardware exclusively, most use the API of the OS, so an app written for windows would not just work on the Mac OS no matter what the processor was.

    The processor change may allow them to make apps like VPC run *better* (like they do in Windows), but you would still have to do the same thing you have to do today to run a windows app "on a Mac".
  • Dan
    Wouldn't the API come with the license of the OS?

    Virtual PC sucks, it is so slow. I haven't played with VPC for Windows but I am sure it is a lot faster then VPC for mac and if it is why? Not because the system is faster. And why can't OS X emulate as well as VPC on a windows system? Non technical as possible since it is over my head, and I am probably wrong but, doesn't VPC on the mac have to emulate the processor because the PowerPC isn't compatible, making VPCMac just software running software were as VPCWindows doesn't emulate at all.

    I guess this is a good time to figure out how VPCWindows works compared to VPCMac.
  • They already have emulation products (like Virtual PC) that allow you to run windows apps on the Mac (within the VM of course). Running them natively is not simply a matter of changing the processor, as most apps include underlying API calls to the operating system, etc. - not a lot of direct hardware access.

    The best they could do would be similar to WINE on Linux, which is cool, but not anywhere near compatible with most apps, and it's still emulation.

    In order to provide the ability to truly run windows apps natively, they would have to reproduce the complete Windows API in the Mac OS, and to do so, they would have get MS to agree to license that design to them. Whether they would do this, and how much they would charge Apple (which would get passed on to the consumer) is open for debate.
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